This document discusses the cognitive, social, and academic benefits of music education. It states that students who study music have higher IQs, better academic performance, enhanced brain development, and lower substance abuse rates. Music education helps students develop skills like teamwork, problem solving, self-expression, and communication that are valuable for the workplace. Schools with strong music programs have higher graduation and attendance rates. Overall, the research demonstrates that music education provides students with lifelong benefits.

1. • Youth who participate in music programs tend
to have larger vocabularies and higher abilities
in reading and math comprehension
• Participating in a music program is known to
help youth with challenges like ADHD, Autism,
FAS cope better in noisy or high stimulus areas
and trains the brain to be able to focus better.

2. • Research shows that music is to the brain as
physical exercise is to the human body. Music
tones the brain for auditory fitness and allows
it to decipher between tone and pitch.
• Children who study a musical instrument are
more likely to excel in all of their studies, work
better in teams, have enhanced critical
thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue
further education.
• In the past, secondary students who
participated in a music group reported the
lowest lifetime and current use of all
substances (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs).

3. • Through music study, students learn the value of
sustained effort to achieve excellence and the
concrete rewards of hard work.
• Students of the arts learn to think creatively and
to solve problems by imagining various solutions,
rejecting outdated rules and assumptions.
• Music provides children with a means of self-
expression. Everyone needs to be in touch at
some time in his life with his core, with what he is
and what he feels. Self-esteem is a by-product of
this self-expression.

4. "With music lessons, because there are so many
different facets involved--such as memorizing,
expressing emotion, learning about musical
interval and chords--the multidimensional
nature of the experience may be motivating the
[IQ] effect," said E. Glenn Schellenberg, of the
University of Toronto at Mississauga, author of
two studies on benefits of musical training

5. • Music study develops skills that are necessary
in the workplace. It focuses on "doing," as
opposed to observing, and teaches students
how to perform, literally, anywhere in the
world.
• Employers are looking for multi-dimensional
workers with the sort of flexible and well
rounded intellects music education helps to
create while students learn to better
communicate and cooperate with one
another.

6. • Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2
percent graduation rate and 93.9 percent attendance
rate compared to schools without music education
who average 72.9 percent graduation and 84.9
percent attendance.
• Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and
humanities is closely correlated to high earnings.

7. • Columbia University conducted studies that
revealed that youth which participate in music
and arts programs are more cooperative with
their teachers, caregivers and peers It also
showed they have higher levels self-confidence,
and are more equipped to express themselves
and their ideas.
• Elementary age children who are involved in
music lessons show greater brain development
and memory improvement within a year than
children who receive no musical training.
• Learning and mastering a musical instrument
improves the way the brain breaks down and
understands human language, making music
students more apt to pick up a second
language.

8. • Youth who participated in music programs
received more honors and awards for academics
than non-music students. These youth also had
better overall grades compared to non-music
students (National Educational Longitudinal Study
of 1988 First Follow-Up, U.S. Department of
Education).
Compared to other majors such as biology, math
and chemistry, more music majors who applied for
medical school were admitted (“The Comparative
Academic Abilities of Students in Education and in
Other Areas of a Multi-focus University,” Peter H.
Wood, ERIC Document No. ED327480; “The Case
for Music in Schools”, Phi Delta Kappan, 1994

9. Resources and References
• National Geographic
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/01/140103-music-
lessons-brain-aging-cognitive-neuroscience/
• MedScape Nursing MultiSpecialty News
More Evidence That Music Benefits the Brain
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814540
Childhood Music Lessons Have Neural Benefit Decades Later
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/814153
• The Connection Between Art, Healing, and Public Health: A Review of
Current Literature
Heather L. Stuckey, Jeremy Nobel,Am J Public Health. 2010 February; 100(2):
254–263. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497,PMCID: PMC2804629

10. Music and Leadership Program
• Youth will gain the confidence and ability to
learn music and leadership skills at their pace
in a way that they can relate one on one and
as a group.
• Combining leadership and music allows the
youth to develop life skills and explore their
talents and abilities.
• This program will develop bonds in the home
and create opportunities for individual growth

11. Background Music
• Once a month the youth will have fun learning
new music from different areas and cultures.
• Each youth will learn chords and rhythms for a
song on their instrument of choice for the rest of
the month. There will be a workshop once a
week.
• By the end of the year the youth will know
different songs and several life skills will be
developed and confidence gained while having
fun and learning to write their own music

12. Music And Leadership Skills
• The youth will develop and use goal setting skills as
they begin to learn songs and work on new projects.
• Each youth will have a program that is developed
with their preferences of music and individual needs.
• Youth will have the opportunity to learn many skills,
including:
– Learning songs + the chords and skills to play 100s more
– Designing their own cd cover and t shirt with their own art
– a life size board game, a music video
– Learn to express themselves through mediums like music,
photography, art, cooking and writing.

13. Music and Arts in Learning
Activities in Leadership and Learning Include:
• Music: Influences of stars today
• History Through Role Playing and song
• Multiplication Through Song writing
• Math/Geometry Through Visual Arts in preparing music
video graphics
• Social Studies Through Storytelling in developing of video
of their talent
• Social Studies Through In-Role Writing
• Science Through Music, Dance, life size board games and
fun science experiments
• History Through Documentary Photography and Video
• Structures and Mechanisms Through Building Scale Models
• Language Arts Through Global Percussion

14. The study of music may have many long-term and far-
reaching benefits such as:
• more focused listening skills
• better auditory memory
• improved reading skills
• a better vocabulary
• better study habits
• better marks in writing, math, and science
• enhanced fine motor skills
• Music students are less likely to drop out of school;
instead, they are more likely to stay engaged and go on to
college or university.
• Their experiences in learning and performing music will
have given them the confidence they need to ask
important questions and to make their own decisions as
they pursue their career goals. Students will gain a feeling
of achievement