Students who took more than four years of music and the other arts scored 34 points better on verbal SATs and 18 points better on math SATs than those who took music for less than one year. Music has also been shown to open avenues of success for students who may problems in other areas of the curriculum, and open approaches to learning that can be applied in other contexts. Music reinforces traditional academics, and provides a powerful meaning of integrating other areas of study. A child studying music discovers power, precision, and control of mathematics in unexpected ways. Abstract concepts such as counting, fractions, and ratios acquire concrete and tangible meaning when applied in a musical context, and the relationships between context are much more readily made.
Music involves the scientific concepts of acoustics, frequency and intensity.
Music requires the use of diverse critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The study of music fosters high order cognitive skills such as the ability analyze, synthesize and evaluate information. Music has been shown to have a profound influence on language . Musical notation is a highly developed symbolic language, in which symbols represent ideas. Music education develops the ability to understand and use symbols in new contexts.