Music and Life Skills

Subject: Music and Life Skills
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 09:36 PM

Music lessons pay off in higher earnings: poll

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071114/lf_nm_life/music_dc

Wed Nov 14, 11:15 AM ET

TORONTO (Reuters Life!) - Those hours practicing piano scales or singing with a choral group weren't for nothing because people with a background in music tend to have a higher education and earn more, according to a new survey.

The poll by Harris Interactive, an independent research company, showed that 88 percent of people with a post-graduate education were involved in music while in school, and 83 percent of people earning $150,000 or more had a music education.

"Part of it is the discipline itself in learning music, it's a rigorous discipline, and in an ensemble situation, there's a great deal of working with others. Those types of skills stand you well in careers later in life," said John Mahlmann, of the National Association for Music Education in Reston, Virginia, which assisted in the survey.

In addition to the practical skills gained from studying music, people questioned in the online poll said it also gave them a sense of personal fulfillment.

Students who found music to be extremely or very influential to their fulfillment were those who had vocal lessons and who played in a garage band. Nearly 80 percent of the 2,565 people who took part in the survey last month who were still involved in music felt the same way.

"That's the beauty of music, that they can bring both hard work and enjoyment together, which doesn't always happen elsewhere," Mahlmann added in an interview.
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So what's your thoughts guys?
:-)

My 'classical training'(both vocal and instrumental) focussed on 'ensemble' work, so just how much 'folk music' is 'ensemble' work?

Robin

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 10:32 PM

Would someone please! tell my boss about this?
I need a BIG raise! LOL

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 10:35 PM

I think there is a complete parallel between skill in music and understanding the nature of life.

It is not just the ensemble part; it is he sense of rhythm, flow, and the intricacy of rising and falling voices and parts playing against one another, whether in a symphony or a plain-chant or a shape-note chorus or a single voice against a banjo, or a chain gang or a Maori wedding chant, or even the muezzin's call to prayer.

A

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Nov 07 - 11:24 PM

Until you branch off into folk musicism, at which time the old life skills go the OTHER way.

~S~

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: freightdawg
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 12:10 AM

All of the extra income is completely wasted, however, on new strings and that new guitar that you just HAVE to have.

Sigh, apparently the extra cash only kicks in if you actually learned something from all your lessons. Sadly, all my extra income went to someone else.

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 01:09 AM

Learning and playing music requires focus, concentration, and discipline. If you can apply it to music, you can apply it to school and to work.

That said, I have serious doubts about the numbers. The number of young people who study music has gone down significantly over the years, but the number that go on to post-graduate studies has risen significantly. So I don't really see how 88% of them can have studied music, either in school or privately. And that business about 83% of people making $150,000 a year having a music education? How many people do you know with a music education that make $150,000 a year? Of course, the number of people who lie on surveys probably is probably a constant.

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: GUEST,Mikefule
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 02:24 AM

People whose parents can afford to send them to a good school where they have music lessons, or who care enough to pay for private music lessons, are more likely to be successful. Makes more sense to me than all this worthy stuff about discipline and working together.

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 07:46 AM

Folk musicians aren't always covered by the discipline clause.

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: GUEST,BobL
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 08:09 AM

It's one thing to show there's a correlation between studying music and going on to qualify for a well-paid job.

Proving a cause-and-effect relationship is something else.

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: M.Ted
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 10:03 AM

It depends on what is meant by "studying music", as well--the one semester of music appreciation that is required in a college prep program is not the same as a year of daily piano work--

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: Jim Krause
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 06:44 PM

I think somebody's been smokin' some of that wacky tobacky. I haven't had a raise in 17 years!

JimK

Subject: RE: Music and Life Skills
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Nov 07 - 07:11 PM

It doesn't matter what level of education there is if one doesn't know how to apply it, esp. in commerce. My brother is brilliant, has a Masters in Theory Composition and studied, privately, with American composer, Roy Harris, who offered him a home and career. He is self-disciplined enough to write several symphonies, an opera, piano concertos/i, etc. all fully orchestrated, but he has never been good at working any type of job, none of which have ever paid him much at all. He has always been obsessed by his music and cannot fathom making money at anything else, yet lacks the know-how of promotion, or learned it very late and has no money with which to promote.(They didn't teach it when he went to school, the way some of them do nowadays.) He missed the boat for any kind of job in music as he only wanted to compose his own music, NOT look for a job as a composer. By the time he wanted to teach composition, he was too old, not connected and/or needed a doctorate or to make a big hit and be invited by the sycophants to teach, etc. (Eww...do I sound bitter?)

My sister, on the other hand, is a fantastic musician-teacher and has always made a decent living, though in my opinion she has never been paid what she is worth to those kids. She's also much more practical than my brother.

My parents and my siblings and I always had music and music lessons. The other two siblings graduated from college and had good jobs as teachers for a long time, then sort went off the rails and are very poor now. I got a GED and when I was well, was in sales and made much more for a few years than any of them. Now I have a part-time job at home which does require self-discipline, has the potential to make me a lot of money (I hope!) and I love it. We'll see where that goes. I am sure music lessons have helped with my being able to work independently.

I don't know what my family experience says about the supposed study except that none of us has become rich from music.:-)