In times of crisis and unrest, many persons search for outlets to escape the discomforting situation. Now, more than ever, music serves as one of these outlets and families appear eager to seek out quality programs which focus on the positive and enrich their lives.

Music education in America is at a crossroads in its history and is poised for a significant modern renaissance. Due largely to the growing body of scientific data that shows how vital it is to a student’s success in all academic areas, music is re-emerging after decades of neglect.

Among the factors contributing to the positive change of attitude toward music today are a mostly stable economy which has also buoyed the school budgets; technology which is constantly changing and enriching the lives of students from pre-school on up; and important research which seems to demonstrate that music education is as important to students’ future success as math or English. Drs. Gordon Shaw and Fran Rauscher have found that active music making improves children’s math skills. Shaw, a physicist from the University of California at Irvine, found that the inner workings of the human brain operate in patterns that resemble musical structures and music may be the key to understanding intelligence. 

Similar conclusions were reached at McGill University in Canada where researchers found that kids who take piano lessons showed improved general and spatial cognitive development; and at Miami Veterans Administration Hospital, studies indicate that music may improve the brain’s natural production of regulatory hormones like melatonin.

On the subject of music making and wellness, many of the challenges that plague older Americans appear to respond positively to active music making. The American Music Conference (AMC) among other organizations, has underwritten scientific studies which show improvements in loneliness and depression, positive changes in the brain chemistry of people suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease and, even more currently, how group drumming boosts cancer-killer cells.

We have always known that music is good for your spirit. Scientists are continually showing it is good for the brain. Active music making has a direct connection to the brain’s inner workings and it has been said that the brain even seems to operate according to patterns that closely resemble musical notes.

Enlightened parents who are acquainted with studies which have linked active music making with better language and math ability, an increase in spatial-temporal reasoning (the foundation of engineering and science), improved school behavior, are flocking, more than ever, to enroll their children in music programs. Adults tend to gravitate to music education and music making opportunities for therapy and relaxation.

Perhaps a somewhat surprising and interesting development is occurring now when more middle and high school students, on their school’s Career Day, are opting to explore how a career in music can affect, enrich and possibly change the way they view the world and their lives in this fast-paced age of technology and global tension. Although one must have a passion for music in order to make it a career, to sustain a successful living standard and be able to withstand the long and somewhat irregular hours, perhaps it is true that music can ease the troubled heart and bring beauty to oneself and others in times of war and peace.

                                         Copyright ©2001 by Dr. Joan Spicknall