The Importance of Music Education

Imagine a world without music; it would be an extremely boring and quiet place to live. Music is found in every kind of culture and has been used for thousands of years as a means of expression. Music can deliver a message; it can be used as a vehicle for poetry; it can be appreciated for its aesthetic qualities, or it can serve as nothing more than entertainment.

Recently, many studies have been conducted proving that music is vital to a child’s education and development. However, many school systems have had to make budget cuts, and one of the first things to be removed was the music program. Music is important in education for many reasons. Recent studies have proven that taking music classes at a young age helps a child to achieve academic success and helps students to become more disciplined throughout their school years. Students who participate in music education programs such as orchestra, marching band, concert band, or drum corps are less likely to be involved in negative activities including drugs and alcohol. Music provides students with the opportunity to be expressive, original, and creative, and can also provide a better understanding of other cultures.

Throughout the past few years it has been proven that starting a music education at an early age helps students to succeed in other areas of school. Music helps children to develop better speech skills by teaching them to listen to the finer details of the way things sound. Dr. Ken Petress, a professor of communication at the University of Maine at Presque Isle, states that having a music education provides many salient values.

“These values include: self discipline, one needs to learn and be self disciplined to practice, take instruction and criticism, and to perform whether solo or as a member of a group; dedication, musicians need to be dedicated in order to spend the necessary time to learn and perform music; teamwork, in multi-person performances, musicians have to work as a team for their performance to be appreciated and valued.” (Petress)

Music teaches a child the intrinsic value of excellence. When a group of musicians are playing a piece of music together and someone plays a wrong note or rhythm, the mistake is obvious and causes the ensemble to sound bad. However, in many other aspects of life achieving less than perfection can be acceptable. Ninety-five percent is usually a very acceptable score on school assignments, but in music if you miss five notes or rhythms of every 100 that you attempt, the music will sound horrible, especially if you multiply that level of performance by every member of the ensemble.

Learning to play a musical instrument is difficult and time consuming; learning to read music can be as challenging as learning a second language, but the difficulty and challenge of mastering these skills can allow a person to be expressive on many levels. Simply writing words to a song and creating a tune to go with it can be a form of therapy that boosts self confidence. As Anna sang to Louis in the musical The King and I , “When ever I feel afraid, I whistle a happy tune!” According to a book entitled Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents