Last week, at a concert in which I performed, a children’s choir sang two selections. Someone commented backstage how blessed these children were because ‘making music makes you smarter’.

Is this true?

There are findings that seem to support and refute the idea. Many people are aware of the “Mozart effect” study which claims listening to classical music, especially Mozart, can boost intelligence. For refutations of this popular idea, check out this article from Time magazine, as well as boston.com.

I lean toward the opinion that making music does not make you smarter. However, in any case, I think it better to focus on music’s intrinsic benefits and leave the possibility of it upping your math and science scores for academics to worry about.

I believe music’s real benefit is twofold.

1. Music calls us to embrace the present. It creates a mood, a setting, an environment that allows us to reflect on deeper realities, to express who we really are, and to dream big.
2. Music helps us connect our left brain to our right brain. Playing a musical instrument forces one to have great technical mastery as well as great depth of expression in order to really create something meaningful.

While these benefits may not make you the next Einstein, I firmly believe you are missing out in life without making music – at the very least the performances of others – part of your schedule.

Back when I was thinking about making a career out of teaching music, I often wondered if it was a valuable career choice. That is, did it fill a meaningful need in society. Being the scientific realist that I was, I found this hard to justify, especially as I have always been opposed to government grants supporting the arts.

Now, I realize music’s value is intrinsic not extrinsic. I don’t believe people need to learn a musical instrument so they can play in a symphony to earn money, or fulfill functions at a wedding, though these are both noble ways to use your gifts.

I am still opposed to government grants for music or arts institutions, as I am to almost all government aid, seeing I am a libertarian. However, I believe every person misses out in fully developing themselves and experiencing life if they don’t learn a musical instrument at least to some degree.

Music is the ultimate connection between the right brain and the left brain, between art and science, between reason and emotion. Music allows us to express ourselves when words are inadequate. Music can cross over language and cultural barriers. 

In medieval times there were considered to be seven liberal arts and sciences broken up into two groups. One concerned language and the other mathematics. The first group contained grammar, logic, and rhetoric. This was called the trivium. The second group contained arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy. From one of my music history professors, I learned that although music was eventually placed in the second group, called the Quadrivium, initially it was sometimes placed in the language group and sometimes in the mathematics group. It really is the ultimate connection between the two.

In addition, let me say that the musical instrument you learn could be your voice. I currently have the privilege of taking voice lessons and developing the strength of my voice. There are not many things as liberating as releasing the sound of your voice in all its power. This is what we did frequently and effortlessly when we were babies. One of the voice majors I knew in college said that the whole goal of developing your voice is to relearn what you could do instinctively as a child.

I hope this post inspires you to include some music involvement in your life and in the lives of your children.

According to the World English Dictionary, music is an art form consisting of sequences of sounds in time, especially tones of definite pitch organized melodically, rhythmically, and according to tone color.

I define music more broadly. Music is skillfully produced sounds that communicate.

There are three main components in my definition of music: skill, sound, and communication.

The most obvious of these is sound. Music is a unique art-form in that one does not need eyes to appreciate its beauty.

The question arises though, what types of sound constitute ‘music’? This is where skill and communication come in. Both of these terms are somewhat subjective. This is why what is music to one person may just be noise to another.

Some sounds we know are not produced skillfully, such as the creaking of a door, or the crinkling of paper. Some sounds we instinctively associate with a high level of skill, such as a classical symphony, or an opera solo. However, there is a lot of gray area in between.

One important aspect of skill is intentionality. Thus, sound that is not produced with intention cannot be music. It is impossible to accidentally produce music.

Communication is difficult to define, since all sounds communicate something. Also, I am not interested in lyrics. However, music has the unique ability to directly communicate emotion: anger, sadness, joy, laughter, angst, etc.

So, we can begin to classify something as being music or not. For example, John Cage’s 4’33”, which is just 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence, is not music, since no sound is produced. When a toddler bangs randomly on a piano, that is not music because no skill is involved. It is also doubtful if this communicates anything, except perhaps aggravation.

My definition of music would also make some of the academic music being written today invalid as being called music, since it is written without any purpose of communicating anything, and though the notes are intentionally chosen and the piece is skillfully performed, no emotion is ever felt by the listener. I would also put a lot of 12-tone music in this category.