Learning is music to my ears

My students sounded like angels. We had been practicing the song "We Shall Overcome" in two-part harmony on our wooden flutes for a couple of weeks and decided to see what the acoustics would sound like if we played it in the hall stairway. The music seemed to want to continue to float upward.

Before that, they had been practicing jumping rope - double-Dutch style - keeping rhythm while singing "The Iditarod Trail Song." Down the hallway, I listened while another class started working on a new song on their violins, violas and cellos.

I am not a music teacher, but I am always so thankful and appreciative when I see our community and our school system value and promote the intellectual, academic, social and cultural merits of music. Children who are involved in musical opportunities have many advantages. Do a Google search of "music and brain development" and a multitude of research shows up supporting the importance of music in a child's education - higher SAT scores, more highly developed brain areas involving language, reasoning and mathematics, a higher level of spatial intelligence, creative thinking, problem solving skills and more.

What I've noticed in the classroom is that music helps train the ear and helps students learn to listen carefully, a skill that's useful in all academic areas. When students sing or play instruments in harmony or in rounds, they have to listen very carefully to each other. In addition to being a great listening activity, it's also very bonding because the whole class is working together for a common good. Being involved in music requires 100 percent effort from everyone. It requires students stay focused. Music requires that people commit to each other, themselves and to a high standard of excellence.

Learning to read music is great training for learning fractions. There are four beats to a measure, so each beat is a quarter note. Two quarter notes equal a half note. Four quarter notes equal a whole note. Half of a quarter note is an eighth note and half of an eighth note is a 16th.

According to the CNN article "The Importance of Music Education in Schools" by Vince DiFiore, A U.S. Department of Education study found that those who reported consistent involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12. This observation holds regardless of students' socioeconomic status. Additionally, students who learn to play an instrument develop a greater language capacity and a greater ability to learn a new language. In another context, it is invaluable to gain a wider perspective on cultural history by being exposed to centuries of our rich cultural heritage."

Many vocabulary words are learned through music, both through singing new words and also reading the music. (I never knew that a "pram" was a stroller until I learned the song "Down By the Bay!" I recently taught my students the word "crescent" when we learned the "Sea Otter Lullaby.") A few weeks ago, my son had the vocabulary word "stanza" on his high school vocabulary list for English, and I was proud to tell him my fourth0graders also learned the meaning of it - through music.

There are many other Language Arts lessons learned through music in addition to learning to read the words and know what they mean - all of the important words in the title start with a capital letter, the names of songs go in quotation marks when referenced in a story, words are hyphenated between syllables, etc.

Music also helps develop Social Studies skills. We recently had the privilege of listening to a classroom guest play an Eskimo drum, and we learned how drumming and dancing are historical aspects of almost every culture. It's amazing to study the composers of songs and find out where they were from and what historical events were happening when they wrote music. Singing "The Star Spangled Banner" takes on extra meaning when you learn where Francis Scott Key was when he wrote the lyrics. It's also fascinating to learn about different instruments from different cultures.

Through studying music, a student also learns many scientific concepts, such as the larger an instrument is the larger the vibration it produces, which result in a lower sound. The smaller the instrument, the smaller the vibrations, resulting in a higher pitch. If you tighten a string on a stringed instrument, the pitch gets higher and vice versa.

Children love the sound of rhythmic stories, which is why nursery rhymes are so well loved by children. The rhythmic songs they love to hear again and again help with pre-reading skills, as language is very rhythmic.

After thinking about all of these advantages, it comes as no surprise that a huge percentage of accepted medical students were involved in music. In addition to the brain research involved, learning to play a musical instrument requires a lot of practice and self-discipline, delayed gratification and perseverance, as one practices the same piece or passage numerous times before feeling the satisfaction of mastery.

Involvement in music requires commitment, creativity, expression, connection, respect, excellence, determination and dedication. I can think of very little that incorporates all of these great attributes at the same time.

So, a huge thank you to all of you who promote music and the arts education in our Valley! Our children and our communities are richer because of your efforts!

Diana Sloan-Basner is an elementary teacher at Birchtree Charter School. She started teaching in the Mat-Su in 1985. Although she is not a music teacher, she does many musical activities with her students.