Do Music Lessons Enhance IQ

Schellenberg (2004) investigated whether music lessons improved IQ scores in young children in a pretest-posttest design. Six-year-old children were assigned to one of four treatment groups: keyboard instruction, Kodaly vocal instruction, drama instruction, or no-lessons for 36 weeks during the school year. All groups showed a significant increase in IQ scores over the year. A small, significant difference in gain of 2.7 IQ points was reported when the results of the keyboard and Kodaly groups were combined and contrasted against the combined results for drama and no-lessons. The combination of groups was not justified theoretically because the Kodaly method was presented as being very different from standard musical instruction. Reanalyses of the original uncombined data produced results that were statistically insignificant and had small effect-size values. The hypothesized effect of music lessons is still in need of clarification.