Educators agree that abstract concepts such as counting, fractions, and ratios become more concrete when applied in a musical context, making the relationship between mathematical theory and practice noticeably clearer. During the same period, students who took more than four years of music and the other arts scored 34 points better on verbal SAT's than those who took music for less than a year. Students who participate in their school band or orchestra are 52 percent more likely to go on to college and graduate. A recent Rockefeller Foundation study discovered that music students have the highest rate of admittance to medical schools. Studies in other countries have demonstrated that along with these benefits, there is a significant relationship between music instruction and education performance in reading, spelling, mathematics, listening and verbal abilities, and motor skills.
Children have a natural curiosity, and curiosity is the seed of creativity.
Music offers the child an exciting opportunity to channel that natural curiosity into creative endeavor. It nurtures independent thinking that will carry over into other aspects of the child's curriculum and be applied to many subjects other than music. It is more than coincidental that nationwide studies have shown that students in school music programs have achieved higher averages in all subjects and develop academically more rapidly than others. Direct correlations between music instruction and reading, spelling and math skills underscore music study as a decisive factor in a student's educational success. When a child participates in music program, all of these traits may be developed.