A new study has found that adding music to math lessons can significantly improve student achievement in mathematics. The study, which analyzed 55 studies involving almost 78,000 students from kindergarten to university age, found that the addition of music can make math more enjoyable, keep students engaged, and help ease their fear or anxiety about topics like fractions.

The study found that there were three types of musical interventions that could improve math achievement: typical music lessons in which children sing, listen to, and learn about composing music; learning how to play instruments alone or as part of a band; and music-math integrated interventions, where music was integrated into math lessons. Students who participated in these interventions showed a greater improvement in math scores over time than those who did not.

The study also found that combining music and math in the same lessons had the most significant effect, with around 73 percent of students who had integrated lessons doing significantly better than children who didn’t have any type of musical intervention. Additionally, 69 percent of students who learned how to play instruments and 58 percent of students who had normal music lessons improved more than pupils with no musical intervention.

The study suggests that encouraging math and music teachers to plan lessons together could help ease students’ anxiety about mathematics, while also boosting achievement. By building connections between math and music, students may have extra opportunities to explore, interpret and understand math concepts.