Music students score better in math, science, English than non-musical peers

Medical XPress ^ | June 24, 2019 | American Psychological Association

[ConservativeMind]

We’ve heard it helps with math, but now also language and science.

[Artemis Webb]

My son in law was a music major until he switched his major to physics. Now he’s a research scientist with a large defense contractor.

[wally_bert]

I could never read a note in music.

[ifinnegan]

“It is believed that students who spend school time in music classes, rather than in further developing their skills in math, science and English classes, will underperform in those disciplines.”

Who believed that?

No one.

[Bullish]

Musicians ARE pretty smart. I would know.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

They’re putting the cart before the horse.

That is, it’s been known for a long time that some people have brains wired to comprehend *abstracts*, such as mathematics or musical notation. Other people do not have this wiring, so after minimal learning they hit a dead end.

However, there are plenty of good “play by ear” musicians, who after years of trying *still* can’t read music.

So it is not the music that is improving their math grades, it is reading music and understanding it that way.

[bankwalker]

[hinckley buzzard]

As usual the APA gets it all f*cked up. The finding was that students who excelled in music were also above average in science and math. The link between musical talent and math/science aptitude has been well known for ages, exemplified by Albert Einstein, being an accomplished violinist.The finding about English is most likely factitous, ie testing error. We all know nobody actually studies English any more.

[Drango]

Huh...I think they are confusing correlation with causation. It’s very likely students who are good at math, take more music classes.

[Maine Mariner]

Heck, I can’t read music, play an instrument or sing.
I wasn’t even allowed to sing in the 5th grade Christmas program!

[SMGFan]

the musician were already born with the talent?

[aspasia]

Learning to play a musical instrument and playing in an ensemble is very demanding. A student has to learn to read music notation, develop eye-hand-mind coordination, develop keen listening skills, develop team skills [get along]for playing in an ensemble and develop discipline to practice. All those learning experiences play a role in enhancing children's cognitive capacities and their self-efficacy," he said. "It is that high levels of music engagement for which we saw the strongest effects."

Something to that. Beats Atari, fer sure.

[FatherofFive]

I wonder who does better in math - music or chess players?

[Tax-chick]

Is the data adjusted for family income?

[tinyowl]

I went to music school for college (oops!) and then needed a career so got into software (lucky!) Of the non-computer science guys I see who got into software ... math, physics, chemistry, some architecture/civil engineers and ... lots of musicians.

Even the one's who didn't go to music school or study, SO MANY software guys are musicians on the side.

Software is way more about language expression and invisible moving architecture than math expression. So - way more like music. Music is of course mathematical too, but software is more about language than math.

[ConservativeMind]

“These associations continued to be significant even when the researchers controlled for demographic factors such as gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic background and prior achievement on similar exams in seventh grade.”

[proxy_user]

I used to hire inexperienced guys to train in computer programming. I would always take a musician or a classics major, they worked out well.

[aspasia]

Hold on—if you had two Einsteins, the one who played violin would be a grade ahead. Something like that.

[17th Miss Regt]

Freepers, we have to have the courage to face the truth here. Students in STEM majors are there because they could not make it in sociology, English, history or grievance studies.

(ducking)

[SkyDancer]

During WWII musicians were recruited for code breaking.