Music training can have greater benefits than simply being enjoyable. Northwestern University reported that music training which is initiated during high school may improve brain development. A new Northwestern University study has found that music training which is initiated as late as high school may help to improve the teenage brain’s responses to sound and sharpen skills for hearing and language.
The researchers have found that music instruction helps to enhance skills which are critical for academic success. These improvements were observed during group music classes which were included in the schools’ curriculum. This finding suggests in-school music training accelerates neurodevelopment.
Nina Kraus, who is the senior study author and director of Northwestern’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at the School of Communication, says this highlights the importance of music’s place in the curriculum in high school. It is the opinion of Kraus that music may give rise to what educators refer to as ‘learning to learn.’ Clearly the benefits of music training may go far beyond what is apparent on the surface.
It has been reported by PNAS that researchers have found that music training alters the course of adolescent brain development. It has been found that adolescents who undertake in-school music training maintained a heightened state of neural consistency throughout high school. This suggests that in-school music training accelerates neurodevelopment of the adolescent brain. Music training in high school seems to be a very worthwhile consideration.
