Why Music Education needs to take its rightful place in schools— It's brain food for Life, music teachers and MIT professors declare

School music has always equaled one: performance. School choirs, tabla competitions, and day dances every year. All worthwhile, certainly, but this model accomplishes nothing to engage music's whole spectrum for developing rounded, emotionally well-adjusted, and intelligent human beings. Time to imagine music education differently—no longer as a special talent subject but as a daily life skill with benefits extending far, far beyond the stage.

"Students today are subjected to more academic pressures, tech-enabled distractions, and more mental illness than ever. Amid it all, music is not a club after school—it's an anchor," says a former AIR radio artist Krishna Chakraborty. As an academician and music teacher she explained, "Education research and neuroscience studies continue to confirm what musicians have known for ages: that music builds better brains. I make my students start to listen so that they can prepare their ears first."

 An innovative study in The Journal of Neuroscience by the University of Zürich found children who learn to play a musical instrument have much higher brain connectivity—specifically parts responsible for speech, memory, and control. Even more surprising was finding the psychological benefit still exists when the child does not continue the music into adulthood. "The sooner the musicians started learning music, the larger the connectivities," said one researcher, Professor Simon Leipold.

Meanwhile, hipness to become coding kids is neurologically bad. Coding is not necessarily going to build math or language skill, per a 2020 study by MIT. "Computer code seems to be some kind of entity unto itself," the study found. Coding can lead to a career, but music reorganizes brain activity for life.

"Music lessons are not recitals and competitions all the time. Playing an instrument is learning self-discipline, patience, and concentration," said Radio artist from Goa Shakuntala Bharne. Learning from listening to the music actually played has the power to promote watchfulness and empathy. Singer Bharne emphasized, "They're not peripheral advantages—those are survival skills."

"There has been evidence to show music as a natural mood stabilizer. To de-puff stress prior to examination, to rebuild resilience against burnout for students, or to bring people together by group music therapy, music is just good medicine" Chakraborty said.

There have to be lessons in music early on in life at the ages of when children are progressing quickly in order to gain motor skills, language, and emotional maturity. "Nursery rhymes being sung, clapping rhythms, and doing simple melodies lead routes in the brain to form literacy and numeracy," Chakraborty emphasized.

But music can't stop after elementary school. Indeed, music is perhaps most needed when students are teenagers and young adults when they need music most. For homework-carrying college students with internships and crises of identity, music can be a sanctuary—a moment of peace, an outburst of fantasy, a connection to others and to themselves.

Dheeme Dheeme singer Shashaa Tirupati spoke to Edinbox scribe Nibedita and said, "I wouldn’t be surprised if music not only develops the mind technically, but also areas dealing with emotional IQ, psychological healing and memory.

"After all, musicians and listeners often experience all of this deeply while performing or engaging with specific styles and genres of music," said the Indian-Canadian playback singer.

Placing music in college doesn't mean that all colleges need a full-fledged music department. Minor adjustments like music appreciation electives, student choruses and bands, or incorporating music into mindfulness projects can be the catalyst of revolution.

Music does not have to stand alone. Interdisciplinary learning provides an opportunity for creative expression. A Math course in learning rhythm and pattern through the use of percussion. Or a History course in analyzing Freedom Movement protest song. Music can even have application in leadership skills and teambuilding in Management courses, or emotional intelligence in Teacher Training courses.

They are the rebels of this revolution who value the higher potential of music. They are not music teachers, but question raisers, relationship creators, and mind builders.

Indian colleges and universities are best positioned to catalyze this revolution. With the National Education Policy (NEP) changing gears towards holistic growth, learning music is best positioned to get its niche in its modular, multi-disciplinary vision of education.

Design students can take cues from ragas. Literary students can learn about poetry of lyrics in the folk ballad. Engineering students can jam to reduce stress and stay mentally alert. Even open-mic sessions or casual campus jamming could be all about student well-being and student solidarity.

We are on the verge of an un-education revolution. Music is no longer a cultural nicety, or talent show filler—it is intellectual gruel. It makes a more emotionally intelligent child, toughens memory, assists mental health, and constructs concentration. And you don't have to be Mozart to enjoy it. Any kid, any student, any adult can.".

With the age of artificial intelligence upon us, maybe today is the day we make space for emotional intelligence too—and music takes the lead, naturally. If we truly want our children to be smarter, stronger, and better adjusted, maybe the answer isn't the next programming class—but the next music studio.