Why are we so passionate about connecting students with musical enrichment opportunities? It’s not just about the instrument, or even the music itself. It’s about the whole child, their family, and their community.
There are many research studies out there that have shown again and again how exposure to music, musical instruction, and musical community benefits us all in ways we couldn’t imagine. Read on to explore how music is M.A.G.I.C., improving learning outcomes and quality of life for students and their families. Follow the links to the full articles, including links to research studies on the expansive impacts of music.
Playing an instrument improves mental organization and growth of the brain areas responsible for thinking, memory, emotion regulation and motor coordination. Listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness and memory. Researchers have found a musician’s brain must meet a number of challenges in order to play music, researchers found. “Music is structural, mathematical and architectural. It’s based on relationships between one note and the next. You may not be aware of it, but your brain has to do a lot of computing to make sense of it.”
A musician’s body is performing many different actions at the same time, following different rhythms and moving in opposite directions. Honing this ability benefits a student beyond the instrument. These benefits include improved reaction times, athleticism, and agility. Playing an instrument affects your brain’s neuroplasticity, the ability of the brain to change form and function specifically when stimulated by physical activity.
Grit can be expressed through five characteristics that make up grit: courage, conscientiousness, perseverance, resilience, and passion. The resolve and perseverance it takes to learn and perform music can help a student develop grit. For example, a child who sticks with piano year after year will eventually develop the kind of grit that enables them to persevere not just in music but in other areas of life.
Playing an instrument helps a child’s brain develop “executive function,” a hallmark of independent thinking. Executive function includes the skills you need to have mental control, self-discipline and self-regulation. Learning how to play an instrument as a child develops a student’s self-esteem and confidence, even if he or she only studies an instrument for one year.
Music training helps a child’s brain develop faster than it would were the student not learning music.
For centuries, families, villages, tribes, cities and nations have united around songs and the instrumentalists who play them. Teaching children to play music can inspire them to bond with parents, siblings, teachers, fellow students and the audiences who listen to them.
Play It Forward supporters and parents gather to hear students of the program perform recitals, forming new friendships with others in the community or strengthening old ones in the process.
Children who have difficulty in social situations can develop such “prosocial skills” as being able to comprehend others’ emotions, when taking group music lessons. Steady dedication to playing music gives kids a great way to make friends over time and improve the chance they will want to be active members of whatever community in which they find themselves.
Each year, over 200 students engage in weekly lessons and classes with our teachers at our three partner schools. While the act of learning a musical instrument provides uncountable benefits to the student and their family, we also recognize that the act of performing in public to be a uniquely beneficial practice that builds non-musical skills, character, and confidence.
Play It Forward organizes fun, connective, and celebratory recitals each spring for PIF students, their families, and the school community. In 2024, we hosted three full-length student recitals, welcoming over 500 guests, including family members, classroom teachers, school staff, community leaders, and key PIF supporters.
These performance opportunities are environments where students get to showcase their hard work, step into the limelight, and get the applause and recognition they deserve. We are immensely proud of the physical and emotional work that our students put in just to walk up on stage in front of up to 300 people and play their hearts out.
Watch the inspiring journeys of Joshua and Mabel, two students who embraced their nervousness while performing live at their recitals. As they faced their fears, they transformed their anxiety into moments filled with excitement, pride, and a deep sense of accomplishment. This is the essence of Music M.A.G.I.C!
“When I heard about the recital I felt nervous and I was excited because there is a lot of people watching to hear my music… I learned about myself, that I could be brave on the stage.” – Joshua
“Playing in the recital made me feel really excited and nervous the first time. When I played, once I started, it was like… I didn’t want to stop.” – Mabel
