The Importance of Music Education.

Abstract

Deciding what is taught in American schools is the province of teachers, principals, local school boards, state education agencies, regional accrediting bodies, and. in the case of colleges and universities, department, college, and institutional curriculum committees. Academic subject selection goes beyond just deciding what is best for students to learn; factors such as school finances, staff training and skills, local traditions, and community and parental support also impact such decisions. Various subjects have had a centuries old stability in the schools such as mathematics, reading, science, English, and history. Others subjects are common but not universal over time or place such as economics, foreign languages, and the arts. In the past fifty years, instruction in the arts have alternately ascended and descended in their popularity, vitality, and support, especially in the K-12 grades. Music has taken some of the biggest and more frequent cuts among the arts due, in great part, to the high costs of sheet music and instrument purchase and repair. Other arts instruction such as visual arts, dance, and choir have suffered greatly from time to time, but music seems to have taken the greatest hit. It is the author's position that music is among the most important subjects taught in our schools; it is important physically, emotionally, intellectually, socially, and spiritually. Music ought not be high on anyone's list for excising when schools are faced with financial woes. All efforts need to be taken by parents, teachers, administrators, and the public to keep music in the curriculum. Classroom instruction includes, as it should, teaching values as well as content. (1) The Power Chord Academy (2) teaches and extols the virtues of several values learned as a result of musical learning and performance: these values include: self discipline, one needs to learn and be self disciplined to practice, take instruction and criticism, and to perform whether solo or as a member of a group; dedication, musicians need to be dedicated in order to spend the necessary time to learn and perform music; teamwork, in multi-person performances, musicians have to work as a team for their performance to be appreciated and valued: knowledge, studying music demands that one also learn some level of music theory, history, and cultural sensitivity; continuous improvement, musicians almost universally seek to always improve their skills and their musical repertoire; self confidence, being able to perform musically, to entertain audiences, and to understand and follow a composer's intentions offer the musician a significant boost in self confidence, one that transfers into all of life's venues; humility, being able to be the performer without making one's self the center of attention rather than the music and being able to be a vicarious extension of original composer's work instills a sense of humility in musicians; hard work, it takes significant hard work to master good musicianship; goal setting, successful and accomplished musical performance and practice require goal setting; goals for sharpening skills, taking on more demanding and sophisticated performances, keeping physically and mentally fit, and striving to remain audience centered.; and practice; practice is both the bane and essence of quality musicianship. Arthur Rubenstein, the late renowned concert pianist, once said in an interview that he practiced more as an accomplished artist than he did when learning his craft. These values are vital for people to learn. Few other school subjects offer such a wide and utilitarian value palette. The National Association For Music Education (NAMC) suggests in their Music Education Facts and Figures website (3) four categories of benefits of music education; these categories are: success in society, success in school, success in developing intelligence, and success in life. (4) Select examples of these benefits follow below. …

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