Loma Portal is excited about our wonderful music program based on National Standards of music education to enhance the general curriculum. The program includes general music for grades K-2, recorders in grade 3, and instrumental and choral instruction in grade 4. Students will have the opportunity to develop expressive and communicative musical skills and appreciation for classical and traditional music from the world's cultures. This program will also prepare students for performing arts classes at Dana and Correia middle schools.

The benefits of music education are many. Music instruction develops responsibility, self-confidence, promotes teamwork, and enhances creative and critical thinking skills. Music is inherently integrated with other subjects. Music is science because it is specific and exact. A conductor's score is a chart which indicates frequencies, intensities, volume changes, melody, and harmony with the exact control of time. Music is mathematical in rhythms which subdivide into fractions. Music reflects historical events and times. Music is physical education because it requires great coordination of various body parts. Music is a foreign language with its use of symbols to represent ideas. Music education dramatically enhances children's abstract reasoning skills necessary for learning math and science. Research shows that students who study music scored higher on both verbal and math portions of the SAT than non-music students (College Entrance Examination Board as reported in Symphony, Sept-Oct 1996).

Another study discovered that music lessons in childhood actually enlarge the brain. The area is enlarged through practice and experience. (University of Munster, Germany as reported in Nature, April 23, 1998). A study published in the February 1997 issue of Neurological Research indicates that music study uniquely enhances higher brain functions required for mathematics, chess, science, and engineering. (Found at www.edu-cyberpg.com/Music/musicsmart.html/). The benefits of music instruction are that children are more successful in school, in society, and in life.