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To music, or not?

Writer's picture: Rahul RaghavanRahul Raghavan

Rahul Raghavan

Music Educator, Arvi School of Music


“A human wrote this. And sometimes he spells enterprenewer wrongly.”



Yes, more are learning music than ever before.

The National Education Policy 2020 contains “Music” in 20 places (NEP, 2020). Naturally, several academic schools have complied with a music curriculum. Music remained dominant in the Indian education system long before the new education policy. Interestingly, the education policy of 1986 did mention “Music” seven times in various contexts. I believe that significantly points out our interest in music and education. The fact is that Indian parents are well aware of the phenomenal benefits music education has for their children. It has passed through the generations. Though it has morphed into different forms of music, the benefits are there. Let us try and capture that scientifically. 

Music education changes the brain

A study by Schlaug et al. (2005) that spanned 14 months of music education of 50 5 to 7-year-olds showed brain structures changed after a year of musical education compared to non-musical students. Getting those children to undergo an fMRI would have been difficult. Neuroscience is still exploring this vastness, and I can’t wait to share it soon. Older studies have already concluded that the brains of musicians are different from non-musicians (Gaser & Schlaug 2003). Does this have any direct implications? How does it affect all that we hold dear?

Musical students excel at all subjects

We can sum up what children generally do and how musical learning impacts all of that. A study by Guhn et al. (2019) of over 110,000 students in senior school published in the Journal of Educational Psychology found that students who had music classes performed better in all subjects of the study. The subjects were math, science and English. That is just the academic side of it. Let us zoom out of that and look at something else. Research led Yang et al. (2014) to conclude musical students were more novel and creative and performed better at academic tasks. Music to our ears?


Once again, Indian parents know the effect of music on a child’s psychology. Culturally, this has travelled. The awareness was always there. Sadly, we didn’t formalise it. We had a large population to feed, and our priorities were our basic needs. Times have changed now. India has a different story to tell. India now knows we have the time and resources to pursue dreams and cognitive excellence. This has resulted in great cheer for student success- my core belief. Our children must be happy, creative and prepared. There is a vastness in music that can elevate a child’s well-being. 

Yesterday would be perfect, today would do too..

Early music education is good but later isn’t that bad. Never? That’s going to hurt. Ilari and Cho (2023) sum up the effects of music on the well-being of teenagers almost poetically:-


Through music programs, adolescents may regulate and work through emotions and engage in identity work, developing positive views of their selves and the future.


Oftentimes, when the case for good is so strong, several exploitations creep up. Look, I understand that 30 students, all singing chaotically at school, is not ideal. Is it better than no musical education? Sure. The ecosystem is not all that perfect, but there are bright spots that we must pick to educate our children. Good teachers can alleviate that fear by being a little more compassionate. To converse, teach, inspire, and mentor children in music is what we do. These have tremendous implications for the social skills, confidence and musicality of our students. We teachers cannot take this responsibility lightly. We must preserve that passion for musical learning and actively participate in the student's journey. 


Sources


  1. Gaser, C & Schlaug, G 2003, “Brain Structures Differ between Musicians and Non-Musicians,” Journal of Neuroscience, 23(27):9240–9245, https://doi.org/10.1523/jneurosci.23-27-09240.2003.

  2. Guhn, M, Emerson, SD & Gouzouasis, P 2019, “A population-level analysis of associations between school music participation and academic achievement.,” Journal of Educational Psychology, 112(2):308–328, https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000376.

  3. Ilari, B & Cho, E 2023, “Musical participation and positive youth development in middle school,” Frontiers in Psychology, 13, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.1056542

  4. NEP 2020, “Government of India- National Education Policy 2020”, https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/NEP_Final_English_0.pdf.

  5. Schlaug, G, Norton, A, Overy, K & Winner, E 2005, “Effects of music training on the child’s brain and cognitive development,” Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060(1):219–230, https://doi.org/10.1196/annals.1360.015.

  6. Yang, H, Ma, W, Gong, D, Hu, J & Yao, D 2014, “A longitudinal study on children’s music training experience and academic development,” Scientific Reports, 4(1):, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep05854

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