The benefits of music education are well-documented – for both kids as well as adults. There’s a lot of stuff that talks about the positive effects of music on the development of kids and their ability to heal adults. Here’s more on how learning music helps.
Music is Therapeutic
Who doesn’t love music? Certainly there are some of us, but for the most part music is a big part of our lives. Whether it’s the music that we listen to on the way to work, while we workout, or the music we hear in a symphony or film, it can bring up our moods, tell us a story or even bring us down.
Music has touched cultures all over the world since very early times in human history. Have you ever wondered how music might affect our health?
“I think music in itself is healing. It’s an explosive expression of humanity. It’s something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music.” ~ Billy Joel
Music is capable of a number of health benefits including lowering stress levels, raising states of consciousness, changing moods, accessing different states of mind, and is useful in meditation -which has a ton of health benefits.
The fact is, there isn’t a single human culture on earth that has lived without music! For example, native Africans and Americans both used music in the form of chanting for their rituals and healing ceremonies. In Ancient Greece music was used to ease stress, soothe pain and help with sleeping patterns. Many have said music heals the soul, and it appears that they were right!
How Learning to Play a Musical Instrument Benefits Your Child
Children have lots to gain from listening to music and playing a music instrument. There’s a lot of research that suggests that studying music at a younger age does influence brain development immensely.
Music education improves motor skills, increases IQ and makes your brain works harder enabling you to become better in other areas (such as improved test scores, able to learn math problems earlier, learning a language, etc.). Some studies even claim that fetuses as young as 35 weeks can distinguish between different sounds.
Students who have taken music lessons show better traits in most aspects — behavior, concentration, awareness, listening skills, memory, etc.
Music also helps you bond better with your child, as both of you can dance and/or sing along to your favorite tune, much to the thrill of your little one.
Related: Music Lessons for Kids
Kids are like sponge, they absorb everything that is thrown at them, so why not music lessons?
It instills hard working habits, teaches them to be patient, makes them use their brains more, boosts self-confidence, and gives them an important skill which will last them for ever.
Better Team work: If your child plays for an orchestra or a band, important skills like team work, contributing to team’s success and conflict handling gets imbibed by them at a very early age. These are very important skills in today’s world, considering that all major projects get accomplished by large teams comprising of people from diverse cultures.
Self Confidence: Playing in front of an audience, getting appreciated for your performance are factors which definitely makes you more confident. Self confidence is a very important trait to have as it helps you to overcome difficult situations in life with ease. Another benefit is that whenever an opportunity arises to work with new people, you will be far more comfortable and will be able to communicate easily with those new people.
Value addition: Besides the above mentioned benefits of music, learning any instrument will give you a lifetime of enjoyment, relaxation and pleasure. At the same time, you will also acquire one more skill which, if needed, can be made into a career with proper planning or you could just use your skill to generate one more source of income.
The most important thing – Once your kids start going to college, and see their peers play musical instruments (and get all that attention), they are more likely to come to you and complain that you (as responsible parents) should have encouraged them to play a musical instrument and provided music lessons. So expose your kids to music at an early age.
So doesn’t matter if your child has skills to become the next Beyonce or is likely to sing her solos in the shower, you should encourage your child as it will benefit them in some form of music education.
Benefits of Music Lessons for Kids [Infographic]
Here’s a nice infographic that highlights some of the most important benefits of Music Lessons for Kids. Please feel free to share it with your friends and music teachers.
Share this Image On Your Site
In recent years, its been observed that more and more youngsters are finding it difficult to focus their attention on things for longer periods. That is why learning music is such an important exercise for them; it makes them focus on a process that can last from a few minutes to even a few hours (if they really take it serious and become good at playing the musical instrument).
Music also generates positive emotions, makes you feel relaxed and happy. So make sure you introduce some music time for your kids early in their lives.
Music Lessons Increases Brain Connections in Children
Studies reveal that taking music lessons increases brain fiber connections in children and may be useful in treating autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
When a child receives musical instruction, the brain is asked to complete tasks that involve hearing, motor, cognition, emotion and social skills, which seem to activate the different brain areas. This study suggests that experiencing music at an early age can contribute to better brain development, optimizing the creation and establishment of neural networks, and stimulating the existing brain tracts. Researchers believe that the results of this study could aid in creating targeted strategies for intervention in treating disorders like autism and ADHD. Read more at sciencedaily
Music Lessons Improves a Child’s Language Skill
Another positive effect of music lessons and listening to music on children is that it improves a child’s language skills.
A study reveals that playing piano for six months can improve a child’s language skills, suggesting that some areas of a child’s brain do benefit from early musical training. However, it had no impact on a child’s IQ, attention span or memory.
Compared to children who read, those who learned to play piano were better at detecting the sounds of consonants, vowels and pitch.
Will a child benefit only by listening to music?
Music does help children, just as the way an upbeat tune chases away the blues and soft music helps you fall asleep.
So even babies will feel more relaxed if you sing them a song.
But it may not help your child to score A grades in all their subjects in school, just by listening to music.
Infants: Newborns to 1 Year Old
Lullabies works like magic when your little one gets up at the middle of the night; just sing them a song and its much easier for you to make your child sleep again. Its much more difficult without music.
The most important benefits of music is that it can lift your spirits, soothe your frayed nerves, and some of your favorite songs can even move you to dance despite being tired.
Don’t forget the bonding aspect. Its much easier to bond with your child over a lovely melody. Stevie Wonder’s “You Are the Sunshine of My Life”) or a lilting lullaby such as “Hush, Little Baby” are evergreen melodies.
There have also been various research findings which highlight the positives of music.
- Music can help premature babies, as in certain cases, it seem to improve weight gain.
- Other finding reveals that babies (around 34-weeks) who’re given pacifiers that activated recordings of lullabies had shorter hospital stays.
Toddler or Preschooler (1 to 3 Years)
Be it listening to music or playing an instrument, in this age group music helps them with their motor skills.
- Listening to music encourages movement, which helps in perfecting the motor skills and overall physical development.
- The bonding thing works in this case as well.
- There are many who also claim that music makes children smarter, but there’s not much concrete data to validate that claim
However, to answer your question, listening to music does have its benefits on your child.
Better use of leisure time
Lot of research has suggested that Children who learn musical instruments at an early age develop better learning abilities and become good at mathematics. Personally, I feel it gives them a medium to express themselves and it is much better use of their leisure time. It is much better to play your piano than while away your time sitting in front of the television.
Feeling low?
Considering the lifestyle we follow nowadays and the innumerable times we come under stress and depression, music is the simplest and quickest of all the means available to get us out of that mind state. It is the quickest way to come out of your shell, which you would normally get into when things go wrong and this is what I would term as the biggest benefit of music.
Read: Why parents make their children learn to play musical instrument
Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument for Adults
There’s lot of research work that suggests that playing an instrument or singing in a choir can enhance emotional well-being, brain health, cognition and hearing function. Here are more reasons to learn to play a musical instrument as an adult.
Most 50-plus Want to Learn to Play a Musical Instrument
Most 50-plus feel there’s no musical time like the present, a big change from the perceptions of previous generations.
“There used to be a “widespread belief that if you did not begin learning a musical instrument in your childhood or school years, you had missed your chance. The field of music education didn’t offer many opportunities” for adults to learn,” says Roy Ernst, professor emeritus at the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y.
Now such attitudes have changed and many adults believe they can learn to play at any age and [gain] a level of satisfaction. With improved lifespans, more adults in their fifties and sixties are now enjoying the benefits of taking up a musical instrument or singing later in life, and are experiencing that the decision has improved their lives in many ways.
Since it’s exciting and rewarding, several groups are also encouraging adults to play musical instruments or sing, and to join bands, orchestras or choral groups.
Overcoming Anxiety and Make Social Connections
The social aspects of playing in a group entice many adults who miss the social connections they had at work as they get the opportunity to meet new people. For many adults in their fifties and beyond, many of their friends are those who are interested in music.
Many adults don’t start because they think they are going to be terrible at it.
However, the fact is that you just need to get started. A few lessons and you will start understanding chords, fingering, basics of music theory, and you will feel a lot more comfortable.
For Charles Reinhart, 76, the push to take up music was a special request from his mother.
“My mother was approaching 90 and she was starting to think about the inevitable,” he says. “She said, ‘I would like to have you sing at my funeral.’ I told her, ‘If you live long enough for me to learn how to sing, I will.’ ”
Charles signed up for beginning singing lessons and three years later, he did fulfill his mother’s wish. He has since kept singing.
Watch: Grandfather aged 81 walks into guitar shop and stuns everybody with this jaw-dropping guitar solo
Health Benefits of Playing an Instrument
Listening to music and playing a musical instrument improves our mental well-being and physical health.
Music makes you happier, lowers stress and improves Health, improves visual & verbal skills, helps you sleep better, reduces depression & anxiety, elevates your mood, makes you calm, strengthens learning and memory, reduces pain, and helps patients recover faster
Research shows it helps those suffering from Epilepsy, Dementia, Parkinsons’ and is even helpful in the operating room (to reduce anxiety).
Besides creating a comfortable ambiance and atmosphere, studies suggest that music also helps to ease the pain and anxiety of patients undergoing surgery, even though they do not realize it. Music also helps break any tensions during the quieter moments of a surgical procedure.
Studies suggest that listening to classical music is medicinal for EPILEPTICS. Epileptic activity in kids were significantly reduced after listening to an excerpt from Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos (known by its catalog number K. 448), the researchers report.
As people age, some of them may experience hearing loss; they hear all right in one-on-one settings but have problems in noisier situations. studies suggest that learning music can help improve your hearing.
Music learning also helps people suffering from PTSD (Post-traumatic stress disorder) which includes people who have served in the Army.
Most Women Find Guitar Players Attractive
A recent study in the UK reveals that if you know how to play the guitar, it increases your attractiveness by an astounding 90 percent. Nine out of ten Britons (of both sexes) say they find someone who plays guitar instantly sexy, and a quarter of the UK’s population openly admit to dating someone purely because they could play guitar.
Furthermore, Scottish women are apparently the most drawn towards guitar players, with more than half (54 percent) saying the ‘whole rock star thing’ makes men who play the instrument appealing. Meanwhile, 45 percent of the ladies surveyed in Cambridge thought guitar players are irresistible because their axe skills prove that they are ‘good with their hands’. More here…
Guitar players do find it easy to serenade girls. This is one of the reasons that many want to learn to play the guitar, especially students, who feel that with their musical skills they can easily serenade a girl, and impress her.
Checkout this video where the students seems to be having a blast.
Related: Learn how to play the guitar?
Music Therapy: Power to Heal
Humans respond in a positive manner to musical stimuli, and that’s what Music therapy tries to achieve in its therapeutic sessions.
Music therapy activities helps individuals and their families to achieve positive mental health.
Music Therapy vs Music Education
Here are some important differences between the two.
- Music therapy always addresses a non-musical goal (whereas that’s not the case with music education). The music experiences are created to achieve this goal.
- In music therapy, various instruments are used (including singing), but those involved don’t have to be musical (its okay to miss a beat, play a wrong note, and so on).
- The music therapist may ask clients to engage in instrument playing and to sing familiar songs.
If anybody in your family (including you) needs some help to beat stress, or have a child with special needs, you should definitely consider music therapy.
Nowadays, Music therapy is used to:
- Reduce stress and pain
- Express your feelings and even to improve communication, encourages social interaction
- Simple act of clapping on beats promotes body movement. Improves hand-eye coordination, fine/gross motor movement, and cognitive development
- Promote wellness
- Music is also believed to enhance Memory
Music therapy for Youngsters With Special Needs
Its a known fact that children with special needs usually require help in the ‘social’ play space. Music helps encourage social interactions, helps make eye contact, reduces attention related problems.
Music enables autistic children (who may have limited communication and/or social skills) to take part in typical community activities as a full and respected participant, as they are more than capable of playing an instrument in a band or ensemble, singing in a chorus, or any other musical activity.
Music therapy also benefits children with special needs. Checkout this inspirational video.
Music therapy in medical settings.
Music therapy can be a rewarding career, especially if you’re a person who genuinely cares for people and would like to make a difference in their lives. If you play a music instrument (or sing), and also have an interest in psychology, Music therapy is definitely an area worth exploring. Music Therapy is more of a health profession where music is used in a therapeutic way to address physical, psychological, cognitive, and social needs of individuals.
Getting Started with Music Lessons
Learning to play a musical instrument is an excellent way to explore your creativity, broaden your social circle, and even keep your brain engaged.
However, it’s not something that you can learn overnight; you need to give time, it requires discipline, perseverance, and a good chunk of your income too.
That’s why it’s so important to choose the right sort of music lessons.
There are various ways to learn as well, so whether you’re looking for a new hobby, or learning after a long break; it’s important to be aware of the various options available to learn to play your desired instrument.
Individual and group classes—some designed for older students—can be found through music schools and stores, community centers, colleges and universities, and private instructors.
You can even take the help of technology such as apps and YouTube videos. You can also get music on your iPad, which can be very helpful if you want to enlarge the size of the notes you’re trying to read.
Many adults enjoy the play-along CDs that accompany music books. It gives you the incentive to play more, even if you’re just playing a simple melody.
For many adults, there can be anxiety about being an absolute beginner and falling flat. Progress is also often slower. That is why group lessons work best for adults as they can encourage each other to be patient and not give up. You can laugh with fellow students and bolster one another’s courage.
Buy a Musical Instrument
In order to derive these benefits, you will need a musical instrument on which you can learn.
Here are some useful links:
The best musical instruments for kids.
Easiest musical instruments to learn (for kids and adults)
Guide to all musical instruments
Resources:
- Effects of music learning and piano practice on cognitive function, mood and quality of life in older adults Front Psychol. 2013; 4: 810. Published online 2013 Nov 1. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00810 Sofia Seinfeld, Heidi Figueroa, Jordi Ortiz-Gil, and Maria V. Sanchez-Vives
- The Relation Between Music And Phonological Processing In Normal-Reading Children And Children With Dyslexia by Marie Forgeard, Gottfried Schlaug, Andrea Norton, Camilla Rosam, & Udita Iyengar Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center And Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts
- Neural substrates of spontaneous musical performance: an FMRI study of jazz improvisation PLoS One. 2008 Feb 27;3(2):e1679. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001679 by Limb CJ Braun AR
- Music Training: Lifelong Investment To Protect The Brain From Aging And Hearing Loss Nina Kraus & Travis White-Schwoch, Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory, www.brainvolts.northwestern.edu, and Department of Communication Sciences, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA and Department of Neurobiology & Physiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, USA and Department of Otolaryngology, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
KeytarHQ editorial team includes musicians who write and review products for pianists, keyboardists, guitarists & other musicians. KeytarHQ is the best online resource for information on keyboards, pianos, synths, keytars, guitars and music gear for musicians of all abilities, ages and interests.
Leave a Reply