Music Education Really IS That Important
Last weekend was the 2026 edition of the U.T.-Arlington Maverick Marching Band’s annual Alumni Day, where the band invites past MMB members to watch a pre-season performance of the current show. It’s always a great time catching up with old friends and meeting new ones, plus everyone enjoys seeing what the band is up to each year — especially this year, as the band celebrates its 40th anniversary performing without a football team. It’s a fairly momentous occasion with a fascinating backstory, and you can find out more about it in two previous posts of mine. But this year’s gathering, encountering old friends, plus some of the conversations the experience sparked, made me consider my own background with music in a broader sense and reflect on just how critical music education has been, not just for me, but for every person with whom I came into contact this weekend and throughout our lives. We have all been much better off as humans because of our involvement in music. Music education, without a doubt, enriched us in more ways than we can articulate.
Naturally, some of the attendees at the event are music educators themselves. But I actually found that the majority of people there were like myself in that we’re all former MMB members who went on to pursue a profession/career besides music. Some of us still find chances to play our instrument more than others, but all of us cherish our musical influences and our days in band. Music education mattered to us. But it doesn’t always matter to non-musicians. Those without a musical background are often dismissive of musicians for a variety of reasons. We’re thought of as band, choir, or orchestra nerds. There’s also the old trope where musicians are considered to be somehow seedy because they’re always performing at night, sometimes in venues that aren’t in the greatest part of town, and they’re always moving from place-to-place. “They lead lives of sin and debauchery,” don’t you know. Isn’t that what we always hear on documentaries? In schools, music is relegated to “specials” at the elementary level and “extracurriculars” at the secondary level. It’s never considered part of the core curriculum, despite the fact that educational research from a variety of sources suggests that involvement in music can actually improve student performance in the core academic subjects.
I’m not going to spend time delineating any of the studies or the specific ways that music education contributes to stronger academic performance across the board. That information is easily accessible online, and there are many other writers who can present the case more thoroughly than I can. My perspective on the subject comes from a more intuitive viewpoint based on my experience as a teacher and assessment professional for three decades. From that perspective, I always make a clear distinction between “education” and simple “training,” because I think society as a whole, and politicians in particular, have gotten very confused in recent years between the two topics. Here’s the thing: Education isn’t simply training. Training is subject- or task-specific and is designed to elicit a certain response or action. Training is certainly a part of education, but proper education makes training part of a larger whole. As much as people attempt to contend that “back to basics” and “the three Rs” are critical to education, those ideas are simply building blocks to something bigger. Someone who is capable of reading and doing math certainly has academic skills, but “being educated” involves far more than that. In Texas, TEKS stands for “Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills.” These are the basics for a student knowing something, but only the basics. True education requires the student to take that knowledge and those skills and do something with them, preferably while working with other students. True education requires the student to do more than just regurgitate facts, concepts, and principles according to a prescribed checklist. Students should be able to use that information to analyze, to predict, to develop new ideas. Education implies thinking, creativity, and discovery. It implies challenging the boundaries of what was previously thought possible. An educated person does more than just spout information to you; that person can state why certain things are more important, posit new theories, and ask revealing questions of both themselves and others.
Honestly, this distinction is one of the things that really annoys me about how people increasingly interpret the value of college. There’s a mindset growing that college should primarily serve as a training ground in things like science, engineering, and nursing. Those disciplines are certainly worthy, and my own alma mater has world-class programs in them, but that mindset is too often dismissive of many other academic disciplines, among those many subjects in the liberal arts, including music. As a result, the question of “why would anyone study ______?” comes into play, as if there’s no practical reason to study English, history, fine arts, psychology, anthropology, foreign languages, etc., at a higher level. The mindset questions why anyone would continue to participate in band, choir, or orchestra unless that person intends to perform or perhaps teach professionally. But college isn’t simply specialized training for a specific job. Heck, even trade school really isn’t learn-by-rote training for specific repetitive tasks. Any form of post-secondary education builds thinking, creativity, and analytical skills, because the learner has to be prepared to face unseen challenges and work through them, often in tandem with other people. That’s why so many schools, from primary through graduate school, require some type of cooperative learning embedded into assignments. (Although, “cooperative learning” is often itself misunderstood, but that’s fodder for a different post.) It’s why so much post-secondary coursework now requires more creative endeavors, even if they’re just discussion posts in response to a given reading, subject, and/or prompt. Meanwhile, the undergraduate degree has morphed into a bit of a commodity, where the specific program of study is less important than the fact that the person had the wherewithal to enroll, accomplish all the required tasks, complete the coursework, and finish the degree. And the transcript doesn’t need to be filled solely with coursework associated with the major; in fact, quite the opposite, and some diversity in the transcript can be considered a good thing if it is coherent. The employer can train the graduate in the specifics of the job, particularly with the knowledge and trust that this individual has a work ethic and the ability to think and continue to learn.
Therein lies the real value of music education, whether the individual pursued a music degree or not. Music, as you know, has its own language embedded on the page and in the mind. The musician has to learn to read that language and produce the sound properly. To get good at producing any form of music requires a sincere work ethic geared toward mastering the instrument, as well as the ability to adjust tone and tuning as the circumstances require. Performing in an ensemble of any size raises additional demands, as the musician must now be able to listen to other sounds while also producing them, melding with the other parts of the ensemble to produce a collaborative work of art. I’ve also written before about the physical demands of marching band, which adds visual elements to the music as performers work in tandem to create what is essentially outdoor musical theatre in the 21st century. And for that matter, both musical theatre and show choir also add visual elements to musical performance. Being a musician implies constant learning, because there are always new compositions to learn. The composer, songwriter, arranger, or producer takes their skills to an even higher level. The point is that music builds thinking skills, creativity, collaborative abilities, analytical skills, and physical dexterity in service to an artistic medium that also entertains, so not only are members of a music ensemble communicating with each other, they are also communicating with the audience. Participating in this endeavor builds powerful skills, even if you don’t go on to teach or perform music later in life. No matter what career you pursue, if you received music education, it made you smarter. It made you a better student. It made you more productive. It improved your mental skills, whether thinking, analysis, or creativity. It helped you develop in ways that have fed your daily life, because your brain benefited from lessons that go beyond the notes on the page.
Now, is it possible to build these types of skills in other extracurricular activities besides music? Absolutely. Many athletic endeavors, particularly team sports, cheerleading, and drill/dance team, etc., offer similar benefits. Theater productions are terrific experiences for students and can enhance their academic skills. The thing is, I don’t hear many people calling for the football or basketball programs to be cut in their local school district. Cheerleading isn’t likely to hit any chopping block. But we often hear about other programs, including music, becoming casualties of budget cuts, or at least considerations to that end. Parents complain that the fees are too high, that the rehearsals take up too much time, and my favorite bit of idiocy, “high school football halftime is too long.” They often make these complaints with no regard for the value that the program brings to each student. To some extent, there are valid criticisms to be made about cost and time. For instance, I agree that competitive marching band can, at times, become an expensive, unwieldy albatross getting in the way of more effective music education experiences. And along those lines, there’s definitely a case to be made that rehearsals sometimes interfere with students’ ability to complete work in their core classes, particularly if those students take high-level coursework like AP classes.
In the end, though, it comes down to simple cost-benefit analysis. And both the anecdotal and empirical evidence suggest that, in spite of the costs that might be incurred with music education, the benefits are monumental. Your typical music major might graduate college and go into teaching, performance, or production, but there are many who go into fields far different from music. Why? Because they developed many soft skills in the world of music, including adaptability, problem-solving, communication, and teamwork, among others. Your typical college graduate in some other major who still received music education “on the side” throughout life is likely to be a better employee or a better entrepreneur thanks to those same soft skills. It may seem trite to call these individuals “well-rounded,” but that’s essentially the result. Those who have experienced music education have received truly educational experiences on a deeper level. They’re not simply trainees in a given field or toward a specific task. They’re exposed to cultural, historical, creative, and artistic influences that enrich their perspective. They think more deeply and more creatively. They’re not afraid to learn and adapt. They know how to work well with others. They have and may continue to engage in activities that enrich the world in which we live.
