Top 3 Reasons for Involving Your Kids in Music Lessons
How often do you hear someone say something like “I wish I had learned how to play the piano”? Quite often I would venture to say. On the other side of the spectrum, how often have you heard someone say “I wish I had never learned how to play the piano”? I would venture to say not very often. When we reach adulthood, and eventually become parents, we seem to learn and have an understanding of how essential and beneficial learning how to play an instrument really is during our childhood years, and our adolescent years.
Here are the Top 3 Reasons for Involving Your Kids in Music Lessons
Music Lessons Improve Brain Development
There have been various research studies conducted which measure the effects of the brain on cognitive development when learning a musical instrument. In these studies, It has been shown that those children who have taken music lessons over a span of several years, show more improvement in their spatial-temporal reasoning skills. These are skills which are needed in order to learn science and math. Children who take music lessons outshine their peers who haven’t had any music instruction in reading comprehension. It has also been shown that children who take music lessons have increased memory retention. When taking a look at the research studies, it can easily be seen that children who have taken music lessons over sustained periods of time have an academic advantage to the extent that they have increased SAT and IQ scores.
Music Lessons Teach Children how to Achieve Goals
As we grow older, we begin to realize that setting goals for ourselves is imperative to making progress in just about anything we decide to pursue in life. If we are passionate enough about something, we will pursue that “something” by setting goals in order to reach the final and end goal. Many times we are the ones who set goals for our lives, other times our goals are set for us by people around us such as teachers, parents, bosses, religious leaders, peers, coaches, or the government. An integral part of everyday life, goal setting is important. Setting a goal is the first step toward realizing a sense of accomplishment. Mastering an instrument is a long term goal which is achieved over many years, and in order to accomplish the long term goal of mastery the music student and their music teacher set milestones, or short term goals to help reach the final goal.
Music Lessons Instill a Sense of Self Discipline in Children
It has been said “anything worth having in this life doesn’t come easy”. What this means is that it takes hard work, and consistency to achieve great things. Music lessons are fun, and can be an effective way to teach children the art of self-discipline. They will be motivated by the music they are learning, and most will strive to give their ultimate best. They will begin to realize that, through consistent practicing, they will reach both their short term and their long term goals of mastering the instrument, and the music. They will achieve pride through the hard work and dedication they put into their music. This self-discipline will help them in other areas of their lives as well, such as academics and sports.
Deciding what extracurricular activities we involve are children in can be a difficult task. When making these important decisions take into consideration that our children are our future, and we are not only investing in their future of living full, productive lives we are also investing in the future of the world. Children who take music lessons gain qualities which lead to a lifetime of success.
