Music has been scientifically proven to improve students abilities in several aspects of their education such as; language development, spatial temporal skills and according to  PBS Parents study, to increase IQ scores and everyday test scores. Senior Alyssa Freije believes that her strong musical influence from Color Guard as playing the violin, while highly difficult, has been extremely rewarding intellectually. She says that in the past has helped her in several ways, especially in finding a balance with her time. 

“Over my last four years of high school, I have learned to create a balance,” Freije said.

When in guard, Freije is able to express herself in the form of dance to a more modern and upbeat music. More whimsical and contemporary songs such as in the upcoming winter show entitled “To The Rescue,” which will features music from Batman, The Avengers and Spiderman. This upcoming show will be performed at their upcoming show on Jan. 24. Between the two forms of musical self expression take out nearly two hours from her school work everyday, but she believes it is time well spent. 

“This was a great experience because I got to see how I can mix my two worlds and create a whole new kind of beautiful performance,” Freije said.

Whenever she is studying and or doing homework, Freije has the habit of listening to the music of her upcoming shows. Listening to this music helps her develop concise inner thoughts for schoolwork, but at the same time it allows her to better connect with the music for her upcoming guard performance. She has found that this method is highly beneficial to her school work as well as her work within guard. She can recall what seemed to be a countless amount of time she had spent listening to the Schindler’s list soundtrack from her guard solo. When she doesn’t have an upcoming performance, she listens to classic music.

“When I don’t have music from a show I listen to a lot of classical music. It makes my head clear up so I can think better,” Freije said.

She believes that music has a high influence on her, whether personally making music, performing or hitting the books, she says she enjoys being able to coordinate her passions throughout the day to the syncopated sound of her songs. Meanwhile other students, such as Tiffany Howard, use the music to calm and tame the beasts within, working themselves down from stressful situations.

“It helps me calm down, if I’m stressed out on a math problem or something, I listen to music it mellows me out” senior Tiffany Howard said.

She prefers music ranging from techno to classical but, she as well as Freije, believe music has a great impact on one’s own work.