Music and the making of music have been a central theme in this blog, and who would expect any different? We’ve talked a lot about the vast benefits that come from learning to play music, writing your own, and even just sitting back an listening. As we have discussed, at great length, children can probably benefit the most from an early education in music. Test scores, social skills, literacy, critical thinking and friendships can all develop well with a strong musical base to help support them. One area that we have touched on but not fully explored is musical theatre.

Imagination and play-time are two sides of the same incredibly important developmental coin. Combining the power of young imagination, singing, dancing, and drama, musical theatre can be the perfect storm of learning and fun.

Benefits of Singing

We’ve talked a lot about how learning an instrument or having an education in music can reap some profound benefits. Singing falls right into this category. Children and adults can both benefits from learning to sing in the same way they can learning an instrument. After all, singing is practicing an instrument, it just happens to be your own voice instead of some bulky thing with keys or valves.

Without repeating too much of what we have discussed in the past, music has some benefits all to itself. For example, learning to read music, and then sing it helps develop coordination, concentration, and memory. This is especially true in musical theatre, as students need to not only learn to read and reproduce the music, but they must memorize it because they wont have the sheet music in front of them. Musical numbers are intermixed with dramatic scenes and stage directions, reinforcing concentration and coordination.

Singing as a part of musical theatre also helps train the brain in the areas of language and reasoning. This is a concept we’ve discussed before, but in brief, music is essentially a new language for your brain to decipher and learn. Music has it’s own syntax, grammar, and vocabulary. Learning to change those little notations on the page into beautiful notes strung together to form a song is like learning to speak a foreign language as far as your brain is concerned. It helps your brain process language easier and more efficiently, while also reinforcing reasoning skills inherently tied to language.

And of course, music and singing have a profound impact on creativity, opening the door for many young students to a much wider world of imagination and discovery.

Benefits of Dance

The benefits associated with dance are more obvious for younger people, but, as with everything music, everyone can enjoy them! First and foremost, dance is great for both your body and your brain. Dancing, regardless of the style, keeps the body active, improving both strength and flexibility. Practicing dance is a great way to work on posture and balance. At its core, dance gives you a better control over your body’s fine movements, as well as gives you a better overall sense of your body and the way you move. Of course, let’s not forget how dancing can help the brain too. Letting yourself go, and dancing with the music can help reduce stress levels and can help stave off or reduce the symptoms of depression. It’s hard to feel bad or down when the music gets inside you and moves your feet to the beat. And that is saying nothing of the boost of self esteem and confidence that comes hand in hand with mastering any skill, though is seems to come through in spades when learning to dance. Lastly, as I said, the benefits of dance are much more obvious to the young, but everyone can benefit, including the elderly. In fact, dancing has been shown to be the only physical activity that protects against dementia. Coupled with the awesome power music and singing have over memory, the elderly may benefit the most from a little musical theatre from time to time.

Dancing has some social benefits as well, especially when in the form of musical theatre. Both drama and dance can give insight into other cultures through their themes, styles, and challenges. Combining the two gives context and helps with mutual respect and understanding.

Benefits of Drama

Drama brings its own set of benefits to the party. Perhaps the most important skill taught through drama is the concept of “perspective taking.” Just as it sounds, theatre helps teach performers how to look at any given situation through the eyes of someone else. Taking the role of a character allows them to literally walk in someone else’s shoes for a time.

In addition to learning how to look at a situation from another’s point of view, drama also teaches the players to work together. Everyone has their part to play to make the production form into something enjoyable for both the actors and the audience. Without cooperation and collaborative effort there is no performance. Over weeks of rehearsals and hard work, students of drama learn to come together and work together to learn the entire production as a unit. If any piece is lacking, the entire show suffers, so they all work together to put on the best show they can.

Drama helps reinforce and build upon the language and communication skills that music began to help develop. Acting teaches communication through both verbal and non-verbal expression, helping to develop a strong and well evolved ability to decipher both spoken and body language throughout life. Drama also helps with the physical side of communicating. As an actor, you must learn to project your voice to be heard, articulate your words to be understood, and be persuasive to entertain.

Best When Combined

When you combine drama, dancing, and singing you allow the lessons from each to intertwine and build on one another. Concepts like concentration, imagination, critical thinking, collaboration, and memory are all vital aspects of each individual aspect of musical drama, and are developed more fully, effectively, and efficiently when learned together. Besides, who doesn’t like singing, dancing, and pretending they’re someone else for a little while? I know it’s something that appeals to all of us, even if only a little.