Why Music Isn't Extra.

Music is often at the center of our celebrations: birthdays, weddings, graduations, and holidays.   We plan parties around Super Bowl halftime shows, the Olympic ceremonies, and numerous award shows.  In our personal lives, we turn on the car radio, have our favorite albums, and spend unbelievable amounts of money on live concert tickets.  When tragedy hits, people gather to offer song, whether it be disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the loss of the Notre Dame Cathedral. During unspeakable events, personal losses and funerals - during our happiest of times and celebrations - humans turn to music.  

People are naturally drawn to music, and it is our music teachers who are passionate about nurturing the student’s innate pull to music and helping abilities grow. Music is very powerful but also empowering, and music education provides lifelong skills that extend beyond the classroom.

Music classrooms continue to be the heartbeat of the school.  Students come in before school to hang out, students ask to come down during study halls, students stay late - and when asked why, most will answer that it is the music room that makes them feel at home and welcome.  Teachers know that for some students music class is the reason they wake up and come to school (research agrees*).  While music classrooms teach all the fundamental elements about music necessary to become skilled on your instrument, it is also social, and the success of the ensemble depends on the balance created by every member.  Every person matters, and everyone has the same goal - it is a lesson in teamwork and harmony.   In a time when concerns about mental health are leading conversations, it is crucial to experience the sense of belonging an ensemble brings to its members.  (NafME, SavetheMusic) 

Research has also shown that music strengthens other academic connections.  When students study music, we are asking the brain and body to do a million things at once.  By teaching and strengthening rhythmic perception, music directly improves the ability to recognize patterns and solve problems.  Singing melodic lines strengthens memory - just think of how powerful Schoolhouse Rock and Sesame Street songs are when learning, or commercial jingles are when shopping. Studying music consistently at a young age strengthens brain connections (Harvard, National Library of Medicine) and directly impacts student academic success.

One of the coolest experiments out there showing how much of the brain is involved in music is from 2025 when neuroscientists used glass brain technology while a pianist, Namoradze, played and learned that playing the piano lights up every area of the brain during performance. More amazing is when piano players played duets; their brain waves physically align (Wiley). When a choir sings together, heart rates, breathing patterns, and brain activity begin to synchronize (University of Gothenburg). Research shows how brains are impacted by music, so it should not be surprising that research also shows students involved in music outperform those not involved in music on AP tests, SATs, and GPA (American Psychological Association, University of Kansas).

If you have not been inside of a school recently, much of what you remember is probably very similar, with possibly a few upgrades.  Elementary school music classrooms today are very colorful.  Teachers are focused on building the foundations of music - melody, harmony, rhythm, dynamics, tempo, timbre, texture, and form through song, dance, and a sense of community.  Recorders are still present in many schools because they are a great introduction to reading music, proper airflow, and finger positions, but many more have added ukuleles, boom whackers, guitars, Orff instruments, djembes, and use early music technology to aid with composition and early recording processes.

Students all over Berks County are getting ready for a brand-new school year. In the first few weeks of school, they will be invited to an instrument fair where they choose which instrument they may want to learn.  Imagine the excitement of the teacher who is able to hand them that instrument when it comes in and teaches them how to open the case carefully, cradle their new instrument with love, and get those first sounds out of it.  It will take patience and guidance for those first sounds to turn into music—but it will.   

Now remember back to your middle school years—when you are developing your sense of self and each day is spent wondering how you will fit in and whom you will fit in with.  Here, the music teachers are still encouraging students to take risks–try this fingering, use breath support here to access your voice, and stand tall, all while applying those foundational music blocks to the changing body.  It can be very overwhelming, but the music classroom becomes home, and students start to spend their unstructured school time coming for even more support.  Music students start to add extracurriculars to their schedules, and some will even start to audition for more opportunities in music. Many Berks schools are adding jazz bands, show choirs, and musical theater during these years to encourage more development.  The general music classroom includes the fundamentals in addition to music history, music technology, explorations of World Music Drumming, and Modern band programs.

At many of our Senior Highs, music teachers start to flip the switch to self-ownership.  Marching Band adds student drum majors and section leaders, ensembles add officers, and some even lead sectionals.  Music classes are still building skills with the musical elements and emphasize literacy and technique, so students become independent.  Ensembles continue to build individual skill while focusing on how to collaborate and balance within.  For those who want to explore deeper, AP Music Theory rivals Physics with the amount of science and math that is necessary to understand how music is built (after all, Pythagoras used his musical ability to determine ratios that eventually led to formulas like a2+b2=c2).  There is Chorus, Orchestra, and Band, but in Berks you will also find Modern Band ensembles, jazz band, show choirs, a cappella groups, steel band classes, World Drumming groups, guitar classes, indoor percussion ensembles, indoor guard, and musical theater. Music Technology is taught to further composition but also to learn production and live sound skills.  Senior High students may also be involved in PMEA festivals, expanding their social network way beyond the classroom walls and forging relationships built on music that may be beneficial long into their chosen career.

Even knowing that the research shows schools with strong music programs have higher attendance rates.  Even knowing that the research shows students who study music have higher academic success.  Even knowing that research shows students in music ensembles have stronger social networks to foster well-being…music is often one of the first line items during budget cuts. 

Making school budgets is definitely difficult, but I will continue to hope that music is not seen as extra but instead is recognized for the brain-boosting and community-building magical power that every student deserves in order to reach their full potential.

Music is lifelong.  Whether our students choose to go on to a music career is not our goal.  Music educators want all of our students to experience the benefits of music, enjoy music for the joy it brings, understand the music they are listening to, know how music connects us worldwide, and perhaps continue to perform in the many opportunities that our community offers.  We are incredibly lucky to have the Reading Musical Foundation to help support our schools and students in this area.  

Reading Musical Foundation connects Music Educators of Berks County with valuable support year-long through education grants, advocacy support, and professional development opportunities, partnering with the BCIU. Reading Musical Foundation also supports our students through Operation Replay, placing instruments in the hands of students who would otherwise not be able to participate.  RMF offers private lesson scholarships, instrument upgrade scholarships, and summer camp scholarships so that our students can be strong role models in our ensembles.  RMF also provides opportunities for our students to perform throughout the county and scholarship awards to students in each of the Berks School Districts.