In today’s world, children and parents are bombarded with choices for extra-curricular activities. Among these options music is often the choice – but why?
As many critics and philosophers have attempted to elucidate – music is not only an engaging art form, but one that transgresses boundaries between the senses. It is spiritual, physical, and psychological. For the student or performer, it’s even more.
What are the benefits of learning music?
Below we have listed several of the physiological, psychological, and spiritual reasons why music is a great choice for you or your child to learn.
- Brain Growth – the act of playing an instrument, singing, and listening to music can stimulate and improve the brain structure and create new neural connections.
- Language skills – Music lessons impact linguistic skills, studies show improved speech development and greater ease of reading. Music develops the left side of the brain – assisting with sound recognition, rhythm and rhyming. Songs have also been used traditionally to assist in memory games.
- Math skills – studying rhythm and its structure in music helps children to learn basic fractions, patterns and problem solving. It has also been proven that music improves spatial intelligence and the ability to form more advanced/abstract mental pictures of objects – all leading to skills used in more advanced mathematics.
- Memory, attention and concentration – Learning Music aids the brain in the retention and memorization of mental arithmetic and reading comprehension. Learning music also requires high levels of concentration which trains the brain to focus for longer periods of time.
- Increased Coordination – Similar to playing sports – playing music instruments and dancing helps to improve gross and fine motor skills. Playing music instruments forces us to coordinate our eyes and ears with our fingers, hands and feet – helping the body and mind to work together.
- Achievement and Discipline – Learning music is a goal oriented discipline requiring multiple hours of practice to master a piece of music. Setting aside time to perfect a piece requires commitment and patience – but when the song is complete nothing compares to the sense of pride the student attains.
- Social Skills – There is no doubt that music is a team effort – especially in choirs, ensembles, and bands (all are offered at the RDMS). Researchers have shown that when we learn to play music together – we are able to tune into other people’s emotions and to learn collaboration.
Music is not just an arts discipline that requires “hand-eye” coordination, it requires your ability to use your entire self – language, mathematics, memory and focus, discipline, communication and social skills. It is within this self-collaboration of the body, mind, and spirit that music gives us the ability to express ourselves, release our creativity, and the space to assert our independence. Learning what kind of music resonates the strongest with you helps you to know yourself better and what you love.
At Randuth Music Studio, professional music instructors offer music lessons in guitar, piano, drums, singing, ukulele, music theory, and composition for students of all ages. Our music teachers provide classes at home, online & at our Hamilton studio.