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Lauren Bell

Professor Hunter

English 1201

2.17.19

Should Music Programs Have More Priority in Schools?

Music plays an important part in society today but music education in schools do

not reflect its importance. Learning music at an early age can benefit a students mood,

fine mater skill, focus, and creativity. Playing an instrument involves the whole brain and

strengthens every part of the brain. Music programs in school are often not required, but

STEM courses are always a part of the core classes, although they each contribute to

the brain in a different way.

When listening to music, the brain releases chemicals that boost one's mood.

The chemical compound that is released when listening to music is dopamine, which is

responsible for regulating movement, learning, attention, and emotional responses.

Very few neurons in the brain make dopamine, so the benefits of listening to music

elevate the mood greatly and have huge benefits on the brain. A deficiency in dopamine

can cause an inability to focus, lack of motivation, compulsions, loss of motor control,

and depression. Symptoms of clinical, or major, depression are changes in appetite,

concentration, energy level, self-esteem, and behavior. Lack of dopamine is difficult to

deal with but can be improved by medical treatment, but music will help the treatment.

While music will not be able to fully cure one's depression, it will have a role in helping
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raise dopamine levels and aiding with the process of getting help from medical

professionals. Music also helps with energizing one's mood by stimulating endorphins,

which are groups of hormones that when released, have physiological functions within

the body.

Not only does music benefit the brain, but it also has its effect on the body's

health. In certain scenarios, music has been effective in the treatment of conditions

ranging from premature birth to Parkinson's disease. While premature birth can be

caused by poor nutrition, smoking, drugs, and alcohol but it could

be benefited with or fixed by music. Music can help with premature

birth through music therapy, the same way it can help with

depression and Parkinson’s disease.

Music therapy is a common form of healing that is an

outside of the box form of therapy but still proves to be beneficial

to one's health. Music therapy has been proven to help people

mentally, physically, emotionally, and socially. Music therapy is

often individualized for the patient's specific needs to reduce

whatever pain they are facing. It should not be used instead of

medicine but can use music as a catalyst. Music can help people

deal with physical pain by distracting from their thoughts. Medical

research shows that music is healthy for the mind because it

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stimulates brain waves, making it sharper and stronger, much like working out.

When it comes to children’s brain developing, music can speed up the maturing

process and can define fine motor skills. The University of Southern California held a

five-year study that focused on children who learned to play instruments and those who

didn't. Music instruction accelerates brain development in young children, focusing on

processing sound, language development, reading skills, and speech perception.

Neuroscientists at USC began their five-year study in 2012 to examine the impact of

children's development when being educated in music. Many schools have reduced or

eliminated their arts programs even though music has been proven to increase

student's efficiency.

Neurologists found that the auditory systems of the children who participated in

the music program matured faster than those who did not. The auditory system is

responsible for one's sense of hearing that is divided into two subsystems, the

peripheral and central auditory systems. The auditory system is responsible for aiding

with communication and learning. The goal of auditory development is to have normal

and typical exposure to sound. Sounds are interpreted through neural encoding and

understanding perception. With the auditory system maturing more quickly than those

who were participating in the music, participants were more likely to have more

sensitive hearing and will be better at listening for details.

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Music interacts with language by using pitch, similar to the way the pitch can

detect which word has been spoken. As languages flourished, so did music and

instruments. Language was used to promote logic, while music promoted social

cohesion and helped with rituals. Language and music are both found to be used on

both sides of the brain. The brain decodes music and has become accustomed to

patterns due to exposure in various traditions. After a test on 3-year-olds, those who

took piano lessons weekly did better on tests of spatial and temporal reasoning, which

connects to mathematics and engineering, which might explain why physicists and

mathematicians are often times gifted musicians.

Music helps focus and teaches children to reach for a goal. When a student is

given a new piece to play, whether it be for fun or for a concert performance, the

student must focus on training their mind to focus on improving at the piece that is given

to them for their improvement. This focus translates into their school work and improves

grades and overall work ethic. When the music gets more difficult, students ability gets

stronger and they get better at their instrument. This improvement within the music is

considered to be a full workout for the brain.

Music is a precise art and takes a ton of brain power to even go through a simple

song. By monitoring musicians playing instruments on PET scanners and taking fMRIs,

the brain activity of musicians is able to be viewed. While participants are doing math

problems or reading, scientists are able to see the area where the brain is working, but

when listening to music, the researchers saw multiple areas lighting up at once.
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Playing instruments is a totally different story, listening to music interacts with the

brain but it does not compare to playing an instrument. Practicing an instrument

engages almost every area of the brain at the same time. The disciplined and structured

practice of instruments strengthens the brain's functions and allows musicians to apply

their strengths to other activities.

Playing music requires fine motor skills and combines linguistic and

mathematical precision. Making music involved understanding an emotional message

throughout the piece, stimulating cognitive and emotional aspects at the same time.

Neurologists have explored the idea that the musicians being tested were already smart

to begin with, but a study with random participants showed the same levels of cognitive

function at the start, but those who were musicians showed more enhancement in

multiple areas.

With being a musician, it is useful to know how to practice and to have sensitive

hearing that is finely trained. Many musicians find that when learning a language, their

trained ear benefits their foreign accent because their trained ear can hear small

differences in individual sounds. Knowing how to practice is also a major benefit for any

musician when trying to learn a language. Learning an instrument is difficult, but not

impossible. When learning an instrument, one must focus and be able to practice

efficiently. This discipline of practicing regularly will help a language learner reach

fluency. For most English speakers trying to learn a foreign language, it takes around
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250 to 350 hours to reach fluency. Most professional musicians practice 1 to 4 hours

per day, which is around 365 to 1460 every day. At the rate of which a professional

musician practices, it would take around a year, or less, to learn a language.

While music is recreational for many people, it is a career for many others.

Employment of musicians is projected to grow 6 percent within the years 2016 to 2026.

If music played a bigger role in schools, there would be many more people entering the

music career. With more people entering the music world, there would be more need for

band directors. Making roughly above the average person, band directors are able to

combine music and education to work in a fulfilling career. The U.S. Bureau of Labor

Statistics suggests that the average salary for a high school band director is around

$53,000 to $56,000 per year.

STEM careers often are more successful than those in the arts, with an average

salary of $65,000 annually and people often see it as a safer route for a career choice,

therefore making the number of people going into art careers lower than those in STEM.

STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math, and is a common term for

the academic disciplines. An academic discipline is a field of study and STEM focuses

on the 4 main scientific academic disciplines of knowledge, but they also range from

linguistics to the arts.

With more people going into the arts, there would be less interest for people

going into STEM careers. Science, technology, engineering, and math careers are
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necessary for advancement in society, while the arts play a big role in culture and

entertainment. Without STEM careers, there would be less advancement in medicine

and technology and civilization will not be where it is today, but the community would

benefit with more arts and music based careers being filled.

It is often recommended that students focus on STEM classes to improve

cognitive skills and help connect the dots between each of the courses. While music

programs help with cognitive thinking, it is less likely one will find a career in the arts

and it is a safer choice to go into a scientific, technological, or mathematical field. Some

students are more technically inclined, while some students were born with musical

talents. When dealing with career choices, a student must focus on their own interests

and what is the best choice for them instead of listening to others’ opinions on what is

the safest choice for their career.

While many view music classes as a joke, many think it will be too difficult to pick

up an instrument and decide against taking music classes in school. While playing an

instrument is difficult, it is not impossible and gets easier as time goes on. Playing an

instrument is compared to a full body workout for one's brain, so it gets stronger as time

goes on. With one's brain strengthening over time, playing an instrument will get easier

and the benefits will grow. More people should take music more seriously and try the

new experience of playing an instrument. Without having tried an instrument, many

famous musicians would not have been able to benefit society the way they have.
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Simply trying to learn an instrument could change someone’s life and if they wanted to

pursue music, they could have a major impact on society.

Many schools are challenged financially and music programs often take a lot of

funding. While a music program would be beneficial to schools, many can not afford it.

On average, music programs cost roughly $190 annually per student. The cost of a

music program in schools is often times seen as unnecessary spending and will not be

implemented in schools.

Instruments alone cost thousands of dollars to the school district, a low-quality

flute costs an average of $200. Flutes being on the low end of the pricing spectrum for

instruments. A very low-quality tuba could cost around $400, but an average cost for a

big instrument, like a tuba, is roughly $1,000. These costs to the school are often times

too much for such simple expenses that will not financially benefit the school. With

roughly a hundred marchers in a marching band and at least ⅕ of them not being able

to purchase their own instrument, that would total at least $4,000 worth of extra costs

that a school would not have to support if they did not have a marching band program,

but the cost for instruments would be much higher if they had an orchestra, marching

band, and concert band program. School districts save a fortune by not having music

programs in their schools, but they could potentially be ruining students’ experiences.

Often times, most schools have to charge students more to participate in arts-

related sports compared to the average school sports. For example, at Springboro High
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School, marching band fees are around $1,000 to $1,500 per band season, while

Springboro Ladies Soccer is roughly $200 per season because they do not have to pay

for costly uniforms, pay for around 100 members to get into competitions and often

times feed them, and, most importantly, they do not need to pay for instruments. Usually

when more members participate, costs go down but it is the opposite for marching band

because there are just more marchers to pay for and support.

In many situations, annual achievement tests will alter funding that is given to the

schools. Playing instruments has been proven to raise focus in the musicians and many

musicians are smarter than those who don't play an instrument. With this raised focus,

students will do better on standardized tests. Standardized tests are given to all

students in a certain grade level within a school district and require test takers to answer

certain questions from a common bank and are scored consistently with every test,

giving each student a score compared to the average score of a school district. In this

situation, where schools get more funding based on higher scores, music programs

could be an investment for the school and will give more emphasis on the arts within

schools that lacked these programs.

With all of the benefits that music provides, it is important that it is implemented

in everyone’s daily life and they should be educated on what benefits them in life. Music

education needs to have more priority in schools because it will have a major impact on

the students lives and will positively be impacted by music daily. Music will improve

student’s focus and overall mood throughout the school day. Music in elementary
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schools should also have more priority, due to music’s impact on children’s developing

brains. Children who learn instruments grow up to be more intelligent, more mature, and

have better focusing and learning abilities.

Music has the ability to treat and reduce the symptoms of depression by raising

the levels of dopamine in one’s brain. Even if music programs cannot be implemented

into schools, it should be used within the guidance office to help with students that need

therapy. While STEM courses should have the main priority in schools, evidence shows

that music has a great impact on society and people’s wellbeing.

No matter how it is placed in schools, music needs to play a bigger role in

schools. Whether it be through therapy, teaching students about music, or just

increasing funding to already instated arts programs. Music has been proven to have

major impacts on the lives of students when growing up, whether they are listening to it

or playing it. Although listening to it is good for the brain and body, learning how to play

an instrument is compared to a ‘full body workout’ for the brain. So yes, music programs

should have more priority in schools.

Works Cited

Ashford University Staff. "How Does Music Affect Your Brain?" Ashford University. 7
June
2017. 03 Feb. 2019
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<https://www.ashford.edu/online-degrees/student-lifestyle/how-does-music-
affect-your-b
rain>.

Blakeslee, Sandra. "The Mystery of Music: How It Works In the Brain." The New York
Times
16 May 1995.

Gersema, Emily. "Children's Brains Develop Faster With Music Training." USC News.
23 June
2016. 03 Feb. 2019
<https://news.usc.edu/102681/childrens-brains-develop-faster-with-music-
training/>.

How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain. Dir. Anita Collins. TED Talk. July 2014.
3 Feb.
2019
<https://www.ted.com/talks/anita_collins_how_playing_an_instrument_benefits_y
our_br
ain?language=en>.

Jausovec, Norbert et al. “The influence of Mozart’s music on brain activity in the process
of
learning.” Clinical Neurophysiology 117 (2006): 2703-2714.

Levitin, Daniel J. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New
York,
NY: Dutton, 2006.

Ratovohery, Stéphie, et al. “Is Music a Memory Booster in Normal Aging? The Influence
of
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Emotion.” Memory, vol. 26, no. 10, Nov. 2018, pp. 1344–1354. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1080/09658211.2018.1475571.

Rose, Dawn, et al. “Learning a Musical Instrument Can Benefit a Child with Special
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Rose, F.Clifford. Neurology of Music. [Electronic Resource]. London : Imperial College

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The Musical Brain. Dir. Christina Pochmursky. Perf. Michael Buble, Leslie Feist, and
Wyclef
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brain-the/>.