WHY MUSIC?

 

Music is a Science.  It is exact, specific, and it demands exact acoustics.  A conductor's full score is a chart, a graph which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony all at once and with the most exact control of time.

 

Music is Mathematical.  It is rhythmically based on the subdivisions of time into fractions which must be done instantaneously, not worked out on paper.

 

Music is a Foreign Language.  Most of the terms are in Italian, German, or French; and the notation is certainly not English--but a highly developed kind of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas.  The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.

 

Music is History.  Music usually reflects the environment and times of its creation, often the country and/or ethnic feeling.

 

Music is Physical Education.  If requires fantastic coordination of fingers, hands, arms, lips, cheeks, and facial muscles, in addition to extraordinary control of the diaphragm, back stomach, and chest muscles, which respond instantly to the sound the ear hears and the mind interprets.

 

Music Develops Insight and Demands Research.

 

Music is all of these things, but most of all, MUSIC IS ART.  It allows human beings to take all of these dry, technically boring (but difficult) techniques and uses them to create emotion.  That is one thing that science cannot duplicate: humanism, feeling, emotion, call it what you will.

 

That is why I want my child to have music.

 

Not because I expect them to major in music.

 

Not because I expect them to play or sing all of their lives

 

BUT ---

• so my child will be human,
• so my child will recognize beauty,
• so my child will have sense of belonging,
• so my child will understand the meaning of hard work, dedication, sacrifice and pride,
• so my child will have more love, more compassion, more gentleness and become a worthy member of society.

In short;

            so my child will have a more meaningful and fulfilling life.

 

Video clip from ABC News detailing a study that showed musical kids are smarter kids (13 megabytes size)
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Video hosted by Charles Osgood explaining the benefits of musical education (12 megabytes size)