Music is an extremely important subject within the curriculum. It can help increase spatial awareness, with experiments such as the Mozart effect, which has found that spacial tasks, like putting together a jigsaw puzzle were completed quicker after listening to classical music (Telegraph Reporter, 2015).
Music is also an inclusive subject that can enhance wider skills, such as improving confidence and social skills by singing in a choir or playing in an orchestra.
Having an awareness of music by discussing music and realising that everyone has different musical tastes and thoughts on music is extremely beneficial to both us as teachers and pupils alike. We all have our own likes and dislikes, for example, my favourite kind of music is pop punk, I am not too keen on heavy metal.
We were able to prove this theory within the music workshop with listening to five pieces of music and we had to write down one word about how it made us feel. There were many different answers around the room and yet we had all listened to the same piece of music. We learned that there is no right or wrong answer.
By having this appreciation of music ourselves, we can instil this within our pupils and encourage them to become successful learners, effective contributors, confident individuals and responsible citizens. The Greenmill String Project is a great example of a program within Ayrshire that allows children to develop the skills needed to attain the attributes above. 
When teachers were interviewed, they stated that “Some are looked-after or accommodated children. This project engages all of them. That has a spin- off into the classroom. They’re more engaged there too. They have a confidence that suddenly they’re good at something.” ( TES, 2011).
In our music workshop, we looked at using music to inspire us to think creatively through literacy. There do seem to be benefits for engaging in musical activities in relation to reading beyond
those associated with language development (Hallam, 2010, p42). We firstly listened to a piece of music and we were then asked to create a storyboard based upon what we heard. There were many different interpretations around room, but our group decided to base ours on a man being chased by a bee. This activity can be taught to all ages and modified to suit each level. For example, if the activity was being taught to infants, you could ask them to draw a picture of what they hear using music as the stimulus.
Music can allow us to find pathways to other curricular areas. We would not get away with not teaching maths, so we shouldn’t not teach music!
Reference List
Hallam, S. (2010) The Power of Music pp 40-47 [Online] Available: http://www.dickhallam.co.uk/resources/The%20Power%20of%20Music%202014.pdf [Accessed: 9 October 2019]
Telegraph Reporter (2015) ‘Mozart effect’: can classical music really make your baby smarter? The Telegraph. [Online] 28 March, non-paginated. Available: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/children/11500314/Mozart-effect-can-classical-music-really-make-your-baby-smarter.html [Accessed: 9 October 2019].
TES (2011) Strings Attached [Online] Available: https://www.tes.com/news/strings-attached-0
