What Group Music-Making Does for Kids: Ensemble, Band & Choir Research

By ABC Academy of Music teaching team · Updated August 2026

Parents ask us this often: “Is it better for my child to play alone, or with other kids?” Most music research looks at just one child and one instrument. A smaller set of studies looks at something different. What happens when kids make music together, in a band, choir, or group class? This article covers that research. It focuses on group play itself, not just private lessons. See our companion piece on music lessons and school performance for the grades side of this topic. Our full Music Education Research hub lists every study behind our program.

A Big Canadian Study, With an Ensemble Twist

We covered the largest study on this topic before. It tracked 112,916 British Columbia students, grades 7 through 12, using real school records. Our companion piece on school performance has the full effect-size table. Here is the part that matters for this article. The researchers split students by activity type. They did not just compare “music” to “no music.” Kids in bands or orchestras showed a stronger link to higher exam scores than kids in choir. Both groups beat kids with no music at all. This points to something worth noting. It was not just music. It was not just one instrument. Group play itself showed up in the data.

This was a Canadian study. It only shows a link. It cannot prove that joining a band causes higher grades. But it is rare in one way. It is large enough to compare ensemble types against each other, not just against non-music kids.

Is Choir Special? A UK Study Says No, and That Is the Interesting Part

A UK study from 2021 asked a sharper question. Is choir special? Or is any active group hobby about as good for well-being? Researchers compared choir singers to five other groups. These were solo singers, band and orchestra players, solo instrumentalists, team-sport players, and solo-sport players. They measured well-being, happiness, anxiety, depression, and self-esteem in all six groups.

Choir singers did not score higher than the other five groups on any of these. That might sound like bad news for choir. It is not. The real finding is broader, and more useful for parents. Joining an active group links to similar well-being, no matter which group it is. The benefit is not unique to choir. It shows up wherever kids show up, practice, and belong to a group together.

Chosen Groups vs. Required Groups: A Study From Slovenia and Serbia

Not every group feels the same to a kid, even within the same activity. A 2025 study compared 274 young choir singers, ages 15 to 24, in Slovenia and Serbia. Of these, 197 sang in school choirs and 77 sang in choirs they joined on their own, outside of school. General well-being looked similar in both groups. But the singers who chose their choir scored higher on a few specific things. They felt more passion for singing. They felt more connected to the group. They felt a bigger mood boost from rehearsal. School choir singers reported slightly more shame or guilt about their own performance than the other group.

This is one small, specific study. But it points to something practical. How a child ends up in a music group, chosen freely or assigned, may matter almost as much as joining one at all.

Ensembles and Risk Behavior: The Texas School Survey

One of the largest ongoing teen surveys in North America is the Texas School Survey of Substance Use. It runs every two years, across grades 7 through 12. Its finding on this topic is clear and widely cited. Students in band, orchestra, or choir report the lowest lifetime and current use of alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs, compared to students overall.

This is a US, Texas-only survey. Like the BC study, it only shows a link, not a cause. Kids who join and stay in a band may already differ from other kids in ways the survey cannot sort out. Even with that caveat, the pattern fits the rest of this article. Group music activities line up with lower-risk behavior, not higher-risk behavior. Our article on music and teen stress relief covers a related angle: how music, group or solo, helps teens manage stress day to day.

What This Adds Up To

No single study here proves that joining a band or choir changes a child on its own. Each one only shows a link. Each has real limits, like sample size or self-selection. But four studies, from three countries, point the same way. Kids in bands or orchestras show a stronger link to exam scores than kids in choir alone, in the largest Canadian dataset we have. Active group play links to well-being gains much like team sports, not something unique to music, in a UK study. Choosing your own group may add a real extra benefit, in a study from Slovenia and Serbia. Ensemble kids report lower substance use, in the largest ongoing US teen survey on this topic. Put together, this is a case for the group setting itself, not just the instrument.

Group Music-Making at ABC Academy of Music

Music does not have to be a solo activity to be worth it. The research above says the group setting itself carries real value. For a look at how families in our own city approach music education, see our Toronto and GTA music education data page. At ABC Academy of Music, our Music Together® classes bring group music-making to babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, offered at all of our locations. We also work with schools and daycare centres on customized group programs — contact us to discuss what might work for your child. Browse our class schedule to see our private, one-on-one lesson options in piano, guitar, voice, and drums.