Musicians: smarter than non-musicians?

[Locky]

It's amazing how much is covered in this non piano forum. Everyone seems to know so much. Perhaps musicians are superior . Maybe we just have superiority complexes .

What do you think?  

[donjuan]

I certainly think so.  What I find, is that when one studies music, they develop a certain type of thinking that can be applied to real life- How to study for a math test at school, how to communicate with unspoken languages (eg. body language), and stimulates innovative thinking.

My school grades went up dramatically when I became interested in Music.  This is enough evidence for me.  Also, do you ever see any rednecks, drug dealers, gangmembers, or underachievers studying music? I have yet to see one..
donjuan

[Derek]

I studied music in such a nonstandard unorthodox way that I doubt I benefitted from it in the same way.

Once college began, studying math and so forth eventually gave me the discipline (in general) neccessary to teach myself to read sheet music and eventually to learn better technique.  It sort of went the other way around for me, I guess.

[squinchy]

I agree that musicians are smarter than non-musicians. Music does help you develop concentration, study skills, etc, but sometimes smarter people are more likely to become musicians. Studying music helped me take academic more seriously; school has always been easy for me, but I think I started to work harder and put more effort into easy tasks once I started piano.

[donjuan]

yeah, unlike those dabblers, eh Squinchy...

[Locky]

I wonder what the non-musicians would have to say to our comments. Perhaps we're presenting a slightly biased arguement.  

[faulty_damper]

Is there any empirical evidence that musicians really are smarter?  Yes, there is.  So what?

There is also a correlation between brain size and intelligence: the larger the head, the more intelligent the person.  So what?

So what?  Haven't you been listening?  Find an attractive girl who plays a musical instrument and does not have a watermelon-sized head.  The fact that she plays an instrument makes up for the lack of headspace since a large head is not very attractive.

[newsgroupeuan]

I wonder what the non-musicians would have to say to our comments. Perhaps we're presenting a slightly biased arguement.  

Methinks so

[Immortal52]

TEXTMusicians are def. smarter than those who do not play an instrument. We have proven that we do better in math and science. We have a better overall knowledge of music and more of a love for music. We learn about a composer's background life and how they began playing. We appreciate music more since we play.