What is music and why do people think it is important for learning? Slowly but steadily, the importance of music is finding a stand-in education and society in general. It has been proven time and again, that a relationship with music has far-reaching benefits in the development of the brain. In their early years, children are very sensitive to their environment, and their brains, extremely open to development.

While people of every culture around the world make something that could be called music, not so many of them give it a name or think of it as separate from other activities, like dance or storytelling.

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Music can convey profound emotions that would be difficult to describe in words. In addition to music being an art form, any form of communication is partly musical and can be said to have musicality.

Think of the different ways that you might say “huh.” Each of those ways communicates something different. That is musicality. It is not a musical performance, but a musical aspect of communication. While not everyone is a master of the violin, everyone is a master of their own communication style.

Listening to music boosts auditory skills. Students of music can thus recognise sounds and have enhanced speech capacities. The most commonly known effect of music on the brain is the “Mozart Effect” – which specifies that listening to music created by Mozart uplifts one’s mood, drops blood pressure and thus increases the capacity of one’s brain.

It has been proven that the volume of grey matter in the brain is higher in a person who is learning an instrument, versus someone who isn’t. A student learning an instrument also has better brain stem responses to music than someone who isn’t. Learning the instrument involves so many skills – such as memory, listening, motor and so on.

It also increases focus, attention span and most importantly one’s commitment. It has also been found that a student learning an instrument will have better verbal and mathematical skills owing to the all-rounded development learning an instrument provides. It is only fair then to deduce that, learning an instrument would most definitely have a direct impact on the IQ of a student.

Although science is still in the process of finding more efficient ways of proving the direct impact of music on one’s IQ, it is becoming more and more apparent that music and sound do affect one’s brain and intelligence. That too, in a fun, enjoyable, and pleasurable way. It follows then, that music should become a permanent feature in every person’s life.