Why MIT Experts Recommend Teaching Music Before Coding

The Melody of the Mind: How Music Shapes Language, Intelligence, and Brain Networks

As physicians, we often consider early childhood interventions in terms of vaccines, nutrition, or cognitive stimulation. But here’s a compelling twist: learning a musical instrument—especially in early years—can uniquely sculpt the brain’s wiring in ways that benefit language, cognition, and neural connectivity more deeply than many realize.

In recent years, neuroscientists, psychologists, and educators have converged on the idea that music isn’t just an artistic enrichment—it acts as a powerful brain trainer. In some studies, its benefits surpass those of extra reading or even coding classes.

The Scientific Foundations: What the Latest Studies Show

The MIT piano-training vs reading study: pitch and speech gains
One landmark study involved kindergarten children in Beijing, randomized into three groups over six months: one group received piano lessons, another group received extra reading lessons, and a third had no additional training. The piano group showed unique improvements in discriminating subtle speech sounds—particularly consonants—and enhanced brain sensitivity to pitch changes. Notably, these gains in speech processing outpaced what the extra reading group achieved. Importantly, there were no differential gains in broad cognitive measures (IQ, working memory, attention) across groups. (This suggests that music’s benefit is specific to auditory/language processing, not just general intelligence.)

What does this tell us? Music training seems to sharpen auditory discrimination—the ability to tell one subtle sound from another—and that feeds directly into language comprehension and phonological awareness.

Structural and functional brain connectivity in musicians
Beyond short-term interventions, cross-sectional imaging studies comparing musicians and non-musicians have revealed enhanced structural and functional connectivity in musical brains. These enhancements tend to concentrate in regions that support auditory processing, speech, and higher-order integration (e.g. between auditory cortex, frontal lobes, parietal networks). Some of these differences are strongest in individuals who began musical training early in life, suggesting a sensitive period.

In short: sustained musical training seems to wire stronger “highways” across brain regions that process sound, language, and executive control.

Music vs coding: which training better enhances brain wiring?
Some popular narratives push coding (“algorithmic thinking,” “future jobs”) as the ultimate brain booster. But neuroscientific findings challenge that assumption. The networks built by musical training appear more directly relevant to speech and auditory tasks than those built by coding practice, which are more abstract and domain-specific. Because spoken language is fundamental, stronger auditory-linguistic networks often influence many downstream skills (reading, verbal fluency, communication). A provocative conclusion: if the goal is to support language and communicative intelligence, music might offer superior returns than coding in early childhood.

Why Music Plays So Well with Language
What is it about music that aligns so intimately with speech and language? Here are key mechanistic insights:

Auditory discrimination / pitch sensitivity
Speech and music both rely on detecting fine-grained differences in frequency (pitch), timing (rhythm), and timbre (tone quality). A child trained to detect small pitch distinctions (for example, on a piano) becomes more adept at discerning subtle variations in spoken syllables or consonants—especially in tonal or phonemically-rich languages.

Temporal and rhythmic processing
Timing is crucial in both melody and language (syllable timing, prosody, stress patterns). Music training refines temporal precision, which can translate into better speech rhythm parsing, smoother fluency, and improved phonological segmentation.

Feedback loops and error detection
When learning an instrument, you constantly monitor what you play, compare it to a target sound, adjust, and repeat. This feedback loop strengthens error detection networks—skills that carry over into monitoring one’s own speech (detecting mispronunciations, self-correction) and refining language output.

Integration across sensory, motor, and cognitive domains
Playing music engages multiple systems: ear (hearing), brain (processing), hand (motor control), and attention/executive control (planning, correcting, memory). This multimodal engagement recruits distributed circuits and may encourage better integration between domains (auditory ↔ motor ↔ executive). For language, such integration is crucial: think about linking phonemes with articulatory gestures and controlling speech output.

Sensitive periods & neuroplasticity
The brain in early childhood is highly plastic. Introducing musical training during windows of increased malleability may produce more robust changes, making the auditory pathways and connectivity more durable over time. Later training still helps, but the structural “scaffolding” may be less malleable.

Clinical Implications: What This Means for Pediatric Development, Education, and Advice
As doctors—and particularly pediatricians, neurologists, speech therapists, or developmental specialists—we can harness these findings in practice.

Encouraging music training early
When meeting parents of young children (preschool or early school age), it's reasonable to advocate for structured music lessons (e.g. piano, strings, voice) as part of enriched childhood development, especially where resources permit. The evidence suggests side-by-side benefits to speech sound discrimination, reading readiness, and long-term auditory processing.

Integration with speech and language interventions
For children with phonological processing difficulties, dyslexia risk, or speech delays, combining music-based auditory training may complement traditional speech therapy. Because music hones pitch, rhythm, timing, and feedback monitoring, it can support speech discrimination, phoneme awareness, and prosody.

Equity in educational policy & advocacy
Many schools cut arts programs when under budget constraints, favoring “core” subjects like reading or STEM. The neuroscientific data argue for preserving or restoring music education as a core investment, not just an optional enrichment track. Advocacy within school systems, public health, and policy should stress that music training is not frivolous—it underpins language development with robust neuroscience backing.

Limitations and realistic expectations

• Musical training does not universally increase IQ or broad cognition—its effects are domain-specific (auditory/language).
  
  
• The magnitude of benefit depends on consistency, duration, quality of training, and onset age.
  
  
• Socioeconomic barriers may limit access; inequities in arts funding can exacerbate developmental gaps.
  
  
• Not every child will become a professional musician, but even moderate training can yield meaningful enhancements in language and auditory skills.
  

Monitoring and research directions
As clinicians, we can encourage longitudinal follow-up of children who engage in music programs, monitor language and reading outcomes, and even propose or collaborate in research linking clinical cohorts to musical training. For students with known risks (e.g. family history of dyslexia, speech/language delays), offering participation in musical interventions and tracking outcomes can add real-world validation to laboratory findings.

A Practical Roadmap for Families & Clinicians
Let me propose a practical plan families or clinicians may adopt to translate these insights into action.

1. Start early
   Aim to begin music lessons by age 4–7 if possible. Evidence suggests that onset in this window yields stronger connectivity gains.
   
   
2. Select structured, sustained training
   Choose sessions that are regular (e.g. 2–3 times per week, 30–60 minutes) and guided by qualified instructors rather than purely casual play.
   
   
3. Choose an instrument that emphasizes pitch and melody
   Piano, violin, voice, and wind instruments work well because they demand fine frequency control. Percussion is helpful but less directly tied to pitch-based language overlap.
   
   
4. Maintain consistency
   Sporadic participation yields little effect. Encourage persistence over months and years, not just weeks.
   
   
5. Reinforce cross-domain practice
   Integrate listening tasks, singing, rhythm games, and reading-music tasks to blur boundaries between music and language.
   
   
6. Monitor language, reading, and auditory skills
   Use simple phoneme discrimination tests, reading assessments, and speech sound error tracking to gauge benefit over time.
   
   
7. Coordinate with speech/language therapy
   Where children already receive speech therapy or literacy support, embed musical auditory training as a complementary module.
   
   
8. Promote equitable access
   Advocate for school-based or subsidized programs so that children from all backgrounds can benefit. Music should not be a privilege for the wealthy.
   
   
9. Tailor expectations
   Emphasize that benefits are incremental—not magic—and unlikely to “fix” broad cognitive deficits, but offer a robust scaffold in the auditory-linguistic domain.
   
   
10. Encourage adult adaptation
    Though sensitive periods exist, older learners (teens or adults) can also gain enhanced auditory discrimination and brain plasticity from musical training—though effects are typically less dramatic.
    

A Narrative Example: “Little Sara’s Musical Journey”
Imagine a 5-year-old girl, Sara, with mild speech articulation delays and a family history of reading difficulties. Her parents enroll her in piano lessons at age 5: 45 minutes, three times a week, with a skilled instructor. Over six months, her speech-language pathologist notices improved ability to distinguish minimal pairs (e.g. “bat” vs “bad”), smoother reading of simple phoneme-based texts, and greater confidence in conversation. Brain imaging (if ever done in research settings) might show heightened sensitivity to pitch differentials and improved connectivity between auditory and frontal areas.

Sara doesn’t become a concert pianist—but her musical training became a scaffold for better linguistic wiring, reinforcing phonological precision, timing, and error monitoring. Her reading fluency benefits—and over time, the small early leap grows into a more resilient language foundation.

Addressing Counterarguments and Conflicting Evidence
No field is without controversy or nuance. Some studies have failed to replicate broad cognitive benefits from music training. For instance, critics argue that music lessons may reflect selection bias: children already with stronger brains or more supportive environments might self-select into music. Others point to null or weak findings when comparing music to other enrichment activities.

Yet the MIT randomized design is compelling because it minimizes selection bias. Also, the specificity of improvement (speech discrimination rather than general IQ) strengthens the argument that musical training is targeting a real auditory-linguistic mechanism, not just boosting overall intelligence.

In addition, one recent English/Japanese study concluded that music lessons alone did not improve school grades or global cognition. That underscores the need for measured expectations: not every child will show dramatic change in every domain, and musical training is best viewed as a targeted augmentation, not a universal “cure-all.”

Why This Topic Matters to Clinicians
As doctors, we often counsel on nutrition, early development, vaccines, and cognitive stimulation. The role of the arts—and music in particular—has historically been marginalized or considered “extra.” But neuroscience is showing that music is a powerful developmental lever for the brain’s auditory, language, and integrative systems. Advocating for music training is not just cultural advocacy—it’s promoting a biologically supported instrument for optimizing early brain architecture.

When working with families, including a “musical enrichment prescription” in developmental guidance can be a differentiator. For clinicians involved in developmental pediatrics, speech pathology, or educational advocacy, recognizing the potency of music-based brain training can open new adjunctive strategies for children at risk of language or reading delays.