Volumes have been written on this subject but it’s always worth going over one more time. Parents considering the cost and effort needed to provide musical instruction for children should consider these additional benefits.
Playing a musical instrument can give a child (and an adult) much satisfaction and sense of accomplishment, but aside from that there are some extremely valuable social and academic aspects as well. As a middle school band director, I found that band students were generally very bright, good readers, good at picking up foreign languages, and often good math students as well. After all, languages and mathematics have repeating patterns and music is made up of lots of repeating patterns.
After playing an instrument for a few years, the differences show up more. People who have played an instrument to a point of some accomplishment tend to be very quicker thinkers. The faster the pace of our world gets, the more important quick thinking becomes as a work skill. Keyboard abilities are also improved by musical instruction, mostly due to the eye-hand coordination developed. These keyboard abilities will apply whether it’s a computer keyboard or an adding machine/calculator keyboard. Accuracy of finger placement is developed by playing an instrument.
Playing an instrument can make your child smarter! There is much research lately on this subject. I’m not a scientist and won’t pretend to tell you why this is so but here are just a few websites with information on this subject.
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060920093024.htm
- http://www.musicianbrain.com/papers/Schlaug_Music_Child_Brain_NYAS2005.pdf
- http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/11/081104132916.htm
Okay, so now we know that learning to play an instrument can you make your child smarter, let’s look at some other valuable outcomes of musical instruction.
Students’ grades generally begin to go up after a few months of musical instruction. By learning first hand about the amount of preparation needed to really perform well, they begin to realize that the same type of effort on their studies will pay off well also.
Not every child can excel at sports, just as not all will excel at music. But that is the beauty of musical instruction. A child does not have to excel in order to still participate and enjoy playing with the group.
One final thought about the benefits of learning a musical instrument. I spoke to one father while he was purchasing an upgrade instrument for his son. The boy had done well with his musical studies so the father wanted him to have a better instrument. I told the father this was a wonderful thing to do for his son and I’ve never forgotten his response. He said “I’d so much rather be spending my money on something positive like this then spending it to bail him out of jail or pay for rehab.”
What a wise man! By investing in something positive like this for your child, you will put him with a group of students who are usually brighter, more dedicated, more serious about school work, but also students who still know how to have good, clean fun.
