5 Academic Benefits of Musical Study

Music has always been an important part of my life. From the time I was very small, I loved to sing and would sit with my mom on the piano bench, singing every song I knew while she played for me.  To this day, I LOVE to sing.  I’m also the student who had learning disabilities all the way through school.  It wasn’t until I was in 12^th grade that we had an answer to why school came so hard…I have dyslexia.  As a child and teen, I struggled constantly with reading, math and science.  I can remember being in 2^nd  grade and praying that my teacher would not call on me to read out loud, because I was just terrible at it.  However, no matter how hard reading was, or math or science or algebra (which, let’s be honest, I haven’t used since finishing the class), I had music and I KNEW that was one area that I excelled.  Music gave me an appropriate way to express myself when I wanted to scream in frustration, throw my books or hit something (okay, someone).  Music provided me a means of appropriate self-expression and offered me with opportunities to develop my creativity, which allowed me to think outside the box.  Academically, music was my anchor.  It taught me perseverance, individualized self belief and an overall discipline that not only allowed me to graduate from high school 2^nd in my class, but go to college, receive a bachelor’s degree, then return to complete a master’s degree.  The academic benefits I gained from musical study were a very important part of my success in high school, college and graduate school.

5 Academic Benefits of Musical Study.

1. Studying music sharpens concentration, teaches perseverance, and creates better study habits.
2. Studying music increases listening skills, the ability to pick out important auditory signals and effectively filter out distracting noise.
3. Studying music improves reading and vocabulary skills.
4. Studying music strengthens the same part of the brain used in complex math skills.
5. Studying music has been shown to demonstrate increases verbal intelligence in preschool children.

If you want to know more about the benefits of musical study, please like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/desertsoundsofwellness and follow us on this blog, as we will be visiting other music related topics in the future.  If you are interested in studying music, please visit our website at www.desertsoundsofwellness and read about the music instruction opportunities that we offer to students in the Phoenix Metro area.