Involvement in choral or instrumental ensembles improves hearing and language skills for teenagers, a study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University revealed. It also found that being part of such groups helps adolescents achieve better grades in school and experience greater success in their careers.

The three-year study “included 40 freshmen at high schools in low-income Chicago neighborhoods who were followed until their senior year,” HealthDay reported. “Nearly half participated in band classes that involved two to three hours a week of instrumental group music instruction at school.

“The remainder of the students enrolled in junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, which emphasized physical fitness.

“Over the study’s three years, the music students showed faster maturation in the brain’s response to sound, as well as heightened brain sensitivity to sound details.

“All of the participants showed improvements in language skills linked to sound structure awareness, but the improvement was greater among those in the music group than those in the ROTC group.”

Senior author of the study, Nina Kraus, wrote in a Northwestern University news release, “Although learning to play music does not teach skills that seem directly relevant to most careers, the results suggest that music may engender what educators refer to as ‘learning to learn.’”

“Learning to learn” is a teaching theory that reasons students will be more successful if they are equipped with the ability to teach skills to themselves, instead of being taught skills directly. By being self-motivated, teenagers are more likely to succeed in future pursuits.

Participating in an ensemble also develops interpersonal skills, which help teenagers work better with co-workers and colleagues.

The journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which published the study, reported that the “results support the notion that the adolescent brain remains receptive to training, underscoring the importance of enrichment during the teenage years.”