Music Lessons For The Brain
Guitar lessons are good for the brain
Learn to play the piano. Join your school band or sing in a musical. Take some guitar lessons and start a rock group. If people ask what you’re up to, tell them you are doing something important. You may be making yourself a little bit smarter in the process.
Young children who learn to sing or play a musical instrument may gain a slight mental advantage over kids who aren’t musical at all. A study involving first graders showed this is possibly quite true. The students were randomly divided into four groups. One group took weekly piano lessons. Another group took singing lessons. The third group went to drama class. The last group did no extracurricular activities for the entire school year.
All of the participants took IQ tests at the beginning and at the end of the first grade. Overall, average scores went up for all the groups. The kids who took piano or singing lessons gained more. Their IQ scores went up 7 points on average compared with 4 points for kids in the other two groups. It’s a small difference and the music students probably won’t end up getting higher grades or having greater success later in life. However, the results are worth noting.
Learning to play music teaches kids how to pay attention and memorize things and it helps fine-tune coordination and other physical skills. These types of experiences may have positive effects on the developing brains of young people. It teaches them control and keeps their mind thinking. Creativity isn’t just found on a canvas, it comes from music too.
Taking guitar lessons and really learning to understand the instrument can lead to many successes in life outside of the realm of music. A child who is musically inclined has better self-control and a better understanding of how things work. They tend to use their brain more effectively and can assess a situation and figure out how to solve it. Playing the guitar involves focus and mental capacity that few are willing to put the effort into.
If your child is showing an interest in playing the guitar (or any instrument really), get them lessons, buy that guitar and get them motivated. They can only go up from there. The younger they start they more they are inclined to keep going. Pay attention to the signs and ask them if they want to try and learn. Most often they do but they don’t know how to go about getting to their goal.
So give your child guitar lessons. Or piano or violin lessons. At the very least, you will be helping to fill the world with beautiful sounds and who can argue with that?