Majorities of parents whose children are involved in music classes also credit music education for making them happier, more focused, more selfdisciplined, stronger academically and more helpful.
Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.
Two weeks ago, three of our technicians were invited out to Yamaha, in California for some specialized technical training. Tim Roethler, Spencer Guyer and Brad Rubin were attending. Which then brings up the issue of technician training in general.
“I would teach children music, physics, and philosophy; but most importantly music, for the patterns in music and all the arts are the keys to learning.”
Nearly 100% of past winners in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology (for high school students) play one or more musical instruments. This led the Siemens Foundation to host a recital at Carnegie Hall in 2004, featuring some of these young people, after which a panel of experts debated the nature of the apparent science/music link.
Instrumental practice often consists of the classic combination of long tones, scales, and etudes. While this combination of exercises is “classic” for a reason, there is one glaring omission: sound. Sound is the most important of playing no matter if you are a beginning 6th grader or a seasoned professional in the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra.
If you are playing a scale at a very fast tempo, the number of notes passing is irrelevant in each note has poor sound quality. If you are hitting very high notes on your instrument and they don’t sound good, they don’t count for much. If you are playing in an ensemble and you are “in tune” but have a poor sound quality….you get the idea.
Playing an instrument teaches kids to persevere through hours, months, and sometimes years of practice before they reach specific goals, such as performing with a band or memorizing a solo piece.
Perseverance is developed and strengthened through music education.