Quotes & Facts About Music and Music Education
"How is it that music can, without words, evoke our laughter, our tears, our highest aspiration?" - Jane Swan (b. 1943)
"We know an age more vividly through its music than through its historians." - Rosanne Ambrose-Brown
"Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent." - Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
"We listen to great music and know that all our joys and sorrows are part of something beyond our comprehension - and so indefinitely valuable." - Jesse O'Neill
"I always loved music; whose has skill in this art is of good temperament, fitted for all things. We must teach music in schools; a schoolmaster ought to have skill in music, or I would not regard him." - Martin Luther (1483-1546)
"Music may achieve the highest of all mission: she may be a bond between nations, races, and states, who are strangers in many ways; she may unite what is disunited and bring peace to what is hostile." - Dr. Max Bendiner
"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or to bend a knotted oak." - William Congreve (1670-1729)
"Music speaks of Platonic truth - the idea river rather than the polluted reality, love as we dream it rather than we experience it, grief noble and uplifting rather than our distracted weeping. It is necessary to our survival and our sanity." - Pam Brown
78% of Americans feel learning a musical instrument helps students perform better in other subjects. - Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003
The schools that produced the highest academic achievement in the United States today are spending 20% to 30% of the day on the arts, with special emphasis on music. - International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA) Test, 1988
88% of Americans believe participation in music helps teach children discipline. - Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003
"Music majors are the most likely group of college grads to be admitted to medical school." - Lewis Thomas, Case for Music in the Schools, Phi Delta Kappa, 1994
"Students who were exposed to music-based lessons scored a full 100% higher on fractions tests than those who learned in the conventional manner." - Neurological Research, March 15, 1999
"High school music students have been shown to hold higher grade point averages (GPA) than non-musicians in the same school." - National Educational Longitudinal Study of 1988
"71% of Americans surveyed by the Gallup Poll believe that teenagers who play an instrument are less likely to have disciplinary problems." - Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003
"A study of 7,500 university students revealed that music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and math." - The Case for Music in the Schools, Phi Delta Kappa, 1994
"During moments of musical euphoria, blood travels through the brain to areas where other stimuli can produce feelings of contentment and joy-and travels away from brain cell areas associated with depression and fear." - Dr. Frederick Tims, reported in AMC Music News, June 2, 1999
"95% of Americans in a 2003 Gallup Poll believe that music is a key component in a child's well-rounded education; three quarters of those surveyed feel that schools should mandate music education." - Gallup Poll, 'American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003
Martin Gardiner of Brown University tracked the criminal records of Rhode Island residents from birth through age 30, and he concluded "the more a resident was involved in music, the lower the person's arrest record." - Music Linked to Reduced Criminality, MUSICA Research Notes, Winter 2000
"Students of lower socioeconomic status who took music lessons in grades 8-12 increased their math scores significantly as compared to non-music students. But just as important, reading, history, geography and even social skills soared by 40%." - Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey and Knowles, Nature, May 23, 1996
"Middle school and high school students who participated in instrumental music performances scored significantly higher than their non-band peers in standardized tests." - University of Sarasota Study, Jeffrey Lynn Kluball; East Texas State University Study, Daryl Erick Trent
"In 2003, 54% of American households reported having a least one musical instrument player, the highest figure since the study began in 1978." - Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music," 2003
"The College Entrance Examination Board found that students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on math than students with no arts participation." - College-Bound Seniors National Report. "Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ." The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001
"The world's top academic countries place a high value on music education. Hungary, Netherlands and Japan have required music training at the elementary and middle school levels, both instrumental and vocal, for several decades." - 1988 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IAEEA) Test
"Music training helps under-achievers. Students lagging behind in scholastic performance caught up to their fellow students in reading and surpassed their classmates in math by 22% when given music instruction over seven months." - Nature, May 23, 1996
"College-age musicians are emotionally healthier than their non-musician counterparts for performance anxiety, emotional concerns and alcohol-related problems." - Houston Chronicle, January 11, 1998
U.S. Department of Education data show that students who report consistently high levels of involvement in instrumental music during the middle- and high-school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12." - James Catterall, Richard Chapleau, and John lwanaga, "Involvement in the Arts and Human Development, " 1999
"A Columbia University study revealed that students in the arts are found to be more cooperative with teachers and peers, more self-confident and better able to express their ideas. These benefits exist across socioeconomic levels." - The Arts Education Partnership, 1999
"The nation's top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American education and better prepare workers for the 21st century." - The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of Education, BusinessWeek, October 1996
"Music integrated into seventh- and eighth-grade social studies results in better subject performance and better social behaviors and attitudes." - National Educational Longitudinal Study, 1988
When a child learns by experience that music forges direct links between self and world, self-expression becomes more fluent; the music helps interpret "who I am." - Growing up Complete, the report of the National Commission on Music Education, 1990
"96% of respondents to a U.S. Gallup Poll believe participation in a school band is a good way for children to develop teamwork skills." - Gallup Poll, "American Attitudes Toward Music", 2003
"A study of 237 second-grade children involved with both piano keyboard training and innovative math software scored 27% higher on proportional math and fractions tests than students only using the math software." - Amy Graziano, Matthew Peterson, and Gordon Shaw, Neurological Research 21, March 1999
"Researchers noted that the college-aged music students seemed to have surer footing when facing tests." - Houston Chronicle, January 11, 1998