Take Lessons Now, Earn More Later

A parent of some of my students sent me a link to an interesting story about a new music education poll by Harris Interactive. People who study music during student life are more likely to earn more and pursue higher education later in life. Here’s a quote from the article (on Yahoo! News):

“The poll by Harris Interactive, an independent research company, showed that 88 percent of people with a post-graduate education were involved in music while in school, and 83 percent of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education.” (Source.)

There is also a press release from Harris Interactive that includes some more discussion of the implications of the results. The National Association for Music Educators was also involved in the study, and executive director John Mahlmann has some choice words about the state of music education today:

“Research confirms that music education at an early age greatly increases the likelihood that a child will grow up to seek higher education and ultimately earn a higher salary. The sad irony is that ‘No Child Left Behind’ is intended to better prepare our children for the real world, yet it’s leaving music behind despite its proven benefits...While music clearly corresponds to higher performing students and adults, student access to music education had dropped about 20 percent in recent years, thanks in large part to the constraints of the No Child Left Behind Act.” (Source.)

It is clear that so many of the skills important for success in life are supported and strengthened through the intensive study of music. Everyone can benefit from good musical training. It can teach us about practical discipline and improve real-time focus. Musical training inspires a healthy attitude towards constructive criticism and can teach us how to manage complex responsibilities. It sensitizes us to the world in so many ways. In my opinion (which is shared by many), our national leadership on education needs to wake up and respond constructively to these realities.

Let’s also not forget about that little side-benefit called “personal fulfillment” that music-making can provide. One of the best aspects of being a music teacher is witnessing the look of deep satisfaction on a child’s face after an accomplished performance or an overcome hurdle. All music teachers know this look and what it means. It’s certainly a great enough experience on its own. But when I consider the other long-term effects an accumulation of achievements in music provides, it feels even better to be a music teacher.

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Children's Verbal Skills Enhanced by Practicing?

That’s right: Researchers at Northwestern University’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory have recently completed a study which found that overall audiovisual sensitivity (necessary for good verbal skills) is improved if one has had musical training. An article about this project is here at Northwestern’s Newscenter.

Specifically regarding practicing, the article says:

“Study participants, who had varying amounts of musical training or none at all, wore scalp electrodes that measured their multi-sensory brain responses to audio and video of a cellist playing and a person speaking.

The data showed that the number of years that a person practiced music strongly correlated with enhanced basic sound encoding mechanisms that also are relevant for speech. Beyond revealing super-accurate pitch coding vital to recognizing a speaker's identity and emotional intent, the study showed enhanced transcription of timbre and timing cues common to speech and music.” (italic emphasis added by me)

Notice that the study involved people who had practiced for years. Not months, but years. This means that an extended time period of musical training (learning an instrument or learning to sing) reaped the most neurological benefits for individuals.

Here’s how the researchers think it works: Music involves an all-encompassing attention to multi-sensory stimuli (you must watch, listen, feel, move, etc. when playing music). The processing of this multi-sensory data through musical training actually specializes or finely tunes the neural response to audiovisual input. Since multi-sensory processing is also necessary for speech recognition skills and literacy, the cognitive benefits from musical training affects the brain’s ability in those areas as well. In fact, the research suggests that music training for children could provide a better (and neurologically deeper) benefit to communication skills than learning phonics (don’t take it from me, read the article). That seems almost shocking to me!

(See also my post about music and speech sensitivity which discussed another research project conducted at Northwestern University.)

I think that it is ironic and somewhat sad that so much evidence for the wide-reaching cognitive (and academic) benefits of music is coming out from US research institutions at a time when overall arts education (which includes serious music training) is being continually cut back if not eliminated from school curriculums. Who knows how long it will take for the pendulum to swing the other way?

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Music Education vs. Performance?

Should college-level music students necessarily force themselves to choose to pursue only music education or only music performance in their undergraduate years? Could there be such a defensible position in today's multifaceted career paths in music? Apparently someone still thinks so and is looking to keep potential professionals squarely on one side or the other through a rather alarming list of what I would consider outmoded reasons.

Jason Heath has written a beautiful response to this attitude that I think would benefit readers who are music educators, performers, or both. The truth is, most of us career musicians are already both educators and performers; the lines between these roles are becoming increasingly blurred in the 21st century due to many reasons that Jason eloquently elucidates in his substantial post.

Yours truly even left a (probably overlong and overheated!) comment because I was moved to make my point of view known. (Indeed many have joined in the discussion of these topics; see the other comments below Jason’s post.)

Many music educators might defend the instructor’s position that I’ll summarize: Potential K-12 instructors must focus more purely on the acquisition of the many skills needed to become an effective music educator in the current school environment today, at the expense of honing performance skills as an instrumentalist, vocalist, or conductor. This is largely true, and there is no doubt in my mind that future school instructors need a lot of careful training and study to become effective classroom educators.

But the instructor’s list of reasons in support of this seems meant to dissuade students from exploring if they might be able to balance the two (performance skills and educational skills) in their pursuit of a musical career during their undergraduate years. I can speak from some experience myself: I spent three very busy years pursuing doctoral coursework full-time, tackling a large teaching load (both private and class piano inside and outside my university), and at the same time bettering myself as a pianist and performer. Yes, I had plenty of 15-hour days. Yes, some days I was a better teacher but a worse pianist. Some days it was the other way around. It wasn’t easy. But if I can do it, others can too. Students shouldn’t be preemptively funneled into limiting their growth through the exhortations of some authority who thinks that no one can balance it at all.

I’ll rephrase a popular saying: The path to a narrow musical career is paved with good intentions. Today, more than ever, that path needs to widen rather than permanently branch into two unconnected avenues: educators who are not performers, and performers who are not educators.

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Quality music programs improve academics

(Via Chris Foley)

Yet another study supporting strong music education benefits has been produced this summer by the NAMM foundation. (There’s also a good summary here.)

Many current music education studies are pointing to strong correlations between better academic performance and some kind of musical study. What is interesting here is the emphasis on instrumental study. If you read the article carefully you will note how much better students perform in English and mathematics when they are participating in “top-quality instrumental programs”.

Well, what does “top-quality” mean when it refers to an instrumental program? Here are a few attributes that come to mind for me (I am leaving out choral programs on purpose for now):

--Dedicated, talented, and knowledgeable teachers and directors who can communicate well with students and display a passion for artistic integrity.
--A well-supported budget that can attract those high-level candidates from the music education community.
--Good choices of repertoire and programming that promote musicality and knowledge of many styles.
--A variety of ensembles including orchestra, band, jazz band, etc.
--Standards of proficiency on all the instruments involved in the program. (Often the schools with good music programs will be able to supply qualified private teachers to students at the school.)
--Accomplished performances that convince administrators, colleagues, and the public that students are growing and improving in their study of music.

Other educators would be able to list many more positive attributes than this, but it’s a start. The important point that I get from the article is how the quality of the musical training really plays a role in getting the maximum benefits. It is clear that standards in music education are absolutely necessary for the general health of a given student body, but there are no specific standards set for music education by the No Child Left Behind Act. High standards and expectations should apply not just to the students but also to teachers/directors and the program itself. Lower standards in music education might even unintentionally undermine other parts of the curriculum. (Note in the article how “deficient” music programs are related to poorer general academic performance.)

While this is an article with a positive viewpoint, it is unfortunate that the American educational system is cutting arts programs or allowing them to stagnate. (See a recent report on arts education in California as well a 2004 statement by the Department of Education.) Hopefully those of us who are involved in music education can help spread better awareness of the need for good school music programs in the US. That’s all I’m trying to do with this commentary on the subject.

Update 7/15/07: See also Jason Heath's post on this study, then check out his terrific related post on Hard-Wiring the Musical Mind.

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"Mozart Effect" Debunked

Remember the popular idea that listening to Mozart’s music could make you smarter? Well, it turns out that it’s total bunk.

The “Mozart Effect” was the name given to a phenomenon studied by psychologist Francis Rauscher and physicist Gordon Shaw that involved subjects listening to Mozart and taking spatial-reasoning tests just after the listening sessions. Results were published in a paper in 1993 which found a correlation between listening sessions and better scores on these tests. The big draw for this seemingly esoteric bit of experimentation was the fact that these positive test results made a difference in terms of IQ points. 

Of course, it’s not that far of a leap (though it IS a leap) to start claiming that you’ll be smarter if you listen to Mozart. This has indeed happened in terms of conventional wisdom: After this study was widely popularized, it became important to play Mozart for unborn babies, make kids listen to classical music before big test days, etc. Now it’s not my intention to make fun of anyone who did these things – I certainly fell for the “leap” as well. (Though it should be added that it doesn’t hurt to expose young’uns to classical music.) I can remember hearing friends or parents of students talking about putting on “Mozart music” for his/her unborn infant, and I would say something like, “Great – there seems to be a good amount of evidence to support that kind of activity.” And then we could wait a few years to see if the A’s would start rolling in when they got to school…

But just recently, the German government decided to get to the bottom of the “Mozart Effect” case by supporting a substantial examination of the ME literature. The team of nine researchers (all of whom possess musical expertise in addition to their other qualifications) could find no real evidence that passive listening to Mozart makes you any smarter over the long-term. In fact, there are apparently many different things you could do before a cognitive test (like hearing stories) that have exactly the same effect in the immediate short term (e.g., 15-20 minutes) as listening to Mozart’s music. To be fair to Rauscher, she herself has noted that misconceptions about her study typically confuse limited (and temporary) improvement in specific mental tasks with a general increase in an individual’s IQ (see Rauscher’s quote in the Wikipedia article on the Mozart Effect). There have also been others who have disputed the claims of the more popular versions of the Mozart Effect (many skeptics have written on the issue before the German report).

The German researchers, however, stipulate that active participation in musical activities (such as playing an instrument and taking lessons) may or may not improve IQ over the long-term and more studies need to be done to determine this for sure. For those of you who have followed some of my posts about the benefits of musical training, you know that I am interested in the findings of this kind of research. Many studies have been done which show strong evidence for the “side-benefits” of musical training, such as promotion of intellectual development (this study actually supports IQ-sharpening!), memory enhancement, and the positive effects on different kinds of success. But despite a few important studies on the issue, the jury is really still out when it comes to improving general IQ through musical training.

The “Mozart Effect” may be in its grave (at least in terms of long-term IQ enhancement), but we’ll have to wait and see if any “Musical Training Effect” can permanently pump up someone’s IQ. Time will tell.

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New Evidence that Musical Training Increases Speech Sensitivity

This article summarizes some interesting findings of researchers at Northwestern University:

Research Finds Musical Training Can 'Tune' the Auditory System

It turns out that musical training not only affects one's ability to decipher "sound encoding" in music but also in language. In the study, musically trained subjects faired far better in recognizing tone-sounds in Mandarin than non-musicians. In certain languages such as Mandarin, "tones" (when pitch rises, falls, or stays the same during the utterance of a word) can render different meanings for the same word. The researchers agree that this new evidence has far-reaching implications for educators and brain researchers.

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New Blog Category: Benefits of Musical Training

These days there is more and more scientific research being devoted to the cognitive and intellectual development of humans. Not surprisingly, recent studies considering musical training and study (such as lessons and music classes) are revealing more and more substantial evidence for the benefits, direct and indirect, of participating in musical activities.

I've always wanted to know more about this topic than I currently do, so I think it would be perfect timing to try and compile some information on the subject here at the Cincinnati Pianist Blog.

Of course, there is an obvious "selfish" reason for me to do this here -- it could help to convince parents to begin and/or continue lessons for their child, with me as the teacher! But I also think that it is good for us to just be more aware of what we actually gain in the pursuit of musical study. I know that all parents want the best for their child's development as they grow, and I think that knowledge of the benefits reaped by musical training should help us better understand and appreciate the not-so-insignificant investment in private lessons.

To start, here are some links to brief articles on this subject from the recent past:

ScienceDaily report from 2004 on the "The First Solid Evidence That the Study of Music Promotes Intellectual Development" (this study involved keyboard students)

ScienceDaily report from 2006 on how music enhances "Intelligence, Mental Health, and the Immune System" (hmmm...could you practice more and not get sick? Well, maybe that's a stretch...but more practice wouldn't bother me!)

A longer report from 2002 on the benefits of music education for various kinds of success at the National Association for Music Education: "Music Education Facts and Figures"

As time goes on I am sure that more research will yield additional articles to include in this category. If anyone would like to suggest links to related articles they may have seen elsewhere on the web, please let me know via the comment function below or through email.

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