Music Education Can Make Students Smarter, Reveals Northwestern University Study

Not everyone can make a career out of music. However, there are other benefits involved – a notable one being that it can make students much smarter than usual.

Nina Kraus, the director at Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, sums it up well, in saying “Results showed that students who were the most actively engaged in making music – those who attended class more frequently, those who were judged by their teachers as more engaged, and those who played an instrument rather than taking a music appreciation class – showed greater neural improvement.”

In other words, playing music sharpen the cognitive skills of these young minds and which also includes language and listening. Also, for best results, one would have to study music for a minimum of two years.

Also, during research, her team found an interesting similarity between sound and brain waves. Since they are so similar, it is easy for the brain to focus on these sounds that occurs through music instruction and thus enhances our verbal and listening skills.

The reason for this is because the brain needs to filter out unnecessary sounds so as to focus on the teacher’s voice. And seeing how critical this is, it should come as no surprise as to why music training helps in this area. Unlike music training, athletic programs do not offer the same results.

Which is why her message to the boards of schools that want to cut music is rather simple. In other words, music education can make a real positive difference. This will help not only in meeting academic challenges but also improve everyday communication too.