Music lessons build brainpower

And yet across the country, if not on L.A.'s Westside, music and other arts instruction are often whacked or cut disproportionately when budgets are squeezed. They're seen as appropriate luxuries in good times, but otherwise superfluous and expendable, despite evidence to the contrary.

such as evidence from...

UCLA professor James Catterall, whose specialty is the connection between artistic learning and academic and social development, suggests that learning music, in addition to developing the parts of the brain that are tied to emotion and empathy, can activate neuro-pathways and facilitate learning in other areas.

Yet another great article presenting all the reasons why not to cut music in the schools.  Written by Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopez (author of The Soloist).  

The entire column can be found here.

You have to love the last two quotes:

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy," Beethoven said.

But I think I'll give the last words to Nietzsche:

"Without music, the world would be a mistake."