Ninety-five
(95) percent of people responding to a 2000 Gallup Poll believe that music
is part of a well-rounded education.
- Gallup Poll Shows Strong Support for Putting Music
in Every School's Curriculum, Giles Communications, 2000.
Practicing
musicians demonstrate 25 percent more brain activity than non-musicians
when listening to musical sounds.
- Exposure to Music Is Instrumental to the Brain,
University of Muenster.
In a 1998
study, retirees who participated in group keyboard lessons reported decreased
anxiety, decreased depression, and decreased loneliness when compared to
a control group.
- Scientific Study Indicates That Making Music Makes
the Elderly Healthier, American Music Conference, 1998.
People who
participate in the arts live longer than others, according to a Swedish
study.
- British Medical Journal,
1996.
At-risk children
participating in an arts program that includes music show significant increases
in self-concept, as measured by the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept
Scale.
- Project ARISE: Meeting the needs of disadvantaged students
through the arts, Auburn University, 1992.
Martin Gardiner
of Brown University tracked the criminal records of Rhode Island residents
from birth through age 30, and he concluded the more a resident was involved
in music, the lower the person's arrest record.
- "Music Linked to Reduced Criminality," MuSICA
Research Notes, Winter 2000.
The part of
the brain responsible for planning, foresight, and coordination is substantially
larger for instrumental musicians than for the general public.
- "Music
On the Mind," Newsweek, July 24, 2000.
Students who
participate in school band or orchestra have the lowest levels of current
and lifelong use of alcohol, tobacco, and illicit drugs among any group
in our society.
- H. Con. Res 266, United States Senate, June 13, 2000.
In a French
study, the use of melodies was shown to stimulate speech recovery in stroke
victims.
- Neurology, December, 1996.