The Importance of Music Study


What must we do to assure the continuing study of music in public education? What is your plan to present music as a vital academic component to education? Many school music programs are facing serious difficulties with waning budget allocations, along with staff and schedule reductions. The national financial crisis and the overall recession in America continue to play havoc with our school music education programs. Initiatives like the Common Core, Standards- based Education, Teacher Evaluation and student achievement indicators through high stakes testing, are placing a premium on scores and numbers that measure what has become the priority in 21st century education, student growth within a small lens of academic subjects.


I believe the implications and significance of music study in the total educational process must be our top priority when presenting our programs to administrators, board members, and the community. The solution for our problem is based on understanding the depth of music study. We must look beyond the trivial statements and arguments that have surrounded our profession for so many years. Music is vital to education. It is a powerful force in human learning and a language that cannot be denied. A child searches for expression and creative opportunities to share with others to satisfy their need for communication. The foundation for comprehension is enhanced significantly through the fine art of music by developing a child's critical listening and thinking skills through the nuance, inflection, and subtleties of rhythmic and lyrical


Edward S. Lisk, Conductor, Clinician, Author Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of articles written especially for Ala Breve by experts in the field of music education.


expression. Becoming “sensitized” and being able to recognize and respond to music’s fine art of detail provides a depth of understanding and a value appreciation that enhances the development of the total individual. This is not found in any other school learning experience.


Consider the impact music makes on a student as they pursue academic excellence. Through music performance, we expand academic achievement and create a productive, successful life only attainable through the fine detail of artistic production and performance. Through music study, students experience the beauty of musical expression…Beauty, compassion, feeling, appreciation, sensitivity, love, tolerance, sympathy, warmth, empathy, self- esteem, cooperation, and respect... These are but a few “living or life priorities” that are hidden in music study. No other discipline addresses such “living or life priorities” in the manner which music does. When a student is denied the opportunity to study music, too often they are lost to the whims of a desensitizing environment.


Playing music requires the brain to respond to the complex signs and symbols of notation while making decisions in a timed sequence through these physical and mental events while producing a sound on an instrument or voice. I state that, “Music spans the entire universe of learning”. Playing a musical instrument requires an intricate combination of intellectual, visual, physical, and auditory control coupled with a perceptive decision-making


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