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I don't think we understand the importance of art and music in America. If so we would not have taken it out of the school system. If you say you have a band people respond to you as if you have taken up knitting or something. Music and art is thought of as a hobby and not a viable occupation that contributes to society.

I am a private music teacher and when I am talking to parents who are on the fence of deciding if they should get their child lessons this is what I tell them. It is not about being a rock star. Even if you don't have the gift of music it is important to expose yourself or your child to the arts. Music and art exercise a part of your brain that you don't use in everyday life.

Parents have commented how their child has excelled in school every since they started taking lesson. This is no surprise once you understand what music is all about. School is about memory. You are to absorb lessons and retain the knowledge and show how much you have retained by taking a test. This uses a muscle in your brain to accomplish this task.

The University of California did a study that found that college students who listened to a Mozart sonata for a few minutes before taking a test that measured spatial relationship skills did better than students who took the test after listening to another musician or no music at all.

For most of us music and art is much more enjoyable than math, science or history. In my lessons I teach my students how make shapes on their instruments. Each shape is like a color in a crayon box. At first we start with the box of 8 crayons and start to blend colors to create soundscapes. This is a fun way for them to exercise there memory muscles and use another side of their brain for creativity. Creativity is also good for problem solving in life. It helps us learn how to overcome adversity and adapt when life throws us curve balls.

Music is basically a bunch of math equations that we figure out to make different kinds of sounds. Sounds are like colors. Colors reflect moods and emotions. So my first goal is to have my students remember all kinds of chord shapes. Majors, Minors, then add different shades of colors to those chords. For example a chord progression in the Key of C could go like: C, Cmajor7, Cdominate7, each C chord is like a different shade of the same color. Eventually we will have the big box of Crayola Crayons to paint our pictures with.

In Europe musicians are thought of as important members of the community. There is actually a law that mandates a musician gets paid for his work. There is even unemployment for musicians. The point is America does not understand the importance of music and art. It is a major part of a child's development of the maturity of his brain.

In conclusion: When we take music out of the schools and kids no longer learn how to play an instrument is when we get a musical genre called Rap. Don't want to offend anyone who likes rap but you cannot spell crap with out rap. All kidding aside rap did not come into existence until they started taking music out of the schools.

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Learn more about this author, David Samuel.
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