Music class in sync with higher math scores

Music is an art that has proven to be a therapy for many mental health problems. Even music therapy is widely accepted by many people. It has proven its advantages in curing diseases such as depression, autism, Alzheimer's disease, etc.

As humans, we are always curious to learn new art forms. Being consistent in learning new art forms helps us to stay busy, achieving different growth at a personal level. It changes our mindset and helps us in developing a positive attitude. 

It is also essential for educational institutes to include art classes along with the regular curriculum in the timetable. These classes will help students in the following ways:

1. It will help them to increase their knowledge about art.
2. It will allow them to showcase their creativity.
3. It will help them to gain self-confidence.

Keywords: Music, music therapy, art, math, scores, math skills, SES

According to the new study, including art and music classes in school has proven to be beneficial for students in increasing their scores in mathematics. 

Learning music is definitely co-related with improving math skills. At some level, music is also math. Music deals with time signatures, beats per minute, and formulaic progressions. Performing this, thus reinforces parts of the brain while doing math. 

In this study, the researchers used a large nationally representative dataset for observing which types of art classes impact math achievement and the variation in results due to the socio-economic status of schools. The researchers found that taking music courses relates to higher math scores w.r.t. higher-or-mid-SES schools.

Daniel Mackin Freeman, a doctoral candidate in sociology, and Dara Shifrer, an associate professor of sociology said, " That's not a surprise given the ways in which music and math overlap. If you think about it at an intuitive level, reading music is just doing math. Of course, it's a different type of math but it might be a more engaging form of math for students than learning calculus".

However, the positive relation between music and math depends upon the SES of schools. According to the researchers, it is so because the quality of music courses provided in lower-SES schools is low compared to the quality of music courses in higher-SES schools. Also, it is observed that the students in lower SES take lower music classes as the awareness related to the importance of this is not known to them. 

Mackin Freeman said," It'd be reasonable to expect that at under-resourced schools, the quality of the music program would differentiate any potential connection to other subjects. For programs as resource-intensive as something like band, under-resourced schools are less likely to even have working instruments, let alone an instructor who can teach students to read music in a way that they can make connections to arithmetic".

Further, he said, "Creating an environment where students have access to a well-rounded curriculum might indirectly affect math achievement. That could be something as simple as, they're willing to go to class because they have band or painting class to look forward to".

This study has added to the importance of music in human life.