I believe they should teach music to children from a young age, but as a guitar and music teacher, you probably expect that and as you can imagine there are obvious positives, which applies to all ages:
- Improving creativity
- Improving Hand Eye Co-ordination
- Reduces Stress
- And more…
However, what’s even cooler is that recent research in Toronto has shown that it does even more!
The results showed an increase in vocabulary size, pre-reading skills, and singing ability. Importantly, these increases were beyond what could be attributed to normal development during the time. The researchers also found that singing ability was correlated with language skills.
Now for musicians, and teachers like myself, this is basically a duh moment, it’s not very difficult to realize the vast amount of benefits to their education, however unfortunately with the recent decrease in music education in primary schools, it makes the job of music tutors (like myself even more important!
But I’d also like to quote Jonathan Harnum in which he says:
The real benefit to making music is that it’s its own reward. It’s easy to forget that when we’re scrambling to find “useful” reasons to include music in education. The cake is that you get to make music. The frosting is that it has other benefits, too
Lessons need to be primarily about having fun with music as possible! You’re giving young children the joy of being able to express themselves without fear of being “wrong” and the freedom to learn and develop their own voice.
This is something I am passionate about, ensuring that music continues to be a part of everyone’s life. I know that some kids won’t want to learn guitar, but there are so many who don’t have the opportunity due to cutbacks and lack of musicians stepping out into this, and as this Canadian study shows it not only gives children the countless benefits to their emotional wellbeing. It positively influences their language development!
If you are as passionate about keeping music in schools, please share this post. I like to avoid asking people to share my work as I hope that what I write is good enough to be shared without a request, but please share this post to spread the word of the importance of Music Education in Primary Education!