As a Jazz musician and professional educator, I was always intrigued by the notion that musical activities, particularly as they related to the practice of a musical instrument, could play a role in the cognitive development of skills that facilitated academic learning. While qualitative literature was abundant on the subject and significant works had been set forth indicating that a relationship existed between the performance aspect of a musical instrument and the cognitive development of academic skills, quantitative data was scarce. As such, I endeavored to study and measure the effects of school band experiences on the motivation of high school students. The research was conducted at Irvine High School in Irvine, California on the effects of school band experience on the motivation of high school students and it began to yield some information that we were able to measure quantitatively as the data revealed startling seemingly contradictory perspectives. The mixed research method used in this research project allowed us to gather,quantify, assess and analyze a data that yielded unexpected and revealing insights.