March 15, 2018

March is Music in Our Schools Month. What a great time to celebrate our student musicians:  the kids who have dedicated countless hours to mastering their craft, to learning to read foreign languages, to practicing their dexterity, to excelling in a world of constant change. A world where everyone gets to be a part of the team. Where every player is just as important as the next player. Where teamwork is the basis for everything.
 
Music rooms across the world are the true collaborative classrooms: students working side by side to play or sing together, making everything work at just the right time, and at just the right pitch and volume. Coordination of breath control, muscle control, eye-ear-hand coordination, it all takes years to perfect.
 
Whether you have a young singer, a recorder karate champion, a marching band member, cellist or vocalist, or play the radio, music is a part of everyone's life. Imagine a movie without a soundtrack, a Super Bowl without a halftime show; even talk radio uses intro music! Music truly is a common thread; it really is everywhere.
 
Music students are among the most disciplined students. A student who takes lessons for six years typically shows an increase in IQ of seven points, according to a University of Zurich study. Music students typically score higher on standardized tests!
 
I would be remiss if I didn’t give a shout-out to all the great music teachers out there. From concerts in small rural towns to performances at the Met, action movies to love scenes, baseball walk-up music to Olympic ceremonies, without you, there would be silence in the world. Thank you for all you do!
 
I encourage everyone to attend a school concert. Listen to a group of first-graders, attend a spring concert and next time you’re at a high school football game, watch the halftime show and cheer like it was the game-winning touchdown.
 
March is Music in Our Schools Month, but music happens in schools every day. Celebrate!
 
Chip Williams taught middle school and high school band and choir for 21 years. He and his wife, Kerri, own the Williams Insurance Agency of Southeast Michigan in Monroe, MI. They opened their office in 2016, and Chip retired from teaching in June 2017.