Internationally, there is an ongoing debate regarding music education in schools. Public concerns about the decline in reading and computing abilities triggered the narrowing of the curriculum and the exclusion of music programs in some schools (Sykes & Morrison, 2001). Over the past four decades, competing demands for time and money in public schools contributed to the elimination of subjects that many believe do not belong to the core curriculum. Music educators constantly defend music education in the face of budget cuts and emphasis on the core curriculum. They believe that music training enhances students’ cognitive, motivational and communication skills. Several studies claim that music instruction is essential to children’s overall education because it improves their academic performance (Catterall, Chapleau and Iwanaga 1999; Graziano, Shaw & Wright, 1997). Researchers report that music lessons actually enlarge the brain and strengthen the link between neurons (University of Munster, 1998, Rauscher, 1997).
Gardner (1983) developed the theory of multiple intelligences that provides a model of human intelligence for educational reform and gives music a significant place in the development of educational programs. He regards music as a special intelligence that is unique since it appears to carry more emotional, spiritual and cultural weight than the other intelligences. Schools that ‘lop off’ music in a child’s education are simply ‘arrogant’ and unmindful of how humans have evolved with musical brains and intelligences. Although all forms of intelligence are equal in stature and potential, education almost totally focuses on developing linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities, leaving the other six undeveloped. Music education is important since the nurturing of all the intelligences is imperative to complete development. However, there seems to be an attempt to refine the intellect and leave the emotions undeveloped. Without educating students in the arts, including music, educators run the risk of educating students who are brain damaged in the right lobe.
As the island of Montserrat explores issues relevant to sustainable development, I recommend in-depth interrogation of educational reform initiatives, the essence of which must be improved academic performance. It is necessary, therefore, to explore all factors that might impinge on students’ academic performance. One factor that receives extensive exploration internationally is the impact of instrumental music involvement on academic performance.
In some countries, instrumental music education is compulsory. Nations whose students consistently excel in tests assessing science achievement are countries where music occupies a primary focus in the curriculum. Tests cited in A Nation at Risk, a 1983 report published by the United States Department of Education National Commission on Public Education, indicate that the United Sates of America trailed behind other countries in mathematics and science.
Researchers in cognitive psychology who explore the relationship between music training and academic performance have examined the curricula of those countries that consistently excel in mathematics and science. The top performing students on the 1988 International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement test were eighth and ninth graders from Hungary, followed by the Netherlands and Japan. In these top ranked countries, music education is a component of the core curriculum.
Japan mandates that every child in grades one to nine receives two hours of sequential music instruction from a music specialist each week. Instruction involves the appreciation of music and the expression of making music. At the middle level, students learn to sing in choruses and play instruments in ensembles. Every school has instructional material and instruments needed for the effective teaching of music. These include a complete curriculum, songbooks, rhythm instruments, piano, individual desktop keyboards and many other supplemental teaching and learning aids. There is also optional music instruction, in ensembles, choruses, bands and orchestras after school hours.
In the Netherlands, Hungary and Germany, music education is a primary focus of the curriculum. Music and art became mandatory in Dutch schools in 1968 and in 1976 compulsory examination in these subjects was instituted. In Hungary, the home of Bela Bartok and Franz List, with its number one ranking in science achievement for eighth graders, Zoltan Kodaly established a national developmental program in music. In Germany, public demands and political response have shaped a climate that strongly favours music. Each student from kindergarten to grade 12 receives a minimum of two forty-five minute class periods in vocal and instrumental music each week (Suzuki, 1991).
Brain scans taken during musical performances show that virtually the entire cerebral cortex is active when musicians are performing (Weinberger, 1998). Almost all systems of the brain work simultaneously and brain cells rapidly transmit messages during performances. This process strengthens the synapses, thereby producing a more efficiently functioning brain. Weinberger believes that music production involves the activation of the left temporal lobe, indicating auditory perception and verbal processing, and activation of the right frontal lobe, indicating visual spatial processing.
Weinberger explains that musicians plan ahead so that their hands, fingers, bows or mallets are in the right place to play the next note. Singers and wind instrumentalists, he suggests, need to produce enough air to sustain long notes. Individuals in bands, choruses and groups utilize more brain systems as they interpret and act upon the conductor’s gestures while producing music, and engage in balancing their own sounds with those of other musicians. Performers also make split-second decisions of assessing themselves, and make adjustment and changes several times during their performances.
In 1995, using magnetic resonance imagining (MRI) Schlaug, Jancke, Huang and Steinmetz compared the brains of musicians with those of age and sex-matched non-musicians. They focused on the auditory regions of the cerebral cortex called the planum temporale (PT). The authors found that musicians’ planum temporale were relatively larger in the left hemisphere than in the right, but this difference was not evident in non-musicians. The differences were, however, restricted to the musicians who had perfect pitch.
Gardner (1984) believes that musicians follow a progression of notes which is a very sequential left brain process. Seeing patterns in the construction of phrases, seeing the whole for expressive phrasing, and interpretation are right brain skills. Mathematical abilities involved in timing, counting and symbolic encoding of time and sound involve abstract and spatial reasoning. The musician consummates all this brain activity in the form of precise fine motor skills. Playing music draws on so many different attributes that it develops flexibility in thinking and melds and merges the brain’s capabilities. Gardner posits that although musical capabilities are initially represented in the right hemisphere, as a musician becomes more skilled, these capabilities are found increasingly in the left. He concludes that with musical training, a significant proportion of musical skills migrate across the corpus callosum into the linguistically dominant left hemisphere. It was observed that instrumentalists have thicker nerve fibres in the corpus callosum, the part of the brains that connects the hemispheres (Begley, 1996), and that musicians who studied the keyboard before adolescence have a 12% thicker corpus callosum than their non-music counterparts.
Chan, Ho & Chuang (1998) believe that this thicker corpus callosum facilitates better transfer and a higher capacity for verbal memory. They suggest that music making changes the structure and function of the left temporal part of the brain. Knowing that that area handles word memory, these researchers speculated that musicians might have better verbal memory than non-musicians. Since the right temporal lobe handles visual memory, the researchers speculated that musicians and non-musicians had similar aptitude for visual memory. The study bore out these two theories which are consistent with a 1995 study that compared the magnetic resonance images (MRI) of the brains of musicians and non-musicians, and discovered that the left planum temporale region is larger in musicians than in non-musicians. If this results from a change in cortical organization, then the left temporal lobe of musicians might have a better developed cognitive function than the right. It has not been proven whether this results from better communication between the brain cells or from more brain cells.
The researchers prove that music training improves verbal memory. Sixty female students from the University of Hong Kong were divided into two groups. Thirty students had previously received at least six years training in playing a Western musical instrument before the age of 12, while the other 30 had no musical training. The two groups were closely matched by age, grade point average and years of formal education. The researchers administered a verbal memory test that required students to recall as many words as possible from a list of 16 words that had been read aloud. In a visual memory test the students briefly saw sample figures which they had to draw from memory. Each test was given three times. The music group consistently outscored the non-music group by an average of 16% on the verbal test, by remembering 2.56 more words. There was no significant difference between the two groups on the visual memory test. Chan, Ho and Chuang and Chan (2003) and Kilgour, Jakobson and Cuddy (2000) replicated this study and found similar results.
Music advocates state that music is science because it is exact, specific and demands exact acoustics. It deals with the qualities of sound acoustics and timbre (Yoh, 1996). Musicians use graphs that indicate frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody and harmony all at once and with exact time control. Extensive training is given to the aural discrimination between like and unlike pitches.
Yoh believes that music involves the use of mathematical operations including counting in groups of twos, threes, fours and higher. Counting is used consistently throughout the musical performances. Music is rhythmically based on instantaneous mental subdivisions of time into fractions. When teaching the values of rhythmical notation, teachers develop and reinforce the concepts of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Adams (2001) suggests that music consists of patterns of notes, chords and key changes that musicians must negotiate quickly. Musicians use geometric shapes to remember the correct positions of notes and chords. Reading music requires an understanding of ratio and proportion because playing depends on the use of fractions, multiples and groupings of beats. Maor (1991) explains that the single underlying principle in all musico-mathematical relations is that arithmetic progression in music corresponds to geometric progression in mathematics in a logarithmic relation.
Yoh (1996) suggests that as musician analyse music compositions, they note the relationship of the concerto/symphonic form with that of the basic essay format. The simple framework of the standard exposition, developmental and recapitulation construction of music is directly correlated with the writer’s thesis statement, development and conclusion. The phrasing of musical lines in a performance directly relates to the vocal inflections that emphasize portions of a basic sentence. Music is related to foreign language because most of its terms are Italian, German or French with non-English notations. Music uses a highly developed form of shorthand that uses symbols to represent ideas. The semantics of music is the most complete and universal language.
Researchers posit that music training has some temporary effect on spatial-temporal reasoning (Costa-Giomi, 1999; Cutietta and Booth, 1997). Mallory and Philbrick (1995) indicate that musical instruction in pre-school may cause or sustain development in areas of the brain that perform other tasks, including spatial relations that are used in mathematics and architecture. They used 44 pre-schoolers (ages three to five years) in pre- and post-test Object Assembly Task (OAT) from the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence-Revised. The control group did not receive musical training, while the experimental group received instrumental music instruction. OAT testing after three months and six months revealed significant improvement in task completion for the music group.
In an effort to test the concept, the Wisconsin School District of Kettle Moraine (2000) replicated a 1997 University of Wisconsin study using kindergarten students and group piano instruction. At the end of the school year, the group that received piano keyboard instruction outscored those who did not by 46% on spatial-temporal reasoning tests. It was concluded that the process of learning to play music enhanced student’s Mathematics skills.
Rauscher and Zupan (2000) examined the effect of keyboard instruction on spatial temporal reasoning. The researchers assigned 62 middle income kindergarten students of both genders and diverse ethnicity from 2 intact classrooms at 2 Wisconsin elementary schools to either keyboard instruction (n = 34) or no music (n = 28). The keyboard students received twenty-minute keyboard lessons twice each week for eight months in an area of the regular classroom while the control group received journaling lessons from their teacher in another part of the classroom. The two groups were pre-tested and then retested after four and eight months on spatial temporal ability using the Puzzle Solving task from the McCarthy Scales of Children’s Abilities and the Block Building task from the Learning Accomplishment Profile Standardized Assessment test. The visual-spatial memory was measured by the Pictorial memory subtest of the McCarthy Scales.
Rauscher and Zupan used group by time ANOVAs on the pre-test scores to check for group equivalence before the treatment. This was confirmed through post hoc Scheffe’s tests. They used a sex by group by time MANOVA and a group by time ANOVA for each of the three post-tests. A one factor group MANCOVA on the gain scores was used to check the previous analyses. After four months of lessons, the music group scored significantly higher on the spatial-temporal tests (p < .05). The difference became greater after eight months. On the pictorial memory tasks, however, there was no significant difference between the groups.
In an analysis of the United States of America Department of Education’s National Educational Longitudinal Survey (NELS:88) database from a panel study that followed 25,000 secondary school students over a ten-year period, Catterall, Chapleau and Iwanaga (1999) find that students who report consistently high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade twelve. Music students of high socio-economic status scored 140% higher than the average of all students and 26% higher than the high socio economic non-music students. Music students of low socio-economic status scored 65% higher on average for all students and 100% higher than non-music students of low socio-economic status. All music students also tested higher in SAT and reading proficiency tests regardless of their socio-economic status. Differences between instrumental music students and non-instrumental music students became more significant over time. The test scores of children of low socio-economic status were separated and the music students had a comparative advantage over non-music students, beginning at 26.5% in grade 8 and climbing to 32% in grade twelve.
The College-bound Seniors National Report (2001) indicates that students who had coursework or experience in music performance scored higher on the SAT. Students who performed music scored 53 points higher in the verbal section and 39 points higher in mathematics section. Students who were exposed to music appreciation scored 61 points higher on the verbal and 42 points higher in mathematics.
Nierman (1995) tested the hypothesis that high school students who are involved in music performance exhibit significantly higher academic achievement. Through a written survey, this researcher questioned 87 students enrolled in physics courses. The students answered questions on the nature of their current and past involvement in musical performance during and after school. Students were also asked to evaluate their school experiences. After the survey, the data were evaluated using unpaired t-test, chi-square and z-score. Participation in musical performance fell under six categories: currently involved in school (vocal), currently involved in school (instrumental), currently involved in out of school (vocal), currently involved in out of school (instrumental), involved in the past (vocal), involved in the past (instrumental). For each category, the grade-point-average, ACT and SAT scores were analysed using z-scores and unpaired t-test. Enrolment in weighted classes and evaluation of school experiences were treated as nominal data and assessed for each category using chi-square analysis. The t-test analyses showed that the instrumental students, in school, after school and in the past, had significantly higher grade-point-averages. Past instrumental students also had higher scores on SAT.
Music students’ higher test scores are said to result in higher achievement scores of students who seek admission to medical school. Shafer and Blakeslee (1999), in reporting on a Lewis Thomas study that investigated the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants, reported that 66%, the highest percentage for any group, of the music majors applicants were admitted, as opposed to 44% of biochemistry majors. A study of 7,500 university students revealed that music majors obtained the highest reading scores among all majors including English, biology, chemistry and mathematics.
It is believed that music involvement develops mental flexibility that is reflected in industrial applications. The Silicon Valley of California is one of the most entrepreneurial and innovative centres of the United States of America’s commerce. Venerable (1989) discovered that this industry’s best technicians and engineers are practising musicians. Boettcher, Hawn and Shaw (1995) explain that music training programs the brain for higher-order applications in mathematics and science, which accounts for so many musicians pursuing higher level education.
Data from the NELS:88 shows that music participants received more academic honours and awards than non-music students, and that the percentage of students receiving Grades A, and B was higher than the non-music students receiving those grades.
Weinberger (2000), reporting on a study conducted by Dr Timo Krings, states that, compared to non-musicians, the brains of pianists are more efficient at making skilled movements. Dr Krings matched pianists and non-musicians by age and sex and asked them to perform complex sequences of finger movements. Functional magnetic resonance imagining revealed that the non-musicians made the movements as correctly as the pianists but less activity was detected in the pianists’ brains. Weinberger suggests that less brain activity indicates that less brain effort is expended in accurately negotiating the activity. He concludes that musical training can enhance brain function.
Researchers divided 96 students in 8 classrooms in 2 elementary schools into an experimental group and control groups. The experimental group, four classrooms, received an enriched, sequential, skill-building music program. The control group received a standard arts curriculum. After seven months, all students took standardized achievement tests. The music group showed significant improvement in reading and Mathematics. Students in the enriched program who started out behind the control group, caught up to statistical equality in reading, and moved ahead in mathematics by 20%. After two years in the project the margin became even wider (Gardiner, Fox, Jeffrey & Knowles, 1996).
Most of the research that indicates a strong relationship between music participation and increased intelligence shows correlation and not causation. Nering (2002) attempted to address causation more directly by using ten sets of monozygotic twins, ages three to seven. The experimental group, consisting of one member of each set of twins, received 52 piano lessons over 7 months, while the control group, made up of the other member of each set of twins, received no training. All twins were pre-tested with complete Wechsler intelligence tests, which were used to determine the equivalence of both groups. The experimental group showed statistically significant improvement in their composite Verbal Scaled scores (p = .02) and Verbal IQ scores (p = .03), as well as total Full Scale IQ scores (p < .05). Subtests revealed significant improvement in arithmetic (p = .004), information (p < .05), and mazes (p = .03). Control subjects did not show significant improvement.
Gouzouasis and Wang (2003) in the first study of music and academic achievement in British Columbia discovered that in English 12 Examinations, female music students outperformed all other subgroups. The performance of non-music females equalled that of male music students and surpassed that of non-music males. A contrast analyses of the difference between females in music and non-music groups versus the difference of males in music and non-music groups to determine if males improve more through music involvement than girls, showed significant results (p = .01).
A second series of studies on the years 1999 and 2000 examined the effect of music participation on academic achievement by gender of grade 12 students. The measures were the scores in mathematics, biology and English sections of the British Columbia provincial examinations in 2000. Gouzouasis and Wang (2003) divided 42,740 students into 4 groups according to gender and participation in music training. An analysis of music participation by gender (analysis of two factors) by the three achievement variables showed that music students scored significantly higher than non-music students in the three subject areas (p < .0001). There were no significant gender differences for mathematics and biology. Females scored significantly higher than males in English with a significant interaction (p < .0001) between gender and music participation. In biology and mathematics, females performed slightly higher than males, but there was also a significant interaction between gender and music participation and Biology (p = < .005).
The study did not examine the causes of gender differences but Lee, Chen and Schlaug (2003) indicate a gender by musician interaction in the anterior corpus callosum. In male musicians this area was larger than in non-musicians. The participants consisted of 56 healthy, right-handed professional instrumentalists (28 males and 28 females) whom the researchers retrospectively selected from a database of high-resolution anatomical MRI scans. Eighteen persons played the keyboard alone, 26 played the keyboard and a string instrument and 12 played string instruments only. Two groups were compared for corpus callosum differences with a result, p > .05 indicating no significant differences so the musicians were not subdivided into groups based on the instrument played. The control group consisted of persons with no musical experiences. Right handedness controlled for possible differences in corpus callosum sizes. Details of gender by musician interactions need to be further explored.
Zanutto (1997) focused on the effect of instrumental music instruction on academic achievement in an ex post facto study that analysed the instructional measures, mathematics, science, English, social science, reading proficiency, writing proficiency and Mathematics proficiency. The Instrumental Music Students consistently outperformed the other students on all measures at each testing period. Zanutto concluded that active involvement in instrumental music produced positive effects on academic achievement.
It is believed that music involvement influences academic achievement because it facilitates brain development. The University of Munster (1998) shows that music lessons during childhood enlarge the brain and strengthen the connection between neurons. The area of the brain used to analyze pitch was found to be 25% larger in children who learnt to play music. As children continued to practice, that area of the brain continued to grow. Skilled musicians were found to have more neurons to analyze sound than non-musicians.
The increased ability for spatial-temporal reasoning that musicians display is said to have positive influence on their ability to learn mathematics and science because there is some overlap between musical ability and mathematics. Bahr and Christensen,(2000) investigated the nature of transfer between these disciplines to determine whether a transfer occurs without specific instruction to facilitate transfer. Using the Structural Learning Theory as the framework for the study of deep structural similarities between music and mathematics, the researchers gave 85 public secondary school students with an average age of 15½ years a mathematics test in their regular classroom. One week later, the students completed a Musicianship Rating Scale that measured trained musical knowledge. Students who had training in musicianship performed better than whose who did not in mathematical areas with structural overlap only. The authors conclude that transfer occurs only as a result of deep structural similarity of music and mathematics and does not require instruction designed to foster transfer.
Music builds concentration skills which students may transfer to learning experiences and test situations (Levitin, 2002). Weber, Spychiger and Patry (1993) conclude that playing music improves children’s reading and verbal skills through developing concentration, memory and self expression. In a two-year study in Switzerland, these researchers examined 1200 children in more than 50 classes. Younger children received three more music classes each week and therefore missed three main curriculum classes. These students made more rapid speech developments and learnt to read faster and better than their non-music counterparts. They displayed a greater liking for each other, enjoyed school better and were less stressed during tests because they were better able to handle performance pressure. The effort to produce a piece without error may also influence the academic products (Glymph, 2002). Glymph also believes that the repetitious practice that music education affords increases physical dexterity that is specific to the particular instrument. He adds that each instrument develops muscular coordination and increased awareness of the body functions and generally keeps the body healthier and better poised to learn.
Music participation also holds benefits in personal and social discipline for music students (Levitin, 2002). Levitin believes that serious musicians are extremely focused and their priority on high-level performances makes them highly effective. He adds that students adopt and transfer this discipline to their studies. A 1998 study conducted at the University of North Texas indicates that music students have fewer problems with alcohol, are healthier emotionally and can concentrate and study more than non-music students. This opposes the general belief that there is a positive correlation between art involvement, especially music, and drug usage. This study tested 362 first semester students on social and emotional concerns, alcohol related problems and performance anxiety. All students showed similar levels of performance anxiety, but music students performed significantly better in the other two areas.
Viadro (1999) suggests that musicians transfer the self-confidence and sense of accomplishment that they gain as they progress from learning notes and rhythms to producing meaningful rhythms, to academic situations with positive results. She sees learning the basics of musical language and interpreting a piece of work by performing it as powerful tools in teaching problem-solving, and drawing conclusions. The perception and discipline that permits students to learn to comprehend, consider and evaluate in music, and perform, help them to make informed decisions and uphold value judgments in other aspects of life. Viadro adds that the hand, eye, body posture and thought work together to produce instrumental music and these ingredients may transfer to many other aspects of life, including the academics. Additionally, learning to perceive and derive meaning from musical sounds sharpens the individual’s ability to understand abstractions. Viadro sees benefits for language development because instruments offer the opportunity to cultivate feelings and thoughts through non-verbal means and evokes responses to nonverbal thoughts in others. She believes that learning to read, write or interpret musical notation strengthens the use of other symbols systems such as mathematics and language.
In academic situations, students in music programs are less likely to make unfounded conclusions (The Arts Education Partnership, 1999). These authors believe that participation in the arts encourages self directed learning because children become their own critics and are motivated to learn by the possible outcomes and through the learning experiences. The ArtsConnection study indicates that students develop qualities associated with personal success, self-regulation, identity, flow and resilience. Students of the fine arts practice and learn to manage risk-taking through ‘permission to fail’ (Shakespeare and Company study), and then take these risks to improve the quality of their interactions, products and performances..
Catterall, Chapleau and Iwanaga (1999) believe that producing music involves forms of mathematical reasoning as the player negotiates the fractional senses of different notes, the relative distances of notes within scales, the perfect halves and doubles in pitch frequencies of octaves and the relations among dynamics in a musical passage. The associated geometry is believed to reinforce and develop spatial-temporal reasoning.
Shaffer, Jacokes, Cassily, Greenspan, Tuchman and Stimmer (2001) indicate that increasing children’s rhythmic ability produces statistically significant gains in their ability to focus, attend, plan, process language, sequence and coordinate actions. Cognitive and language abilities that are enhanced include reading, spelling and mathematics
Shaffer et al. (2001) suggest that individuals with fundamental rhythmicity can recognize rhythmic patterns in their surroundings and they focus their attention long enough to recognize individual patterns within a group of simultaneously occurring patterns. The authors suggest that these individuals can create patterns, through actions and thoughts, coordinate and follow patterns, and learn from their previous experiences. Individuals with exceptional rhythmicity remain focused on patterns for extended periods and unconsciously distinguish between minute individual patterns within intricate patterns. They unconsciously and quickly make precise adjustments when they make mistakes and produce highly creative patterns. These abilities are critical to learning mathematics, a discipline often referred to as a science of patterns. When children repeatedly discover and create patterns, they learn to manipulate information to understand new academic concepts.
Instrumental music classes can frustrate teachers because a small number of students leave classes at varying times during the day (Bessom, 1969). Teachers believe that pull-out programmes are disruptive to whole-class teaching and students miss instructional time and time-on-task causing them to suffer academically. In response to these concerns, Wallick (1998) examined the effects of the strings pull-out program in Hamilton City Schools on fourth grade students’ performance in the Ohio Proficiency Test (OPT). He investigated whether there were significant differences between the sting and non-string students of matched ability in their achievement on the mathematics, reading, writing and citizenship sections of the OPT. The string students’ mean scores in every section of the OPT were higher than those of the non-string students.
The evidence indicated that the academic performance of string students was not negatively affected when they were pulled out from academic classes for string instruction. Wallick suggests that pull-out students are not really leaving instruction but are really exposed to concepts related to fractions, time, space and reading.
Circle (1989) after replicating his 1983 study, arrived at his initial conclusion that better students are enrolled in elementary instrumental programs. The data reveals that elementary instrumental pull-out programs do not impede academic growth but Circle (1989) concludes that instrumental music participation aids cognitive growth. The students in the music program appear to have better academic achievement in mathematics concepts, mathematics problems and reading.
Robitaille and O’Neil (1981) report that in a two-year study conducted between 1979 and 1980 in elementary schools in Albuquerque City, standardized reading, language and mathematics test scores of all fifth grade students were compared with the scores of instrumental students after one and two years of pull-out classes. The music students scored between 10 to 20 percentile points higher on all the tests compared to the general fifth-grade population. The longer the students participated in instrumental music, the more marked was their performance over the general population. The study was replicated in 1986 with similar results.
In a study that incorporated four distinctly different school districts, Kvet, (1985) confirmed that pull-out programs do not negatively affect instrumental students’ academic performance. He analyzed reading, mathematics and language test scores of 2,000 sixth-grade students from 26 schools in 4 school districts of different location, size, socioeconomic status and racial balance and found no difference in any district between the test scores of pull-out students and non-music students despite their demographics.
In discussing this instrument, it is necessary to examine its history. The steel pan emerged as an instrument of culture (Best, 2001) that stems from its deep African roots. In 1797, the British banned drums fearing that the slaves would use them to transmit coded messages that could activate a revolt. Following the abolition of slavery in 1834, the Africans celebrated “Canne Brulee”, when sugar canes were burnt before harvesting. The British soon banned these celebrations but after riots in 1881, the authorities, in 1884, allowed the celebrations but restricted the use of drums. The Africans in each district then formed tamboo bamboo bands to accompany their celebrations. They cut bamboo to different lengths and beat on the ground to make music but the police banned these instruments because the Africans used them as weapons in inter-district fights (Blake, 2000).
Before emancipation, the Africans on each plantation became units that participated in inter-plantation competitions, including stick fighting. The emancipated groups therefore emerged as tribe-like units, engaging in rivalries similar to those of their former lives. Each group had little social interaction with other areas. Their stick fighting tournaments often degenerated into chaos and open conflict.
After emancipation most of the freed Africans in Trinidad first inhabited Laventille, in the area behind the bridge, which became a settlement of people without land, money, employment or access to their culture. In the 1930s, unable to purchase material for experiments, they formed rhythm bands using pots, pans, biscuit tins and paint cans, garbage can covers, car hub caps and old brake drums. They then invented the steelpan which quickly became a vehicle for social identification. Players used discarded 55 gallon oil drums from the oil industry and the United States of America’s naval base that was present in Trinidad after World War II (Kronman, 2001).
As the steelbands emerged in the mid-1930s, the pan men became so immersed in their music-making that, instead of playing their instrument for the annual Carnival festival, they played day and night in an effort to outdo each other. Gangs which became attached to them fought against each other to preserve their turf, and fought with the police for their right to play the instrument. The authorities cited violence as their reason for opposing steelpan playing. Today, Laventille, often referred to as the capital of the steelpan, having at least 15 resident steelbands, is still associated with criminal activity and gang rivalry.
The movement of the steelpan continues to canvass the globe and garner critical accolades from non-musicians, music lovers, and conventional musicians. Often referred to by local commentators as the greatest invention of the twentieth century, the steelpan displays the genius, affinity and indomitable spirit for the good of all people. Today, throughout the world, the steelpan is a feature in many schools, campuses, churches, community centres and wherever it can be housed and used to create music, which varies from jazz, gospel and rhythm and blues, to reggae, hip hop and classical.
Additionally, the instrument still bears some negative political, economic and social overtones that are rooted in its history. From its inception, it was a disgrace to be associated with the steelpan. Fashioned and developed in surroundings saturated by controversy, economic deprivation, frequent persecution and social rejection, the steelpan survived through perseverance, sprinkled with slim, spirited defence. Rooted in oppression, the instrument’s social, cultural and political context may preclude its acceptance by educators and some members of the society. One of the steel pan’s early defenders, Farguhar (1950), linked the “dark past of slavery, plus a century of economic deprivation” to the character of the steelbandsmen. In the early years, many regarded a steelbandsman as an outcast, a nuisance, a law-breaker and a disturber of the peace with his noise-making instrument, and magistrates deemed steelbandsmen brought before them as hooligans, rogues and vagabonds. Gomes (1950) defended the steelbandsmen by suggesting that persons who have few things to love “fight doggedly” to protect them. Laventille, dubbed the home of the steelband and hooliganism by the Sunday Guardian in 1957, is still reported in the media as one of the major crime areas in Trinidad and Tobago. Many still attribute that aura of lawlessness to the instrument and its players. These social and cultural concerns may preclude the inclusion of steelpan playing in all schools. Satnarine Maharaj, the leader of Sanatan Darma Maja Sabha, and a prominent administrator of Hindu schools in Trinidad and Tobago, is noted for his negative remarks about steelpan students and for refusing to have steelpan playing in Hindu schools.
The North Star Steel Orchestra, in an anecdotal account, suggests that steelpan playing works in schools because students are immediately attracted by the sound. They believe that, while it is difficult to achieve virtuoso standards on the steelpan, as is the case with other instruments, it is relatively easy to produce music that is satisfying. Additionally, as long as the basic techniques are mastered, students locate a marked note and play it. Students thrive on the quick results and are inspired by them. They also suggest that playing in an orchestra develops teamwork skills and aural skills.
Although scholars have advanced theories and essays that associate music education with academic success and increased brain functioning (Rauscher & Zupan, 2000; Zanutto, 1997), music education is not compulsory in schools in the Caribbean. More specifically, although studies affirm that instrumental music involvement produces positive effects on academic performance and intelligence, instrumental music involvement in schools remains a matter of individual school choice.
Researchers argue, however, that every human has musical aptitude, the innate capacity to respond to musical sound and to control body movement to create music (Suzuki, 1991). Smith, Nelson, Grohskoph and Appleton (1997) contend that non-musicians can gain abstract knowledge of musical relationships.
The omission of compulsory instrumental music programs is occurring against a backdrop of a growing body of scientific research that reinforces that music education builds brainpower. Steelpan playing, a popular example of instrumental music production, can serve as a vehicle for transfer of skills to other academic areas. The education system in Montserrat must therefore exploit this relationship.
Adams, M. (2001). Missouri Council for Teachers of Mathematics Bulletin, February 2001. 26 (2): 1-2.
Bahr, N. & Christensen, C. A. (2000). Inter-domain transfer between mathematical skills and musicianship. Journal of structural learning and intelligent systems 14 (3): 187-197.
Best, L. (2001). Not pan in school but school in pan. Reform of panorama. Panland News. Posted on http://steelpansttil.com/panlandnews/lloydbest.php3
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