There is a saying by Plato that says, “Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.”  This quote accurately describes how much of an impact music can have on people’s everyday lives.  Music has the ability to soothe and also has the power to excite.  The music that someone chooses to exposes themself to can have an impact on the way he or she feels at a given point in time and can also tell a lot about his or her personality. This is an ~ important concept for younger children, as the music that someone exposes his or her child to when they are young helps to shape who the child will become.  Because the young brain is still developing, the music that a child is exposed to has a greater lasting influence on his or her brain and, in some cases, can even prove to be harmful to children.  With this being said, it is very important to monitor what music a child listens to.  Music such as rap and heavy metal can cause a child to behave recklessly (Pediatrics) while classical music can help strengthen the brains of children and set them up for a more successful future (Bales).  Similarly, music training and introducing a young child to music training can have positive lasting influences on his or her brain and brain development, helping the brain in aspects such as anxiety and emotional controls (Hudziak).  When comparing the possible positive influences, such as more advanced brain development, higher IQ, and more self-confidence, to the possible negative influences that certain music genres such as rap and heavy metal can have on the brains of children, it is clear ~ that children should be encouraged to learn how to play an instrument.

The developing brain of a child is a prime time to start a child on the path to success.  During this time, the brain is highly affected by its surroundings and environment. According to Dr. Jack P. Shonkoff, 

The milestones of brain development from the prenatal period until school entry involve… embellishments of nerve cells through the sprouting of new axons or by expanding the dendritic surface; the formation of connections, or synapses, between nerve cells (Shonkoff 185). 

During the time period from birth to school entry, the brain is forming connections through neurons.  These connections are important for the development in the brain and brain functions.  Because the brain communicates to the rest of the body through electrical impulses that travel through down the neuron’s axon and then to the next neuron, strengthening these connections during this time is vital.  When this observation is combined with an article by Diane Bales that states: “Babies are born with billions of brain cells, called neurons. During the first years of life, those neurons form connections with other neurons. Over time, the connections our brains use regularly become stronger” (Bales) it becomes clear as to why the young brain is so susceptible to environmental influences.  Many of the pathways that are associated with brain functions such as spatial reasoning and problem solving are used when listening to music (Bales).  In order to strengthen certain pathways and set children up for success and improve certain brain functions, such as spatial reasoning, it is crucial to introduce a child to music at a young age.  By introducing a child to music at a younger age, these pathways are repeated used and thus, strengthened for his or her future use.  In order to further look into the affect that music has on the brains of young children, scientists have been preforming studies that take a closer look at the physical differences in the brain development among children who have received music training and those who have not.  

 Music training is proven to have an even more powerful impact on the brains of children than merely having a child listen to music.  According to Marilee Sprenger, a child’s ability to play an instrument will begin to show around the age of three (Sprenger).  Many studies have been done to test the effects that music training has on the brains of children.  These studies have been used to take a closer look at ~ the physical differences in the brain which, consequently, result in behavioral differences amongst the children who underwent music training ~.  When it comes to the physical differences in the brain, increased cortical thickness and a more rapid development of the pathways that are responsible for processing sound have been found to occur in children who learned how to play an instrument (Hudziak).  To add on to these findings, according to a TED talk by John Iverson, the motor planning cortex was also found to be more developed in those who underwent musical training than those who did not (Iverson). Iverson mentions that the more accurate children were at beat and rhythm perception, the larger the motor planning cortex of the brain was.  These physical changes in the brain are monumental to the research into music’s affect on the brain.  The changes found in the cortical thickness, pathway development, and the motor planning cortex can account for the more important changes in the behaviors and opportunities of children.  

The physical changes found in the brain, such as an increased cortical thickness, a more rapid development in brain pathways, and a more developed motor planning cortex, have been shown to contribute to positive behavioral differences in children.  Some even believe that musical training can even help with those struggling with anxiety and depression. As mentioned before, the cortical thicknesses in the brains of children who underwent music training were thicker and more mature than those who did not. Amy Elise Nutt’s article in The Washington Post talks specifically about this study done by James Hudziak, saying that the brain was found to be thicker “in both orbitofrontal and ventromedial prefrontal cortices” (Hudziak).  Both of these regions play a ~ role in emotional processing ~ and are associated with anxiety control. Consequently the children who were introduced to music training showed increased emotional regulation and also showed increased anxiety management control (Hudziak).  This shows that music’s ability to ease children’s anxiety can be longer lasting when a child undergoes music training than when a child only listens to music.  ~ According to Susan Hallam, “Playing an instrument can lead to a sense of achievement; an increase in selfesteem; increased confidence; persistence in overcoming frustrations when learning is difficult; self-discipline; and provide a means of self-expression” (Hallam). Any parent would want his or her child to be confident and persistent when learning becomes difficult.  This persistence in learning makes a child more motivated and, obviously, would lead to an increase in grades.  This increase in grades would make the child better prepared for better schools, and thus better jobs and a more successful future.  

Many studies also point to children having higher IQ’s when introduced to musical training.  In a study done in Canada, 132 children who were all randomly assigned to 4 different groups.  One group was given keyboard lessons, one group was given vocal lessons, one was given drama lessons, and the final group did not receive any lessons.  The end result yielded that the groups that were given keyboard or vocal lessons had a higher increase in IQ than those that were given either drama or no lessons (Hryckiewicz).  However, this same article mentions another scientist, Vaughn, that did a meta-analysis of 6 studies to see if music can increase mathematical skills.  In this study, Hryckiewicz says that only 3 of them concluded that music can increase mathematical skills and that the other 3 concluded that music has no effect on mathematical skills.  While this study obviously did not have a 100% success rate on the correlation between music and mathematical skills, most people would want to give his or her child the best opportunities for a successful future.  Even though music training does not guarantee that someone’s child will have improved mathematical skills, there are studies that support it and nothing bad would come from having a child learn an instrument, especially when there are possible advantages to it.

Despite all of the evidence that points to music training being beneficial for the successful future of children, there is still skepticism about how much music training actually affects how well children perform in school and whether or not any outside factors would have skewed the findings of these studies.  An article published by Nick Collins brings up a study done by Professor Schellenberg that claims the children who play instruments come from more privileged backgrounds (Collins).  Because children that come from more privileged backgrounds tend to have more money to spend on better schools, school supplies, and tutoring, they already have the advantage when it comes to grades.  Collins also claims that the same study found that because the more privileged children came from higher earning parents, that their parents also tended to be better educated than those who did not have any music training—ultimately claiming that “kids who take music lessons have different personalities, and many or virtually all of the findings that have shown links between music and cognition may be an artifact of individual differences in personality" (Schellenberg). While it is true that higher earning families have the upper hand when it comes to resources, they also have more money to spend on music training, which can also be expensive. ~  There are many studies that use control groups and study groups from the same socioeconomic backgrounds and the changes in behavior and performance remain consistent.  In fact, the study done by Krista L. Hyde and her colleagues used children from the same socioeconomic backgrounds with parents that have the same and/or similar level of education that were all similar in age and found that the children who underwent musical training had “greater relative voxel size than those of controls in motorareas, such as the right precentral gyrus (motor hand area) and the corpus callosum (fourth and fifth segment/midbody)… as well as in right primary auditory region (lateral aspect of Heschl’s gyrus)” (Hyde). This study seems to disprove Schellenberg’s theory that the differences in IQ and behavior are due to the fact that children who learn how to play an instrument are predisposed to do better in school because they are socially better off.  This study by Hyde holds all outside factors, such as wealth and parental education, constant and the children who had music training still had increased brain development.   Schellenberg’s study also does not take into account the physical differences in brain development that occurred between those who were introduced to music training and those who were not, he simply states that the differences were due to the fact that the children have the same personality traits that naturally inclines them to do better in school.

Another reason that parents might be hesitant about getting his or her child involved in musical training is because it has the possibility of opening the door to music with negative messages.  Multiple studies have shown that children and adolescents that listened to music genres such as rap and heavy metal or music that uses explicit language or content were not only worse behaved, but also performed worse in school and partook in riskier behavior than those who did not listen to such music.  According to an article published in Pediatrics,

several studies have demonstrated that preference for certain types of music could be correlated or associated with certain behaviors, such as the association of drug and alcohol use with “rave” music or electronic music dance events… Heavy metal music-listening has also been associated with increased depression, delinquency risk behavior, smoking, and conduct problems. Fans of heavy metal and rap music showed a greater tendency to engage in reckless behavior than their peers who were not fans of those types of music (Fuld).

While correlation does not amount to causation, allowing young children to listen to such genres of music can greatly affect their future, thoughts, and actions.  The findings mentioned by Fuld and his team found that children who listened to rap and rock partook in risky behaviors and were greater associated with depression. According to an article written by Laura Lewis Brown, the cofounder of Music Together, Lili Levinowitz, who is also a professor of music education at Rowan University of New Jersey, states that her “research shows that 50 percent of children enter kindergarten without knowing the difference between singing and speaking” (Brown).  If this is true, children that listen to songs that use explicit language could be more inclined to use similar vocabulary when talking to his or her peers.  If a child does pick up on the language that he or she listens to in music, then children who listen to songs with explicit messages would pick up on curing and children who listen to music with positive messages would pick up on more positive language. While some might think that allowing his or her child to play an instrument might open the door to these harmful types of music, it is more than likely to do the opposite.  In most cases, children who start to learn how to play an instrument do not begin with the electric guitar or ~ instruments that are involved in heavy metal or rap music. Children typically learn how to play calmer instruments such as the piano, violin, flute, or other similar instruments where lessons are sometimes provided through schools.  These instruments are more commonly found in classical music, which has been proven to improve a child’s learning capabilities and IQ.

Despite the worry of musical training allowing a child to be introduced to explicit music, it actually exposes a child to forms of music that would beneficial to the child.  According to the Creative Souls School of Music, the top three most popular instruments for children to learn are the piano, followed by the guitar and violin ~ (Mace).  These instruments listed are more closely associated with classical music than heavy metal or rap music that can have a harmful message to children.  In fact, classical music has been proven to provide learning advantages to children that either listen to or play it.  This concept is called the “Mozart Effect”.  The Mozart Effect is the idea “that people perform better on tests of spatial abilities after listening to music composed by Mozart” or similar classical styles of music (Thompson).  While the effects of classical music and the Mozart Effect are thought of to be temporary in older people, they can provide more long-term advantages for younger children because of how easily a child’s brain can be influenced by its surroundings.  This is believed to be true because “Classical music has a more complex musical structure… the complexity of classical music is what primes the brain to solve spatial problems more quickly. So listening to classical music may have different effects on the brain than listening to other types of music” (Bales). In this case, involving a child in music lessons not only allows him or her to reap the benefits of music lessons, but also reap the benefits of classical music.  However, a child should not be limited to only one genre of music and it is best to introduce a child to a large variety of music. 

While classical music is considered to be one of the most influential, and possibly even the most important musical genre to introduce a child to, it is also important to not limit a child to only one genre.  In order for children to attain all the benefits that music has to offer, it is crucial that they are exposed to different styles, rhythms, and genres (Brown).  According to Laura Lewis Brown’s article, 

Variety exposes children to more styles, but more important, musical variety may help them learn better. ‘Children learn through the juxtaposition of difference,’ Levinowitz says. ‘They should be singing those songs in unusual tonalities. Other beneficial actions include singing along or chanting to songs that are in asymmetric meters and not necessarily inherent in the culture.’ (Brown).

Also, exposing children to music with varying rhythms and beats helps in the development of the motor planning cortex (Iverson), which is involved in motor function and helps in movement.  Not only can different music genres help a child to learn better, but it can also help in a child’s movements.

There is a lot of skepticism that comes along with the decision of whether or not exposing a child to musical training is worth the time and money.  Music training has been proven to not only boost a child’s IQ, but also boost a child’s self confidence.  The improvements in certain brain structures, such as the cortical thickness of the brain, aid in emotional control and with anxiety.  Even just listening to music has been proven to lower anxiety levels more than some anti-anxiety medications (Landau). Some might think that music training could open doors to music that sends negative messages to the listeners, but it does the opposite.  Music training, especially through schools, introduces children to a variety of music that will aid in his or her ability to learn new concepts with ease.  With evidence such as this, it is hard to argue that music and music education are not a necessary part of childhood development. 
