Recent studies over the past year all point to one key finding: music education is insanely beneficial; to children and adults alike.  Through studies by the Northwestern University Auditory Neuroscience Lab, the Boston Children’s Hospital, the University of Toronto and many others, researchers have accumulated tactile evidence that music training – learning to play an instrument or to sing – for children has large and wide-reaching impact.  Specifically, neuroscientists and psychologists point to how music training can improve the brain’s abilities, help close the achievement gap in schools, boost students’ IQ, and have long-term benefits for adults as they age.

Two key studies published just this year found pivotal links between music training and improved brain function.  The first, a collaboration between The Harmony Project – a group that provides free instrumental instruction to students in Los Angeles – and Northwestern University found that just two years of music lessons improves a child’s brain’s ability to process speech sounds.  This improved ability in language processing in turn directly benefits subjects like reading and speech.  Then, on the other side of the country, a study through the lab at the Boston Children’s Hospital found that music training – in children and adults – is linked to improved executive functioning in the brain, which fuels problem-solving, multi-tasking, and focusing.  All summed up, these two studies have massive implications that providing children with long-term access to music instruction has serious benefits for their development and education.

In addition, studies such as these suggest that music education could help close the achievement gap between at-risk and affluent students.  The Harmony Project in LA has also noticed that, since 2008, their students have been performing better and “over 90% of the high school seniors who participated in Harmony Project’s free music lessons went on to college, even though high school dropout rates in the surrounding Los Angeles areas can reach up to 50%.”  Studies have also found that, even in one year of music instruction, students taking music lessons experience a significant boost in their IQ. Across the board, researchers seem to be agreeing that learning to play music – whether as a child or as an adult – will yield great benefits in speech processing, memory, and brain plasticity. So, go ahead, learn a new instrument! Your brain will thank you.