Why My Students Draw Things in Lessons

Disclaimer: I am a musician, not a doctor. The few bits of brain anatomy and function discussed below are shared from a layperson’s perspective.

It was at a therapy session earlier this week that something our therapist said really hit home. “When someone takes the time to talk about something, even if it’s to an empty room,” she said, “the information moves from the amygdala to the prefrontal cortex.” She explained that the prefrontal cortex (PFC) is able to be more logical, especially when things are feeling emotional and overwhelming, and it essentially verifies whether things perceived as threats actually are.

But how does this have anything to do with violin and drawing in lessons?

My students draw in lessons. I have them create bow strokes with water and a Buddha Board. I have them draw finger patterns from Suzuki Book 2 or the first page of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto so they see the variation in whole and half steps. I write things down. I ask them to write things down. I leave handwritten signs and diagrams up around the room and change them week to week, watching at the beginning of each lesson as they observe what’s in front of them… even more than the words I’m saying. They can’t help but want to take in the new visual cues from the space they thought they knew.

G Major on Viola

I have drawn the first position notes in black and the third position notes in red. The student had wanted to reach for the top two notes in the scale from first position with three fours in a row. (She was following her great ears!) Once I showed her the simplicity of using third position this way, she chunked the information quickly and didn’t want to go back.

I have noticed that when students take the time to draw things or synthesize information in not ordinary ways, they do better. They are less frustrated. They more quickly relate what they’re learning to things they already know. They retain the information better. Their interest is higher.

When our therapist mentioned this amygdala to the PFC pathway this week, something clicked. I understood part of what makes drawing things so useful in a music lesson. We are processing information in a different place than just inside ourselves. We get to get it out, talk it out, draw it out.

It was after our session in a mini internet deep-dive (again, not a doctor) that I learned that drawing specifically involves the fronto-parietal network, part of which is in the PFC, so drawing can absolutely be included in this creative synthesis of information outside our own minds.

If you teach, consider adding more visual clues to your space. Make parts of your room an ever-changing universe of ideas and diagrams and information. Ask students to draw their interpretation of things before you do. I LOVE seeing how different brains process information differently. Start changing the visual space in your music education classroom and see what happens.