How music improves school performance

Children and youths who have access to musical education and an environment of social activities improve their school performance and increase the possibility of advancing toward higher stages of formal education, according to the publication  "Música para crecer. Herramientas de inclusión social" (Music to Grow. Tools for Social Inclusion). 

Harvard University studied two groups of children who received between 30 and 40 minutes of master music classes per week; the first group added close to 45 minutes of instrumental private lessons plus additional time for home practicing. The research showed that the children who played instruments not only exceeded those of the control group in abilities related to music, but also regarding aptitudes such as verbal capacity. Gottfried Schlaug and Ellen Winne, carried out the research, with a population of 41 children between eight and eleven years old. 

Another effect of musical education on children and youths is the development of cognitive abilities in reading and mathematics, and with respect to non-cognitive abilities, in discipline, sense of belonging, and team work. 

Music is a tool to influence the comprehensive education of children and youths, especially in low income populations that do not have good alternatives for the use of free time. In these populations, musical education becomes an out-of-school alternative and it is also an option  to earn a living when the children reach adulthood. 

An example is shown by the results of the Sistema de Orquestas Infantiles y Juveniles de Venezuela (Children and Youths Orchestra Systems of Venezuela), founded in 1975 by Venezuelan maestro and teacher Jose Antonio Abreu in order to systematize instruction and collective and individual music practice through symphonic orchestras and choirs, as social organization and humanistic development instruments. 

To date, more than 300,000 children and youths study music and attend orchestra and choir practices. One of the most emblematic cases, of international recognition, is that of Gustavo Dudamel. For CAF, development Bank of Latin America, musical education is a key component of the strategy to create shared value. 

Since 2000, CAF has developed the Social Action through Music Program (PASM, for its acronym in Spanish), currently called Music to Grow, which has trained more than 55,000 children and youths and more than 380 maestros in Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. 

Music to Grow are itinerant workshops with a novel methodology which provides experienced  Venezuelan instructors to children and youths of the beneficiary countries, by having them travel for short periods and teach technical instrumental and choral classes.