10 Life-Enhancing Benefits of Learning To Play a Musical Instrument
Love of music is a universal thing.
Whether we listen to music in the car, strum a guitar around the campfire, sing in a choir, or tickle the keys of a piano in our free time, we all enjoy music in some way.
But did you know that music has the ability to enhance every part of our lives? It’s true — music has physical, mental, and emotional benefits. This is especially true when we learn to play an instrument.
What’s more, when children learn an instrument at a young age, it can boost their development in a number of amazing ways. Here are just a few of the ways that learning to play a musical instrument can enhance your child’s life:
1. Improves Memory Skills
Learning any new skill forms new neural pathways, keeping our brains healthy and agile. Learning to play an instrument is no exception.
Playing an instrument is to the brain what a total body workout is to the body. It uses every part of our brain, including our motor, auditory, and visual cortexes — important areas of development for children. In learning to play music, children learn how to more quickly and effectively create, store, and retrieve memories.
Improved memory in turn helps develop better executive function in the brain, including such skills as emotional development, attention to detail, and focus.
2. Teaches Perseverance and Patience
As children develop a habit of practicing their instrument, they build the discipline needed to learn and accomplish something difficult. They learn that the more effort you put into something, the better the end result will be.
Patience and perseverance are essential skills for future academic and career success, as well as for healthy emotional development. Playing an instrument offers kids a safe way to learn more about themselves and what they are capable of coping with.
3. Builds Confidence and a Sense of Achievement
In setting and achieving goals throughout the learning process, children feel a sense of achievement and pride, which in turn helps them build self-confidence.
Setting short- and long-term goals gives children something tangible to work toward and a sense of satisfaction when they meet those goals. They are then more motivated and eager to work toward their next goal.
Accomplishing goals also elicits a dopamine response in the brain, increasing a child’s sense of confidence in their own ability to achieve the things they want. To boost this sense of achievement and confidence, make sure to celebrate each milestone your child meets as they learn to play their instrument.
In addition to setting and meeting goals, playing an instrument in front of others — such as in a public performance or a group music class — can help children feel confident in presenting the fruits of their hard work to others.
4. Boosts Academic Performance
There are many parallels between music and math. For instance, understanding beat, rhythm, and scales helps children learn to divide, work with fractions, and recognize patterns.
Playing music also utilizes reading and understanding skills. Children must identify written notes and translate them into which notes to play, how to play them (loud or soft; sharp or smooth, detached or connected), and how long to hold them. This process can help children as they learn to read and understand written language.
5. Improves Hand-Eye Coordination
Learning to play a musical instrument boosts the development of motor skills — especially fine motor skills.
Playing an instrument requires the brain to work quickly, converting written music to the physical motions needed to play the notes on the instrument. This practice helps increase the speed at which motor skills are learned, boosting the development of strong hand-eye coordination in children.
6. Relieves Stress
Music has a well-known calming effect on us, both emotionally and physically. It has been shown to lower heart rate and blood pressure as well as stress hormones. Listening to and playing music — especially quiet classical music — relaxes our minds and bodies and helps us recover from the daily stressors of life.
7. Improves Social Skills
Playing music in a group setting requires children to collaborate with one another in creating the sounds or songs they are working toward. This kind of collaboration naturally bonds children and gives them the opportunity to learn to relate better to their classmates and make friends.
Learning to play music improves a child’s listening skills as well — which, as we all know, are a crucial part of building healthy social relationships. When learning to play an instrument, children must listen carefully to their teacher’s instructions as well as the pitch, rhythm, and speed of the music they are playing. This active listening can help improve their listening skills in all areas of life.
8. Teaches Responsibility
They also learn to take responsibility for daily practice. Learning an instrument isn’t something that happens overnight — it takes time and effort. It teaches children that if they want to be good at something, they’ll need to put in the work of practicing.
9. Improves Creativity and Self-Expression
Simply playing the notes on the page isn’t what makes music something we connect to — it’s the person performing it that does that.
Practicing an instrument boosts the creative side of our brains. Once a child learns the mechanics of playing a piece of music, they then have the opportunity to put their own personality into it, enhancing the performance and connecting with their audience.
Playing music helps children approach and express their emotions in a way that feels less overwhelming, and can give them an opportunity to express complex feelings they may not fully understand. Music gives a child a safe place to express their most vulnerable emotions.
10. Exposes Children to Culture and History
Connecting with culture and history in this way helps develop empathy and curiosity in children. They also have the opportunity to develop a sense of self within the larger world as they connect with the music of their own culture.
Bonus: Learning To Play a Musical Instrument is Fun!
And if all of these benefits weren’t reason enough to learn to play an instrument, playing music is FUN!
When we play music, we actively stimulate and engage the brain in a way that more passive hobbies may not (watching TV or movies, for instance). This stimulates chemicals in our brains like dopamine and serotonin, making us feel happier. Plus, we get to engage with others through the music we play, increasing our enjoyment even more.
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