Why Private Lessons are Significant...

Why Are Private Music Lessons Important?

1. Private instruction can reinforce proper technique and posture which will help avoid premature injuries in the future.

2. Music lessons can cater to a student's specific needs and gifts.

3. A student's confidence can be increased as they receive guidance from a caring instructor who will help them navigate through the challenges of learning an instrument and celebrate their accomplishments.

4. Private lessons can help a student meet and/or exceed the music education standards required within a school district and offer them a competitive edge over other students.

5. Students can develop leadership skills as the skills learned in lessons can be modeled and shared with their peers.

The Benefits of Music Education:

• Music helps with math and science. Students learn to count, keep a steady rhythm, and how to multiply and divide (to figure out how long each note is). They even learn a little bit of algebra (the "dot" on the note is exactly half the value of that note. Students need to be able to figure out how much the "dot" equals in each case.)
• Students learn a lot about languages.  The markings in music (how fast, how loud, what style) are written in different languages such as Italian. Students learn to understand different languages in order to interpret the markings in their music.
• Students learn an incredible amount of coordination through music -- much like being an athlete. Students must use fine and gross motor skills in order to play an instrument. Wind players must learn breath control and be in good shape to play.
• Students also use science to help them discover what sounds good together and what doesn't. As they learn, they use prior knowledge to figure out what else might sound good together, which can lead to composing. Students also need physics to understand how music is produced by vibration and why.
• Music education also brings higher thinking to students. It allows them to think about complex patterns (where does my part fit into the whole?) It almost leads to a philosophical environment. Students have to be absolutely aware of what every other musician does at every time. In that way, it fosters cooperation, as well. No musician is independent of the whole, and yet each musician is a part of that whole, with a unique part and sound.
• Research indicates the brain of a musician, even a young one, works differently than that of a non-musician. “There’s some good neuroscience research that children involved in music have larger growth of neural activity than people not in music training. When you’re a musician and you’re playing an instrument, you have to be using more of your brain.” - Dr. Eric Rasmussen, chair of the Early Childhood Music Department at the Peabody Preparatory of The Johns Hopkins University
• “Formal training in music is also associated with other cognitive strengths such as verbal recall proficiency. People who have had formal musical training tend to be pretty good at remembering verbal information stored in memory.”- Dr. Kyle Pruett, clinical professor of child psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and a practicing musician.

**The data provided can be found at http://www.essortment.com/importance-music-education-60670.html and http://www.pbs.org/parents/education/music-arts/the-benefits-of-music-education/

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