The true intrinsic value of music study.

Opening my e-mail recently produced the following message title from a music dealer, "Playing Piano Makes You Smarter--Save up to 1/3." The music industry seems most interested in promoting the non-musical outcomes of music study for commercial gain. Claims are being made about music study improving your physical and mental health, as well as enhancing your cognitive abilities. Music product websites and packaging are claiming that music study will improve your child's I.Q. and S.A.T. scores. These claims are based on selected research. As much as we would like to intuitively believe these claims, contradictory research makes the evidence for these positive, non-musical outcomes inconclusive. An especially informative chapter on this issue appears in Gary E. McPherson's (ed.), The Child as Musician, A Handbook of Musical Development. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2006. The relevant chapter is written by E. G. Schellenberg and titled, "Exposure to music: The truth about the consequences."

It is accurately reported that music students, as a group, have higher than average I.Q. and S.A.T. scores. From this, advocates have leaped to the conclusion that music study makes you smarter. Logic 101 reminds us that there may be other characteristics of the typical music student that explains higher S.A.T. scores. For example, music students tend to come from nurturing home environments with parents who are actively involved in their child's education. Financial resources for music study suggest above-average economic status for the enrichment of educational opportunities. The mere fact that the student stays involved in music rather than dropping out suggests qualities of a high achiever, such as intelligence and discipline. Being smarter is a general characteristic of music students as being taller is a general characteristic of basketball players. When was the last time you heard someone suggest that playing basketball makes you taller? Why do we care about possible non-musical side effects caused by the exposure to music? Do we have similar concerns about other subjects? Would we value physics any less if we knew that it did not lead to improvements in drama?

In 1997, the world was taken by storm by "The Mozart Effect." Rauscher, Shaw, Levine, Wright, Dennis and Newcomb focused on an extremely narrow aspect of human intelligence and its potential relationship to musical structure. This research has been used to give the impression that any musical study benefits academic endeavors in such disparate subject areas as science and math. Other scholars have suggested that such a broad generalization is imprudent. (Demorest and Morrison, University of Washington). In his article, "Does Music Really Make you Smarter," my UNCG colleague, Donald Hodges, makes the following observation. "Imagine organizing the University faculty into disciplines. Would it be reasonable to assume that the music faculty is smarter than the astrophysicists, the biochemists, and the philosophers simply because they listened to more Mozart?" In a speech to the National Association of Schools of Music, President Daniel Sher spoke about the intrinsic and extrinsic values of music. "Popularity and commercial success of an idea can lead to public parody. Witticisms making the rounds on the Internet include 'The Schoenberg Effect,' in which the child never repeats a word until he's used all of the words in his vocabulary. Sometimes he talks backwards. Eventually, people stop listening to him. The child blames them for their inability to understand him."

The truth is, music's intrinsic values are second to none. We teach a language that begins where all other languages end. Music has the ability to express every nuanced emotion of the human experience. Music's range of expression is almost without limits. Musical sonorities, rhythms and melodies can express the deepest, darkest despair to the most exhilarating, ecstatic joy. Music can quietly share intimate personal feelings and it can trumpet the grandeur of nature's most spectacular creations.

We want people to study science because we want achievement in science and we want people to study music because we want achievement in music. Just as we want studies in science for everyone whether they will become scientists or not, we want studies in music for everyone whether they will become musicians or not. The arts are basic. Music should be an essential subject of every person's life. On some level, every child and every adult is musical. Music is not a means to an end, but an end in itself. Music has value in and of itself. Its fundamental worth is not defined by nonmusical results. The basic, intrinsic value of music study comes shining through during every ensemble rehearsal, every group lesson, every private music lesson, every practice session and in every performance venue throughout the world.

National Conferences

March 29-April 2, 2008 Denver, Colorado

March 28-April 1, 2009 Atlanta, Georgia

Paul Stewart 

MTNA President