Brain Building Benefits of Band

Here is a link to a short video that discusses some of the benefits of students being involved in formal instrumental music study. Below is some of the recent research results on the benefits of music study.
 
Research Results on Music Education:

  • Music majors are the most likely group of college graduates to be admitted to medical school: 66% of Music majors who applied to medical school were admitted. The next closest group was Biochemistry majors at 44%. (Phi Delta Kappan)
  • Music participants receive more academic honors and awards than non-music students (National Center for Education Statistics)
  • High school music students score higher on the SAT in both VERBAL and MATH than their peers (The College Board, Profile of College Bound Seniors, National Report)
  • Music helps you think by activating and synchronizing neural firing patterns that connect multiple brain sites...the neural synchrony ensembles increase the brain's efficiency and effectiveness. (Arts with the Brain in Mind by Eric Jensen)
  • Reading or composing music particularly engages both sides of the brain. Music in the curriculum...may be a valuable tool for the integration of thinking across both hemispheres of the brain. (Brain-based Learning, Eric Jensen)
  • College age musicians are emotionally healthier than their non-musician counterparts (University of Texas)
  • The world's top academic countries place a high value on music education. Hungary, Japan and the Netherlands stand atop science achievement and have strong commitments to music education at elementary and middle levels for both instrumental and vocal music.
  • The nation's top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education and help better prepare workers. (Business Week)
  • According to Georgia and Texas, middle school and high school students who participated in instrumental music scored significantly higher than their non-instrumental peers in standardized tests.
  • Nearly all of the high school student winners of the Siemens Westinghouse competition in math, science, and technology play one or more musical instruments.
  • Music students learn to become sustained, self-directed learners.
  • Good pitch discrimination benefits learning to read by enhancing the second phonemic stage of learning...the relationship to music education is straight-forward, because such training invariably involves improvement in pitch discrimination. (Music and Cognitive Achievement in Children, Norman Weinberger)