Music education should not simply produce strong performers, but help to cultivate character, life skills, and future leaders of society.
If instructors only teach things like rudiments and scales when we teach music, we are letting students down. Playing music is not simply another task to be conquered, or competition to win, but a journey students take part in to grow as individuals, and become better members of a community. Plus, music is really fun and cool! What else can you do where you simultaneously become a better person and get funky? <happy dance>
WHY IS MUSIC IMPORTANT?
*Music is essential to everyone because it shows us how to be exceptional at anything we do.
*The art of playing your instrument improves your individual character, while the practice of being part of an ensemble improves your character as a community member.
*Because character and life skills apply to everything, and music teaches those exact things, studying music is one of the MOST practical things you can do.
*Learning music history teaches us the challenges are successes of those that came before us, so that we can make better decisions now.
*Lastly, music is fun and cool! Physics is important, too, but you can’t dance to it.
A strong music education cultivates the work ethic, discipline, grit, and team working skills necessary to achieve any goal you set your mind to. Music allows students to succeed, and gives them the opportunity to feel success on a visceral level. When a student feels success for the first time, they will be hooked. All of the skills you learn from music will be applicable to other areas of your life, for the rest of your life. Plus, if you google “benefits of music education”, about 77 million results come up, so there are probably one or two other good things about music that I didn’t mention here.
In my late twenties I experienced a catastrophic health crisis that left me with a severe disorder of the nervous system and three injuries. Regaining my health was something I had to work for, and I used to exact same process to become healthy again that I used to practice music. I can literally say that music saved my life.