Instrumental

Three years ago, when the eighth-grade class of 2020 was told that they had two weeks off school, joy filled the hallways, as any day off school is relief from misery for a middle schooler. Little did these 84 prospective graduates know, their thought-to-be vacation would become a nightmare. A few days pass, and emails are sent home, informing parents that “School will be out for a few more weeks.” New school-from-home schedules are made, zoom accounts are started, and morning routines are abolished. The students began to grow sick of their homes, longing for the classrooms they so recently took for granted. The haunting idea that they might not wear their caps and gowns grew ever closer, bringing dark and gloomy clouds over the class of 2020, in what should have been, the “comfort” of their own homes. As we all know, these former eighth graders never wore their caps and gowns with their classmates, never returned to walk the halls of their middle school, and never sat next to all their fellow classmates again. During their time at home, these students used technology, including social media, excessively, since it seemed as though there was nothing else to fill up the days. Unbeknownst to them, this was detrimental to their mental health, and as the years have passed, the prospective high school classes of 2024, along with their fellow students, have suffered from procrastination, anxiety, and other inhibiting mental health issues. Therefore, implementing instrumental music into high school education would lead to significant improvements in students’ mental health.

​

Three psychology students, Ingo Roden, Gunter Kreutz, and Stephan Bongard conducted a study to understand the relationship between instrumental education and adolescent cognitive development. In their research, evidence was found that in learning to play an instrument, elementary schoolers had noteworthy improvements in their verbal memory. (Roden et al. 8) This occurs due to the nature of memorizing music, where it is essential to remember phrases and clusters of notes and chords, in contrast to the memorization of singular notes, to effectively learn an instrumental piece. These phrases are comparable to words and expressions since the structure of music, although not bearing the same denotative definition, holds in its emphases that a language has as well. For example, when playing the piano, a pianist adjusts the emphasis, or pressure, on the keys. This tonality contributes to the emotion of a piece of music and can be juxtaposed with the tonality of speech and how it helps comprehension in conversation. (Roden et al. 7) Instrumental music education can be implemented as early as elementary school in the way that Roden, Kreutz, and Bongard did, to provide a head-start to students in classes by improving their verbal memory. This skill can translate into higher education and be even more useful in that environment. In classes where teachers or professors may speak a lot, or don’t provide students enough time to record class notes during a lecture, this developed proficiency for verbal memorization and comprehension can decrease students’ anxiety and stress regarding their schoolwork.

​

Furthermore, education students Erginsoy Osmanoǧlu and Hüseyin Yilmaz researched university students’ anxiety and psychological well-being in response to classical music. The partners discovered that self-expression, managing anxiety, and time management as well as an overall improvement in quality of life, are all direct outcomes of utilizing classical music as a form of music therapy (Osmanoǧlu and Yilmaz 22). An experiment was conducted in 2002 that supports this claim by Osmanoǧlu and Yilmaz. The objective of the observation was to determine the effects of 20-hour music therapy on an experimental group’s depression, anxiety, and mental well-being. The quantitative data the research provided proved that depression and anxiety in the group decreased while their self-esteem increased. The qualitative data conveyed proof that the participants “enjoyed life more, their feelings of relaxation and confidence increased, and they experienced less negative emotions” (Osmanoǧlu and Yilmaz 22, 23). Gagner-Tjellesen et al. (2001) supported this notion in their claim that music stimulates the brain and causes the body to relax. In addition, it may reduce the pain one feels, and increase the secretion of endorphins, lowering blood pressure and heart rate (Sha and Genqiang 6). All these psychological and physiological benefits of listening to instrumental music strengthen the argument that some form should be implemented into the education system. The mental health struggles of today’s youth need to be addressed because they are the future of our world and the parents of the following generation. If they don’t receive the care they need, it could be detrimental to our society as a whole. Intrinsically, children that are experiencing hardships with mental health deserve for their issues to be recognized and cared for. It is a matter of protecting innocence, as well as protecting the world that we live in. This experiment proves the effectiveness of implementing instrumental music as a therapy method and that instrumental music therapy could cause significant positive changes in students’ academic lives.

 

JL Burns et al. claim that using instrumental background music as a method of decreasing anxiety is unsuccessful in medical students and that no background music is, in fact, the optimal studying technique (101-16). This argument is based on the grounds of limited capacity assumption (Herlekar and Hiremath 1402-1403). In other words, the brain has a limited capacity regarding the information it is capable of processing, and that capacity is divided between cognitive processes. Rather than the music influencing the changes in behavior, JL Burns et al. argue that it is the effect of different personality traits and acquired skills. This is because when a student listens to music while attempting to study or learn by processing visual stimuli, they are essentially “distracting” a portion of their cognitive capacity to subconsciously process the background music, causing the mind to compete for mental resources. The tool that was intended to assist them in their studies, would ultimately hinder them mentally, causing an increase in anxiety, and decrease in productivity (Burns et al. 101-16).

 

However, Shantala Shripad Herlekar and Savita Hiremath conducted a study on medical students that quantitatively determined the effectiveness of using instrumental music as a background for studying. The experiment’s “empirical data” established “that classical instrumental music with slower rhythms helps to reduce perceived anxiety in medical students and can help increase their performance” (Herlekar and Hiremath 1403). The benefits that instrumental music provides are irrespective of a student’s gender, nationality, ethnicity, and preference. This study proves that all students can benefit from the implementation of instrumental background music in their studies, both mentally and productively (Sha and Genqiang 10). Additionally, “Students, who use music while studying, can be advised to use instrumental music in the background which can help them relieve their anxiety and concentrate better” (Herlekar and Hiremath 1403).

 

For the past two and a half years, I have been implementing this ideology into my educational journey. Since I received a piano for my fifteenth birthday, understanding and developing a relationship with music has become an integral part of my life. Learning to play the piano has been my method of dealing with personal struggles with mental health. I have also turned to playlists of instrumental piano jazz to help me focus when studying or writing. For many others, the method and execution may not be the same, but instrumental music is proven to positively impact the mental state and productivity of students. It is my goal for the next year to use my experiences to help spread awareness of students’ mental health and promote using instrumental music as a way to approach each individual’s struggles. My strategy for achieving this will take advantage of an existing club at my school, Monarch High School: Make Our Schools Safe. Our club focuses on students’ mental health; therefore, I am going to implement the notion that instrumental music can contribute immensely to the mental health of our student body into the club’s manifesto. Additionally, there will be an annual event featuring live instrumental music, run by students, which will promote awareness of our high schoolers’ mental health and the effectiveness of instrumental music therapy in their educational experiences. Although the intricacies of the event are not specifically defined yet, there will be a comprehensive outline and plan completed within these next few months. My project’s “raison d’être,” or “reason to be,” is that music is an essential part of my emotional and educational journey because I have a deep-rooted love for the art and its effects on the psyche. Ultimately, come July 1st, 2024, the effects of instrumental music will be known throughout my school and students will be able to attend a live event once a year, educating the following generations on the importance of mental health as a student.