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A recent study by Dr. Frances H. Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin found that at-risk children scored better in spatial and temporal reasoning skills when they received training in rhythm, piano and singing.
Music Education Improves IQ
A study by Dr. E. Glenn Schellenberg of the University of Toronto confirmed that children receiving voice or piano lessons showed significant improvements in IQ compared with children who did not receive music instruction.
Music Improves Self Esteem
According to O.F. Lillemyr of the Norwegien Research Council for Science and the Humanities, there is a high correlation between positive self-perception, high cognitive competence score, healthy self-esteem, total interest and school involvement, and the study of music.
Music Influences Kids to Stay in School
According to the Centre for Music Research, Florida State University, 1990, courses in music positively influenced the decisions of high school students tracked not to drop out of school .
Music Helps Non-traditional Learners
Dr. Lassar Golkin found that children who were unable to learn concepts in a verbal school setting were able to learn the same concepts through these same kinds of (singing) street play and games. He developed the Interdependent Learning Model (ILM), which brings music games into schools for the purpose of teaching academic skills and content (California State University, Fullerton).
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How it Started Over the years, Ray Nelson has witnessed first-hand the impact his program has had over young lives. “The changes are like day and night. The music gives the kids something to focus on, and when they start focusing, they do better in school." |
The idea for Guitars Not Guns began over a decade ago after Ray and Louise Nelson decided to become foster parents. Through foster parenting classes and training, the Nelsons learned about the plight of foster children, especially teens. The Nelsons learned that these children lead a nomadic life, sometimes living in four to six homes during their teen years. “Sometimes all they would have would be one bag of clothes—no one wants teenagers, you see,” says Nelson.
It didn’t take long for Nelson to realize these kids needed something to focus on, something to occupy their time in a productive way and hopefully instil some self-confidence in these kids. Nelson wanted to give them something to focus on to help them with their troubled and often tragic young lives. “It was either music or sports to occupy them,” says Nelson.
“I started collecting guitars and passing them along to foster kids. Then it went beyond that. People found out what I was doing and I started getting requests for guitars for poor and needy kids, and kids who had been sick. It kind of got me hooked.”
Over the years, Nelson has witnessed first-hand the impact his program has had over young lives. “The changes are like day and night. The music gives the kids something to focus on, and when they start focusing, they do better in school."
Recalling one such success story Nelson says, “We had one boy named Daniel who didn’t really like himself, but he started taking lessons. He took to it like a duck to water and got a lot of one-on-one timefrom our volunteer teacher Nick Langston. He ended up joining a teen band and the guitar turned his life around. Another success story is that of a shy, 10-year-old boy who entered a talent contest at his elementary school about six months after he started taking classes A very talented boy that learned quickly and he took home first place. “I’m sure some of these kids will go on to make a name for themselves as great musicians.”
“Being a musician all these years and knowing what a guitar meant to me as a kid, I started asking a lot of my musician friends for their old guitars that were sitting in the corner collecting dust,”says Ray Nelson about his inspiration to start the Guitars Not Guns Music Program , a youth mentoring program that puts
The idea for the Guitars Not Guns program began over a decade ago after Ray and Louise decided to become foster parents. Their children had grown and moved out of the house and the Nelsons were experiencing the effects of an empty nest. Nelson, a professional musician, had recently retired from a 30-year road career playing throughout the Midwest and California.
Nelson recalls that time, “My wife approached me about getting a foster child. She was still working and I was just lazing around the house.” The couple soon opened their home—and hearts—to the idea that ultimately changed many lives.
“We started out with one child and then it became another child and before I knew it, we had four teenagers—two boys and two girls,” says Nelson. The couple went “from a quiet house to teenagers running and yelling in the halls, PTA, and two dozen eggs for breakfast every morning,” Nelson laughs.
Through foster parenting classes and training, the Nelsons learned about the plight of foster children—especially the teens. The Nelsons learned that these children lead a nomadic life, sometimes living in four to six homes during their teen years. “Sometimes all they would have would be one bag of clothes—no one wants teenagers, you see,” says Nelson.
For more information about the Gibson Foundation go here.
For more information about the Gibson/Baldwin Music Education (GBME) go here.
For more information on how you can start a local chapter of Guitars Not Guns go here.
