In a retrospective study, we compared school performance of 53 children practicing music (group 1) with 67 controls not practicing music (group 2). Overall average marks as well as average marks of all school subjects except sports were significantly higher in children who do (group 1) than in those who do not practice music (group 2). In a multiple regression analysis, musical training, parent's income, and educational level (grades) correlated significantly with overall average marks. A slight decrease of overall average marks over 4 years from grades 3 to 6 was found in the control group only. Musical training evidently correlates with children's better performance at school, but is obviously part of a multifactorial dependence. Continuous musical training appears to help achieve and maintain school performance at a high level over time. Schlaug et al. 1995a, b). Two studies have suggested that this enlargement of cerebral structures might have implications on cognitive functions (Chan et al. 1998;Ho et al. 2003). KeywordsIn a study which involved random assignment, Schellenberg (2004) even found a positive overall effect of musical training on IQ scores in school children. In 2006, the same author reported positive associations between the duration of music lessons and IQ scores as well as between music lessons and academic performance. These very general associations found in a Torontonian sample of volunteers mark the starting point for our study. We want to find out if (a) Schellenberg's findings can be validated with a representative sample of Bernese (Swiss) children; (b) if musical training is associated with better overall school performance in grades 3 to 6; (c) if this effect is domain-specific or if it is rather general and extending over several school subjects and (d) if the association of music and school performance disappears if socio-economic factors are taken into account as well. In order to provide an in-depth analysis of school performance and thus extending the findings by Schellenberg (2006), we evaluated average marks per school subject in addition to overall average marks. Data of four different grades were analyzed in order also to estimate the association between the duration of musical training and school performance. Methods

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