Why Band?

Make Music Together

We come together every day to create new music, and explore new musical styles. In band, students have the opportunity to learn about themselves and discover how they learn best.

If you were in band in middle school, continuing band in high school builds on the skills you’ve already developed, and        

allows you to continue being around people who appreciate your musical skills.

• “Why, at many schools, band is the best extra-curricular activity”  (article)

• Keep Band in Your Life!  (video full of people from Virginia)

• Why Band is Important  (video) 

Have Fun!

Outside of academics, band affords students the opportunity to have some amazing experiences like Spring Trip, and exposure to prominent colleges and uni­ver­si­ties like James Madison, George Mason, Virginia Tech, University of Maryland, UVA, Delaware, and many more.

Band allows you to meet new people, and builds a strong support system as upper­class­men look out for their under­class­men peers. 

Nothing beats being part of the ​“band family” and the band room is a safe place to hang out with great people!

• Fran Kick on Fun, Good, and Work  (video)

• Jack Stamp on Why Music Matters (is 95% REALLY an “A”?)  (video)

The Research

College Admissions

College admissions officers continue to cite par­tic­i­pa­tion in music as an important factor in making admissions 

decisions. They claim that music par­tic­i­pa­tion demon­strates time management, creativity, expression, and open-

mindedness. 

— Carl Hartman, Arts May Improve Students’ Grades, The Associated Press, October, 1999

• Princeton Dean of Admission regarding High School and Extracurriculars  (article)

• Quality extra-curricular activities can be crucial to college admissions  (article)

The U.S. Department of Education

The U.S. Department of Education recommends that high school students take courses in the arts, stating: 

Many colleges view par­tic­i­pa­tion in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students’ 

under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion of the world around them. It is well known and widely recognized that the arts 

contribute sig­nif­i­cant­ly to children’s intel­lec­tu­al development.

— Getting ready for College dearly: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997

Top Business Executives

The nation’s top business executives agree that arts education programs can help repair weaknesses in American 

education and better prepare workers for the 21st Century. 

— The Changing Workplace is Changing Our View of education, Business Week, October 1996

Expanding Abstract Reasoning

A research team exploring the link between music and intel­li­gence reports that music training is far superior to 

computer instruction in dra­mat­i­cal­ly enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and 

science. 

— Frances Rauscher and Gordon Shaw, Neurological Research, University of California at Irvine, February, 1997

Standardized Tests

When researchers analyzed the NEL: 88 database of the U.S. Department of Education, which tracked 25,000 students 

over a ten-year period, they discovered that students who were involved in music scored higher on stan­dard­ized tests 

than students not taking music courses. This finding was consistent for students of all socioe­co­nom­ic backgrounds. 

— James Catterall, UCLA, 1997

Silicon Valley

A majority of the engineers and technical designers in Silicon Valley are also practicing musicians. 

— The Case for Sequential Music Education in the Core Curriculum of Public Schools, Center for the Arts in the Basic Curriculum,