Study Shows Percussion Improves IQ Scores of Children

The List of Benefits from Playing the Drums Continues to Grow

Improved IQ scores can now officially be added to the ever-growing list of benefits from playing drums. A recent study shows that playing the drums or other percussion instruments actually improves IQ scores of children. While previous studies have hinted that musical training improves a child's literacy and math skills, this is the first time that a study has shown that one's intelligence level can be improved by drumming.

"Playing the drums makes the brain think in a way that very few activities can," said Pat Brown, International Drum Month chairman and Percussion Marketing Council co-executive director. "Being able to understand musical notes and dissect how rhythms work and go together is a very complicated thought process. The most recent study shows that being constantly exposed to this type of brain activity can actually improve one's IQ level.

According to the study by E. Glenn Shallenberg at the University of Toronto, IQ test scores of six-year-old children significantly improved after receiving drum lessons. Shallenberg recruited a group of 144 six-year-olds and separated them into four groups: those receiving drum lessons, voice lessons, drama lessons, and no lessons. Children receiving the drum lessons showed significant improvement in their IQ tests, gaining an average of seven IQ points. Meanwhile, children receiving voice lessons increased six points, those receiving drama lessons increased five points, and children receiving no lessons improved four points. In his article in Psychological Science, Shallenberg concluded that musical training, in particular, was responsible for the extra IQ points

Among the other benefits of playing the drums are improved muscle coordination and brain activity, physical therapy and stress relief, improved social skills such as teamwork, self-esteem and discipline, and improved abstract thought processes. The benefits of drumming is one of things the PMC is confident that participants will get out of International Drum Month in November

This year's PMC International Drum Month theme is "Discover Your Inner Drummer," which the PMC hopes will motivate and encourage people of all ages, cultures and musical backgrounds to become drummers. The group will bring its message to the public through a variety of print and broadcast media during November - specifically aiming for increased visibility and participation from the virtually untapped teen, female, baby boomer and Latin communities