Why You Should Learn a Musical Instrument
It’s been theorized and studied for years and years; what does the human brain take pleasure in learning a musical instrument? Let’s first have a look at the brain as a muscle; the foremost important muscle in your body. The same as how an athlete will attend the gym each day to strengthen their muscles, humans have to train and strengthen their brains. Many of us approach this in several ways, some read challenging texts, others play cognitive brain games, some even learn a replacement language. However it’s done, the brain has to be fed so as to grow. Learning an instrument not only sustains and feeds the brain but also improves a big amount of other cognitive and physical aspects of the anatomy.
1. Playing an instrument Improves Memory
It’s been widely studied and proven that learning an instrument improves memory; it not only improves your cognitive memory but also LTM further. Learning to play a device requires you to use both the correct and left parts of your brain, therefore working your brain harder and improving your memory. This is often supported by Maestro Eduardo Marturet who states, “…research has shown that participation in music at an early age can help improve a child’s mental capacity and memory by stimulating different patterns of brain development.” Scientists have even used music training as a technique of neuro-rehabilitation to assist improve the function of the brain.
2. Music Helps Relieve Stress
Music includes a unique effect on our emotions, it can make us happy or sad, or maybe amplify this emotion we are feeling. Studies have shown that music can help with keeping you calm, it’s even been proven to lower pulse rate and pressure level, which successively lowers the strain hormone cortisol, therefore making us feel relaxed. Whilst just paying attention to music helps, research has shown that learning to play an instrument brings with it comfort and daily repetition which helps keep the strain away. This sort of music can have a beneficial effect on our physiological functions, slowing the heartbeat and pulse rate, lowering pressure level, and decreasing the number of stress hormones.”
3. It causes you to be Smarter!
Extensive research has shown that those that had music training were generally smarter than their counterparts; children who learned to play musical instruments did better in their academic studies than children who had not. This links back closely with the improvements learning an instrument has on memory; as each side of the brain are engaged it develops not only memory but other skills further. In a very research paper titled Music Training Causes Long-Term Enhancement of Preschool Children’s Spatial-Temporal Reasoning, it’s reported that “…music training is way superior to computer instruction in dramatically enhancing children’s abstract reasoning skills, the talents necessary for learning math and science.” There are further studies on both children and adults that show a correlation between musical training and academic success.
4. It Can Build Your Confidence and provides You a way of feat
Like with any new task, once you begin to become comfortable and at home with what you’re doing, you build confidence in completing that task. This is applicable to musical instruments in addition. The further you progress in your musical training, the more knowledge and understanding you’ve got of your device, the more you naturally become confident in your skills. Teacher Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen states with students, “…they find that when they’ll develop a skill by themselves that they will regain and better,” Playing an instrument in a very public setting can help people feel confident in presenting their add a non-academic context, and thus improve their nerves when it involves exams and assessments. Alongside improving your confidence, learning a device gives you an immense sense of accomplishment. It is quite an ego-boost.” There really isn’t any greater feeling than finally completing a difficult task and having the ability to possess it perfected. This sense of self-achievement can filter onto other areas in your life and facilitate you to accomplish more!
5. It’s Fun!
People fill their lives with hobbies that make them happy, that offer them an get away from the monotonous repetition of day-to-day life. Other passive spare-time activities like watching TV or scrolling through social media provide no sustenance to our lives, music engages and stimulates our brains, making us happy and occupying our time. Music has the special quality to bring joy, peace, and fulfillment that helps lift the spirit and make life enjoyable for everybody involved.
