Sixth Grade Music Program

The 6th grade music program is available to any interested 6th grader in the Forest Hills Public School District. This program is an exceptional opportunity for students offering specific instruction on their chosen instrument, or voice as well as universal musical concepts and skills. The program stresses the collaborative cooperation and teamwork necessary for group success. This program is also the gateway to the exceptional band, choir and orchestra programs at middle school and high school level. Most importantly, it’s fun!

Introduction Letter from the Director of Fine Arts

The Forest Hills Public School District would like to invite your child to take part in the band, orchestra, and choir program, starting in 6th grade, at Central Woodland, Northern Trials, Eastern Middle, and Goodwill Environmental School. Fine Arts education is not only a creative activity; it is a cultural experience for the child.

Why is music instruction so important?

One of many recent studies from a group of highly acclaimed neuroscientists from MIT concluded the following: Musical brains produce more structural and functional connections when compared to those who don’t learn music.

Most parents want their children to be intelligent and successful. Neuroscience is now showing how powerful music can be on a child’s brain development. Another factor that played a major role was how early the musicians had begun learning music. “The earlier the musicians had started with musical practice, the stronger these connectivity’s,” Jäncke says.

Early music training could help children to develop stronger neural pathways and, in turn, make them smarter. “If someone told me then about the possibility of changing the wiring of my brain, I might have spent more time practicing the piano” (Leipold).

Other factors concluded by over 20 plus years of neuroscientific research about the benefits of music education for students include:

Higher levels of executive function (the complex group of activities in our brain that help solves logical, strategic, conceptual, and emotional elements to them). Highly developed memory systems. Raises their general cognitive capacity. Higher Cognitive Functions, Help moderate our emotional states. Solve complex problems. Help our brains be healthier later in life. Higher standardized test scores. Music education works all three areas of the brain at once, which are the motor, visual and auditory cortex. It is literally exercised for the brain.

Musical instruction is provided free from FHPS, but every child will need to have a musical instrument with which to study. We recommend that parents do not buy an instrument, but rent an instrument the first year from a reputable music store. Beginning band instruments may be rented at a low monthly cost where all the rent applies to the purchase. You are not obligated to purchase the instrument! Again, we prefer you only rent an instrument for the first year. The school provides rental of the more expensive instruments on a very limited basis (tubas, euphoniums, French horns, oboes, bassoons, cello, and double bass); however, playing these instruments is based on suitability, not necessarily financial need. Please do not allow financial reasons to keep your child from enjoying this opportunity. We can help.

If your child wishes to take band, choir, or orchestra in 6th grade, he/she must choose “Band. Choir, or Orchestra” as their FIRST CHOICE for their elective when you enroll for 6th grade next fall and attend an instrument selection meeting in the early spring.

John DeStefano
Director of Fine Arts
jdestefano@fhps.net
616-493-8700