Category Archives: Civic Issues

Keeping Music Education

Now that we’ve come to our last civic issues blog for the semester I want to leave you with some concluding thoughts on why music education is so important (sorry if it gets repetitive!).

When a child is immersed in a music program, or any arts program, they do not just gain the skills of the art that they are practicing.  The skills they learn in these environments are able to help them in every aspect of their life throughout their entire lives.  And as a bonus, they learn how to express themselves through an art form that could be a real benefit later in life.  In the academic world, students who participate in music score an average of 22% better in English and 20% better in math on standardized tests than students who do not participate in music programs.  Schools with a music program have a higher attendance rate: 93.3% as opposed to 84.9%, and they have a higher graduation rate: 90.2% compared to 72.9%.  These benefits of the music program not only make the students better students, but they also create a better community.  With more students in school, that means there’s less time for them to get into trouble. Also, schools receives more funding for better test scores, which goes towards making a better education system for their community.

For students themselves, music helps them develop their intelligence as they get older.  For instance, musicians have been proven to have better verbal memories and an easier time processing language, which makes it easier for them to learn new languages. Studies have also shown that musical training is correlated with better general intelligence skills like literacy, verbal memory, visiospacial processing, mathematics, and IQ.

Additionally, participating in music programs gives students myriad life skills like knowing how to create healthy relationships and work with others.  In a music setting, kids are forced to work together no matter what situation they are in.  In an ensemble, you have to listen to what other people are playing so that you can match their style, dynamics, and articulation.  It sounds easy, but it’s harder to pay attention to others when you already have a million other musical things running through your mind.  Furthermore, students have to work on their relationships with the people they need to work with.  In many instances, there will be conflict with how students want something to be played, and they need to come to a compromise on what is the best way to do this.  As a result, students learn to listen to others and make the best decision for the group rather than just what they want.

In many band programs, but especially in marching band, students have the opportunity to develop their leadership skills as section leaders, drum majors, and officers.  They learn how to delegate to others while making sure that they don’t just dictate.  A major part is learning how to work together for the betterment of the organization as a whole as opposed to simply trying to do your best. Foremost, students learn that there is great gratification in working hard at something you love with people you (mostly) love. All of these relationship and hard working skills then transfer over into their homework throughout high school and college and even into the work place.

In addition to learning about the people they interact with, musicians also learn how to relate to people around the world.  Music is one of few disciplines that transfers between cultures and across language barriers.  No matter where you play music, it’s going to sound generally the same (if you don’t count differences depending on the performer(s)), and there is universal notation for music so everyone can understand it.  For kids who don’t get to travel or go experience new worlds much, especially when they’re young, music can be a great vehicle for exposing them to new people.

Finally, like I mentioned in one of my previous posts, music has an importance that is way beyond what people can measure with studies and experiments.  Music and music programs have a meaning to students that makes their school experience that much better.  Music provides a place for those students who wouldn’t fit in anywhere else.  It gives them meaning, friends, and something to work for.  When these kids play music together, yes they want to sound good, but it’s about the experience and how they feel when they play together.  There aren’t any statistics to prove it, but this meaning to music is way more important than all of the ways that music makes kids smarter, and that is why we should keep music education.

Fun Facts: A study has proven that the smartest section in the band is the trombones (Go Trombones!!!), and the second smartest section is the percussionists (who would’ve thought?)

The highest represented major in medical school is the music major.

Music education actually helps reduce the neurotransmitter that is produced when some is stressed.  This can be particularly helpful for kids in abusive family situations or harsh living conditions.

Sources:

Click to access benefits_of_music.pdf

http://www.childrensmusicworkshop.com/advocacy/topteneveryone.html

The Creativity of Music

We favor the inclusion of music in the curriculum on an equality with other basic subjects. We believe that with the growing complexity of civilization, more attention must be given to the arts, and that music offers possibilities as yet but partially realized for developing an appreciation of the finer things of life.
—First Resolution of the Dallas Meeting of The Department of Superintendence, 1927

This quote states exactly why music education is important, even to people who do not turn music into a career.  And it was written all the way back in 1927.  The date of this quote really surprised me because I thought that the studies on the benefits of music education began when schools started cutting music programs.  Obviously, I was wrong, and people have cared about music education for much longer than I thought.

Like I’ve mentioned in previous posts, and like I’m sure I’ll mention again, there are hundreds of reason for why music education benefits students. Academically, students score higher, and they do better in life as a whole.  But this quote touches on an aspect of music that I never even thought of associating with the importance of music education.  Then last line of the quote talks about using music to appreciate the finer things in life.  Right now, I’m learning how to appreciate the finer parts of music.   As students, we’re constantly told exactly how to play our instruments.  Both physically how to play them, and stylistically how to make music.  Yet when you become a music major, your professors start pointing out that you won’t have a teacher forever, so you need to start learning how to do things on your own.  The way that music professors go about doing this is teaching us very strict rules and regulations about how music works, so that in the future, we will have a solid foundation for music making.  This allows us to break the rules and incorporate our own musical creativity in a tasteful way.

I believe that this idea of building a foundation and then spring boarding off of it is incredibly important both in music and in life in general.  I’m sure that music isn’t the only subject that uses this method of learning.  For instance, mathematicians can use their basis of prior knowledge to create a new formula that solves a math mystery.

The faster that kids realize this and the more the practice it, the more likely they will be to use this method in their lives and careers, whether they do music for the rest of their lives or not.  I think this aspect of music ed is extremely important because it teaches kids to think for themselves.  Music is a pretty easy subject in the younger years, so anyone has the chance to participate in it.  Students can use their experiences from music and translate them over to their career when they get older.  So, in essence, music education can improve the creativity of every other subject out there.

I know that other subjects can also do the same, but music can start at such a young age, and it’s something that almost all kids love.  While all of the statistics about how music students score higher on standardized tests are great, in the long run, standardized tests don’t matter as much as making a difference in the world through creativity, and music is a fantastic place for students to begin practicing that creativity.

To switch gears a little, the creativity of music can be utilized with other people besides students.  A new, developing field, music therapy is taking off and requires a ton of creativity too.  Music has proven to help elderly people greatly.  For example, studies have shown that people with moderate music music training (4-14 years) had the highest neural timing between the ages of 55-76 years old.  None of the participants continued musical training into adulthood.  Just like how exercising in your youth will benefit your physical health in the future, music can benefit your mental health in the future.

Additionally, it can also made a large impact on elderly people in their old age.  This video of a man hearing music from his youth makes a massive change in his life.

Video Link

When musicians use their creativity and break the rules every once in a while, they can branch out and form something new and fantastic.  This is just a revolutionary example in the field of music.  Imagine how many other improvements are going on in all kinds of fields that early training in music may support.

 

Sources:

http://www.trustmeimascientist.com/2014/02/03/why-better-music-education-really-matters/

http://www.psmag.com/blogs/news-blog/need-speak-slowly-took-music-lessons-kid-69524/

 

The Cost of Music Ed

As I’ve said before, when schools suffer budget cuts, music and the arts are usually the first to go.  These classes are viewed as much less important than the typical academic classes, but in my last post I outlined reasons why music ed can be very beneficial to students in many ways.  However, music ed doesn’t cost as much as one may think.

Music programs do need to buy materials, just like when conventional classes buy text books, equipment for experiments, etc.  In the case of a music program, teachers will usually buy school instruments for those students who play a large instrument like a tuba, euphonium, percussion, string bass, or cello.  These school instruments will last a long time if you take good care of them.  Other than those, students are required to either rent or buy their own instrument.  Often times music stores sell quality, used instruments at pretty low prices so that students can afford them. In addition, band and orchestra teachers buy music stands, but those are also a one time cost.  Obviously, after many, many years they might need to get more music stands, but they do last a pretty long time. Another cost is the that of sheet music.  Chorus programs only need sheet music and no instruments, so that’s pretty simple.  In elementary band and orchestra, students are usually asked to buy their own methods books that cost about $10, but they use those for two years.  From then on, pretty much all music is lent out for the students to use for the year, and they return it at the end of the year.  Elementary teachers are even starting to do that with their methods books in order to cut out that cost.  Obviously, it’s very important that students take care of these materials so that they last longer.  For high school, that definitely happens more easily than with younger kids, but you would be surprised how willing young kids are to take care of their materials when you tell them that it’s very important.

All of these costs add up and amount to roughly $187 per student per year, which really isn’t that much.  To put it into perspective, here’s a chart that represents the costs of other subjects:

ednext_20093_29_fig1
Cost of each subject per student per year

 

As you can see, music ed really isn’t all that expensive in comparison to other subjects.

I know that not matter what, there will still be cuts in education funding.  Unfortunately it’s something we just have to deal with.  In my opinion, it’s extremely important to cut funding to every aspect of the school.  To an extent, it’s hard to do that because sometimes money is donated specifically for a certain area, so there isn’t anything we can do to change that.  But I don’t think that any one subject area should be cut completely to make up for the budget deficits.  I’m not going to go into all of the ways that money can be saved in schools, but there are definitely simple ways to save.  For example, in my school district, they leave the computers on all summer.  If they were to turn them off for the summer and then start turning them on it groups a few weeks before school begins again, they could save so much money on electricity.  This is just one example of silly ways that schools waste money.  If we fix these little things, then cuts wouldn’t have to be made as much to every subject, not just the arts.

I know it would be fair to make cuts to all subjects, but people usually believe that music and art education are not as important as the core subjects, so they should receive the most of the budget cuts.  However, if you refer to my last post, I outlined a lot of reasons that music education can be so important to the development of young children.  These benefits are so great, that even the president of Cornell University commented on it: “Training in the arts prepares a growing child just as well for a scientific or technical career as [does] training in STEM subjects, if not better.”  One way that this can be exemplified is that training on a piano can actually help students in math.  After all, intervals between notes are just numbers, and a piano presents a very good visual for that.  Overall, music education really isn’t all that expensive, and it’s possible to include it by making sure that budget cuts are even among all students.  Additionally, there are many reasons that people should want to save music education because it can be extremely beneficial to their children.

 

Sources:

http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/08/30/music-education-why-does-not-have-expensive-why-should-stay-schools

http://educationnext.org/breaking-down-school-budgets-2/

http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2014/01/cornell-president-young-scientists-must-be-taught-the-arts.html

 

Why Music Education?

I know that music education isn’t for everyone.  There are plenty of kids who don’t enjoy music class, and who will decide to quit as soon as it is no longer required in their schools or by their parents.  Some might continue on to play or sing all throughout high school and even college, and few will decided to go into music as a career whether it be music performance, education, music therapy.  But what is so important about music education isn’t whether or not students can sing a scale or play the most technical passage possible on their instruments. What truly is important, is the experience that students receive when they immures themselves in music.  It doesn’t have to be good, it doesn’t even have to sound like music, but it has to mean something to them.  If there is meaning behind what they’re creating, whether it be simple like plain enjoyment or as deep as sharing a connection with the purpose of the piece, music can have a meaning that is completely inexpressible with words.

One very special aspect of music is that almost everyone has heard music at some point in their life. It doesn’t matter if it’s tribal music, chanted while a solitary drummer keeps a beat or if it’s listening to the Eastman Wind Ensemble, people hear music, and more often than not, it means something to them.  It evokes emotions within us by the lyrics or from the the style or intensity of instrumentation, so in many ways, music can be like a universal language.  These are the reasons that kids need to learn music. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how well they can perform, but whether they learn something about others while doing it.  My high school band director would often state “I don’t care how well you play the notes on the page, I just want you to make meaningful music.”

There are many lessons that can be learned through music education other than simply the act of making music.  For example this quote from an article written by the National Association of Music Parents exemplifies exactly how much responsibility is placed on marching band members:

“In an average production of 2 minutes duration, there will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 300 notes played per student (some parts will be less, some more). For each note played, the student must be responsible for:

  • Correct fingering of note
  • proper tone quality
  • proper pitch
  • correct beginning articulation
  • correct release/ending
  • correct duration/timing
  • balance to other players
  • blend with other players
  • appropriate volume

This means at least 9 responsibilities per note times 300 notes…understand that sometimes the student will not play during segments, so this is an average…2,700 responsibilities per student…times 100 players = 270,000 musical responsibilities for the WIND SECTION.”

Those stats don’t even include the percussionists or drum majors, and they solely discuss the responsibility of musicality.  Later in the article, they mention what all is involved in the marching aspect of the performance:

“With marching, there are at least the following considerations:

  • posture
  • direction of facing
  • instrument position
  • staying in step
  • staying in form
  • size of step
  • tempo
  • style of movement (Toes up? Knees straight? Shoulders square?)
  • control of space between members

On average, there will be one step per beat of music, or approximately 240 steps. This means 240 times 9 responsibilities per member,…times 140 members …302,400 more things to think about.”

At the very least, it’s obvious that marching band teaches kids how to multitask.  Not only do they have to do all of these things, but they have to do them well, otherwise the performance will not be up to par.  One thing the article does not touch on is the amount of band camp and rehearsing these bands do.  In many cases, they take 2 weeks out of their summers and spend 13 hours/day (in some cases) working on marching, music parade marching, and the half time show so that they can get a head start before the season begins.  The amount of hard work and dedication that an activity like this involves is incredible, and is not limited to simply marching band.  Rehearsing for any type of performance is a tremendous amount of work, and students can apply this hard-working nature later in life when they attend college and get a job.

I know you may be thinking, well don’t other activities, like sports teach the same things? Yes, I think they do! But I think other activities involve a lot more competition between the players on the team, which can be beneficial at times, but more often than not, it leads to stress for young students.  Instead of having to be one of the best in order to have a chance of playing on the field, band students can’t get benched, so they can participate in any performance.  Additionally, it is well know that music programs do not receive much funding, whereas sports usually do.  This teaches the students to value what they are doing and the equipment they are using.  It also shows them how to make do with what they have.

Another very unique aspect to music is that each student learns to value their role as a part of a group.  In sports, a lot of events are left up to chance, and team members do not know whether or not they will make the game winning play or if they’ll make a mistake that costs the team a win.  In music, every student knows exactly what he or she needs to do in order to have the best performance possible.  Often times in music, there could only be one person in the band that has a specific part, so every single person is important and needed for the performance to be a success.  Finally, musicians are constantly given constructive criticism by people who want to help them get better.  Learning how to respond in an effective way is a life skill that students will use throughout their entire lives.

I could go on and on about the different benefits to being a part of a band specifically, but all of these lessons can be learned in any kind of musical setting.  I understand that a lot of these lessons can be taught in other activities, but I think music combines a lot of lessons and learning experiences into one, so the outcome is more well rounded than in other activities.  Speaking from experience in my high school, I know that the music kids were quite different from the athletes in the ways I mentioned above and in countless others, and I believe that these makes a true difference in people’s lives.  Learning to play a musical instrument can be incredibly fun for the music making part, but there are countless benefits to music that will helps kids later in life other than just playing notes on a page.  Even though most kids will not choose music as a career, they can incorporate what they learn in a music setting to become the best at what they choose to be.

So what do you think? Do you think music education can be beneficial in ways other than just making music?

Sources:

http://www.amparents.org/have-you-ever-considered/

http://www.amparents.org/what-everybody-ought-to-know-about-band/

http://www.virtualmusicoffice.com/10-values-marching-band-students-learn/

 

 

 

 

Music Education: The Standards

For music education in the United States, the National Association for Music Education has made a list of the basic ares of music the students should encounter and learn about throughout their music education. This list is called the National Standards, and it is supposed to be covered in the music programs around the country.  To start, I would like to post that list, so that you can see what all is expected of music programs and teachers, and so, if you were involved in music in your school, you can see how much of this you were taught.

1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.  What a lot of people don’t realize, is that with any form of music, singing is very important.  In order to play a wind instrument in tune, you first have to be able to play in tune.  Additionally, learning how to sing can help train your ear so that you can be an overall better musician.  Choir is not the only setting that singing can be worked into the curriculum, and all forms of music ed should incorporate singing.  For example, my band teacher used to have us sing our chorales after we played them.

2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.  This standard is very similar to the first.  It is always important to learn how to perform a solo and to learn how to function as a musician in a group of people, whether that group is small or large.  Exposure to all types of music can make musicians become well rounded so they can get the experience necessary to be prepared for any situation.

3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.  One of the hardest obstacles that music students face is being creative on their own.  It’s much easier to have sheet music placed in front of you and play the notes on the page than it is to actively listen and think in order to create music that sounds good.  And the only way to improve this skill is to practice.  The practice of improv gives students the opportunity to make their own music and to be expressive in a way that is fitting to them.  It can also make them more comfortable playing on their own.

4. Composing and arranging music with specified guidelines.  In addition to practicing, knowing how music works is extremely important to performing, and having students write their own music is the perfect way to teach them this because they see the notes and rhythms going together first hand, and it’s up to them to decide whether or not it sounds good.  Additionally, the need guidelines when they begin so that they know where to start and how to progress.

5. Reading and notating music.  Obviously reading music is important when playing music.  But you would be surprised how many young students can’t actually read music; they simply know which keys to press when they see a particular note, but they don’t actually know the note name.

6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.  Another  very important aspect of music ed is listening.  Descriptions can work at first, but the only true way that musicians can learn a certain style, like jazz, orchestral, etc., is by listening to other people performing it.  Unfortunately, many music educators skip over this part of the learning process and get right to the playing, but students miss out on valuable learning time.

7. Evaluating music and music performances.  This standard goes along with listening.  Attending performances is a good way to experience the sounds of different types of music. Evaluation can help kids understand music more when they use their composition/analytical skills, and it shows them how to work on their own playing,

8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.  Music is something everyone can relate to in some way; it is often referred to as the universal language.  Understanding how exactly music fits in the world is one way that people can see how important their music is and how it can connect them to others.

9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.  Music has played a large part in the history of man.  It mainly started as sacred music, used to worship Greek and Roman gods and later, to worship the Catholic God, and so on.  Like understanding the connections between music and other disciplines, it is important to understand how music has evolved and what significance it has played.

As you can see, music teachers are held to some pretty high standards.  They are supposed to cover all nine of these subjects, and still rehearse and ensemble at the same time.  As I am sure you know, most teachers do not live up to all of these standards in every way possible, but they have been revised, and a committee of music teachers truly believes that this is what everyone should strive to accomplish.  With some of my very brief summaries, you can see that music education really can have an impact on students, and it can have myriad benefits.  Yet people are still trying to remove it from schools.  Often, money is to blame, but is that the real reason that music programs are suffering?  Throughout the rest of my blog posts I will explore what exactly is holding music programs back, why they are important, and how they can be saved.

Cites: http://musiced.nafme.org/resources/national-standards-for-music-education/