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While many feel that music has a place as a creative outlet in school, few understand the multitude of benefits of music education that can’t be gained with other artistic classes like literature and drama or painting and drawing. While music definitely works as a creative outlet for students to express their feelings, it also has multiple physical, mental, and psychological benefits that are often overlooked.
A new literature review on the effects of music on students showed that not only does music education work to help individuals think more creatively, but also works to improve their socio-emotional learning (SEL) and helps them to be more empathetic and community oriented.
New Research on the Benefits of Music Education
The author of the study defined socio-emotional learning as “the process by which children acquire the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to effectively recognize and manage emotions, to formulate positive goals, to feel empathy for others, to establish and maintain functioning social relationships.” (Váradi) Clearly socio-emotional learning covers a wide array of skills, but generally these skills all center around a person’s social skills and ability to regulate their emotions.
Studying music has long been known to build a person’s intellectual abilities, correlating with higher performance at school and on scores in testing, but the author of this study wanted to answer several other questions about the benefits of music education that are less studied. The questions set out to be answered in the study were:
- Does music education affect the development of self-knowledge and self-esteem?
- Is there a relationship between music education and the formation of social awareness and social connections?
The researcher started off by discussing the Kodály Concept which is a traditional Hungarian music education theory centered on teaching students not only music, but mostly focusing on music’s ability “to educate people in physical and mental harmony” through the use of joint performance. The Kodály Concept suggests that teachers should use singing games for children in order to give students “opportunities for social interactions, such as turn-taking, choosing partners, and role-play.”
One example of this practice is a type of song called a “round” such as “Row Row Row Your Boat”. Rounds are songs that can be sung by multiple individuals or groups starting the song at different points leading to an ethereal echoing sound as different groups begin and end the song at different times. When singing a round, students have to be able to ignore that other groups are singing a different part of the song and start their part in unison with the other people assigned their same part.
This is a difficult task for the brain as it requires partially blocking out the singing of other students, but not entirely. They still need to listen to what others are singing to be able to know when to start, but after they begin, they have to not be distracted that other groups are ahead or behind them and focus on just singing along with their cohort.
This and other types of learning games require not only good executive functioning skills in the brain, but also show students’ how to work together to create something beautiful. Singing in a choir or playing in a band or orchestra is a community activity and requires everyone to do their part in order for the entire performance to be successful. This collaboration strengthens group cohesion and highlights for students the importance of being a part of a community.
Research into the effectiveness of the Kodály Concept found that “in addition to musical abilities, music education according to the Kodály concept also had a positive effect on performance in other disciplines, in particular on movement skills and creativity, improved memory, length of concentration, and the ability to collaborate.” (Barkóczi and Pléh)
The study suggested that the creative benefits of music actually stem from the increased ability to self-regulate along with an increased sense of emotional awareness and empathy for others. This is an interesting finding as it suggests that musical creativity isn’t just some abstract skill from the muses, but instead an internal ability to consider and express emotions in a physical way.
Other subsequent studies also showed a correlation between music education and stability of relationships and empathy towards others. While only correlations, these findings still provide important links between music education and emotional and social stability. In this increasingly divided and isolated world, these findings suggest music could play a significant role in helping students remain connected to their communities and increase their empathy for others.
Through combining the data from a multitude of studies, the research from this study finds that music doesn’t just teach musical abilities alone, but the benefits of music education also include improvements in five specific socio-emotional domains as well.
1. Self Awareness
Self awareness was measurably higher in students who had studied music due to their higher ability to recognize emotions and deal with them through listening to music. People naturally seek out music to soothe their emotions, but in a 2004 study, researchers found that students who had studied music were better able to recognize emotions as well. (Thompson et al.)
When people are better able to recognize their emotions and the sources of their feelings, they are better able to manage them. Because of this ability to help people recognize emotions more easily, music can help people to be more aware of their feelings and be more aware of how their words and actions make others feel as well.
2. Self Management and Self Esteem
Another one of the major benefits found in learning music was that it helps students to remain positive. Many students, especially teenagers, are naturally quite negative and can find it difficult to pull themselves out of a negative spiral. According to the studies cited, music lessons help students to think positively about not only life in general, but about themselves personally.
In one 1999 study, the researchers “found that one piano lesson per week over a 3-year period resulted in a positive development in school children’s self-esteem.” (Costa-Giomi) Several other studies found that music lessons were effective to help students with depression to feel more positive emotions and manage their negative feelings. With increasing rates of mental health issues in students, adding in even just occasional music lessons may be invaluable in staving off the worst symptoms of depression and helping students to better manage their emotions.
3. Social Awareness and Empathy
In a 2010 study done on preschoolers from various socioeconomic backgrounds, researchers found that group musical activities led to the students having more prosocial behaviors afterwards. Prosocial behaviors included being more empathetic towards their classmates and helping out their friends.
Because making music together led students of a wide variety of backgrounds to all act more socially towards one another, the researchers postulated that music leads people to be more friendly due to “satisfying the intrinsic human desire to share emotions, experiences and activities with others.” (Kirschner and Tomasello)
This research is heartening as it shows that as humans, we all have a desire to create together as a group, share experiences, and that when these desires are satisfied, people can all be a bit more friendly. Spending time singing or dancing together not only benefits students’ musical and rhythmic abilities, but also makes them be more understanding and empathetic towards their classmates.
This study is not the only of its kind either. A later study measuring the effects of a music program for elementary students over an academic year reported that “comparing pre- and post-measurements, it was found that the program contributed to an increased capacity for empathy, which was also observable outside the musical context.” (Rabinowitch et al.)
4. Relationship Skills
In addition to all of the self regulatory and empathy inducing effects of making music, the literature review cited many studies showing the ways that making music helps to strengthen the social cohesion between group members who make music together. This result was shown not just in group music making, but between individuals as well.
Researchers found that music lessons involving parents and infants not only led to the children showing greater signs of social development and connection, but also “an emotionally closer relationship developed between the parent and the child.” (Gerry, et al.)
5. Responsible Decision-making
Because of the increased empathy and cooperation that occurs as a result of learning music, people who learn music are better able to make responsible decisions that consider the feelings of others and therefore make more effective leaders. The increased empathy, in addition to the understanding and experience in collaborating as a group leads musicians to be great leaders.
Research published in 2000 found that “through practicing effective communication, collaboration, and problem solving, leadership competencies are developed.” (Harland, et al.) Music, especially when played in a group, or accompanying even just one person, requires working together and listening to others in order to be successful. Because these are also skills vital for an effective leader, these results aren’t surprising, but often overlooked when considering the benefits of music education.
Teacher Takeaways on Music Education
While the benefits of music education in a whole school context should be clear by now, it is important to note that music education is not just for music teachers. Teachers of any subject can utilize the benefits of music education in their own classroom context. Whether to help students calm down, remember concepts, or just create a better classroom environment, teachers of any subject should consider how they can use the tips below to incorporate music into their classes.
1. Music is a great brain break
In addition to all of its benefits when used as main curricular material, music can also be used as a way to take a break and relax between main activities. In kindergarten, teachers will sometimes turn on a music video for kids to get up and move or “get out their wiggles”. Music videos, especially those for kids, are often quite short, taking less than 5 minutes of class time, but refocusing the students afterwards.
Research into the importance of breaks for people of any age show that it doesn’t take a long break to get significant benefits from brain breaks. Students who are given a short break will be better able to tackle subsequent tasks with more focus and with less negativity. When the teacher looks out at the students and just sees a sea of blank faces with some falling asleep, it is far better to simply stop what is going on and have a quick music break.
Students can not learn in this languid brain state and so, while it might seem like a waste of time on the surface, turning on a quick music video to boost back the energy levels and get the kids smiling before jumping back into content can often actually be more efficient in the end when measuring learning.
Additionally, It isn’t just kindergarten students who can benefit from a little dance break. While some teachers might feel that their older students will not be down for a dance break at 15, those teachers clearly haven’t heard of TikTok. For those who don’t know, TikTok is a social media platform where people often post themselves dancing popular dances to catchy songs. The dances are usually simple enough that most people can get them down with a little practice, but the difficulty ranges as with anything.
Importantly, the songs chosen for a TikTok brain break don’t always need to be cheesy educational songs. While some TikTok songs and dances may be inappropriate for a school context, this is definitely not the case for all of them. Like any medium, there are dirty ones, silly ones, easy ones, difficult ones, and educational ones. In any case, the purpose of a brain break is to just get the kids up and moving together, feeling more positive, and building a bit of class community before jumping back into the lesson.
The teacher can make a deal with students that they can teach the class one of their favorite TikTok dances if they agree to get back on task after 5 or 10 minutes. This can give kids of any age the chance to get up and move, which anyone knows kids need, as well as help them have good behavior so that they get to continue to have their TikTok breaks in the future.
TikTok dances are perfect for all of the above mentioned benefits of music education. They require students to work in synchrony in order to do the dance successfully as a class and teach leadership skills to those in charge of leading the class in the dance. The class will not only dance together and probably sing along, but laugh and enjoy their time being silly together. This will help to build class community and make the classroom a place students look forward to coming as it will be associated with more than just work.
2. Music is magic for memory.
Music doesn’t always have to be used as a break from content, but many times can actually be used to enhance and make content more fun and memorable. Many teachers know how popular many educational songs actually are, such as the classic Animaniacs song “Nations of the World”.
While many teachers know and love using songs in class, some teachers, especially new teachers, may not know how many options there truly are. It really is quite easy to look up educational songs though! The benefits of music on memory have been known since ancient times and so the number of resources is vast.
Teachers need only to type in “_____ educational song” into Google or YouTube and someone will most likely have made some sort of song about the content they’re trying to teach. For example, “Periodic table educational song” brings up a myriad of results. Teachers should just keep in the habit of checking out the songs available for what they’re teaching.
While many may be low quality or too cheesy for their kids, sometimes the most painful and ridiculous songs are actually the most memorable. Teachers should keep in mind that they generally are not looking for technical masterpieces, but silly and memorable songs to get stuck in their student’s minds and help them remember facts about what they are studying. Teachers should play into the silliness and laugh and groan along with their students, but keep an ear out for kids whistling or humming the song later on to test the effectiveness of their choices.
Tapping into the memory benefits of music doesn’t even always require any melody as rhythm and rhyming play a major part of the memory pathways created by music. Many an American child can recite the overused “in 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” Even though there is no real melody to this phrase, just having a short rhyming couplet helps students to remember when colonization began in the Americas. The benefits of music education aren’t limited to just musical melodies, but can come from any of the aspects of music like rhythm, rhyme, and timing as well.
Movement can even be added to the simple phrases to help add another sense to the concept to be remembered. This is why the “three tap touch” of “keys, phone, wallet” works so well to remember things to take when leaving the house. Even without a rhyme or a melody, this rhythmic tapping of a person’s three pockets while saying the list helps many people not lock themselves out of the house when going out. Similarly, teachers can add little motions to things students need to remember, perhaps creating a “three tap touch” for class such as “book, pencil, brain” for students to say internally as they enter the class.
3. Music allows more students to shine.
Every class will have students that struggle to participate or aren’t particularly advanced in the class’s subject matter. While those students may struggle to learn class content through the traditional methods, sometimes if these students are musically inclined, they can use their music skills to increase their confidence in the material and maybe even help others as well. Getting those students to help lead the TikTok brain breaks is a good start, but this isn’t the only way for them to use their musical abilities in class.
Teachers who are struggling to find good songs to teach certain content could even challenge their musically adept students to write one themselves. This can be a great project alternative for students who are struggling to express themselves through traditional approaches and allows them to study class content and develop their music abilities at the same time in a fun and creative way. In order to write a good and effective educational song, the student will need to know the information and spend a good amount of time putting it together in a fun and musically sensible way.
While there still will probably be gaps in their learning, this approach can help these types of students to find a bit of success in class and change how others view them and perhaps even change how they view themselves. Students who struggle often retreat and isolate, giving up before even trying in fear of the judgment of others.
However, if instead they are the one who made the song that the class is learning, it puts them up on a pedestal of success and achievement. Instead of being embarrassed about doing poorly or answering questions incorrectly, this allows the student to confidently shine and find some success in class.
Conclusion
While this won’t be a curall, small wins like these can help to change students’ perspective on class and sometimes even themselves. In addition to the self-esteem boosting benefits of music education discussed above, just listening to other students in the hall humming or singing the song that they wrote can be a huge boost to their self confidence and help them see that they too can be successful in their own way.
Not only will they have helped themselves to study the material more, but in addition, their efforts might help other students remember something important as well. As shown above, music can have a huge impact on self-esteem, and students who feel successful are more likely to keep going even when things get tough.
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References
Barkóczi, I., Pléh, C. S. (1977). Kodály zenei nevelési módszerének pszichológiai hatásvizsgálata. [Psychological impact assessment of Kodály’s method of music education]. Bács megyei Lapkiadó Vállalat.
Costa-Giomi, E. (1999). The effects of three years of piano instruction on children’s cognitive development. Journal of Research in Music Education, 47(3), 198–212. https://doi.org/10.2307/3345779
Gerry, D., Unrau, A., Trainor, L. J. (2012). Active music classes in infancy enhance musical, communicative and social development. Developmental Science, 15(3), 398–407. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2012.01142.x
Harland, J., Kinder, K., Lord, P., Stott, A., Schagen, I., Haynes, J. (2000). Arts education in secondary schools: Effects and effectiveness. NFER/The Arts Council of England, RSA.
Rabinowitch, T.-C., Cross, I., Burnard, P. (2013). Long-term musical group interaction has a positive influence on empathy in children. Psychology of Music, 41(4), 484–498. https://doi.org/10.1177/0305735612440609
Thompson, W. F., Schellenberg, E. G., Husain, G. (2004). Decoding speech prosody: Do music lessons help? Emotion, 4(1), 46–64. https://doi.org/10.1037/1528-3542.4.1.46
Váradi, Judit. “A Review of the Literature on the Relationship of Music Education to the Development of Socio-Emotional Learning.” SAGE Open, Jan. 2022, doi:10.1177/21582440211068501.
