Speech-Leah Noble

It’s 3:15 and it has been a long day full of quiz taking, essay writing, and lecture listening. School is finally out for the day and what do you do? Many of you further tax your brain, whether that be doing your calc. homework or trying desperately to figure out how to do the physics web homework. For some of us, homework is pushed aside to make time for sports practice or some sort of volunteering activity. In between your rush to get everything done, you probably check snapchat, twitter, or Instagram, maybe even find time to post that selfie that you took at lunch. When you sit back and take time to think about your day, it becomes very obvious just how full our lives are of stuff that we have to get done in 24 hours. This constant feeling of “I have to get everything done” creates pressure that leads to stress, which we all know is not a pleasant feeling. There are always new studies being done that  you hear about on the news about how stress early in life affects you later on and how bad it is for you, but how do we combat this? Well, what I propose to you as a remedy is learning to play a musical instrument.

Not only does learning to play an instrument relieve stress, but it also has many positive cognitive and social effects.

A recent documentary by Dr. Anita Collins said, when you listen to music “fireworks go off in your brain.” It also established that the difference between listening to music and playing music is actually substantial, saying that when you play music different kinds of “fireworks go off in your brain”; fireworks that cannot be created by any other type of stimulation. Now you’re probably wondering why exactly do I want “fireworks” going off in my brain. Well, those “fireworks” activate almost every part of the brain, making the brain stronger and sharper, increasing memory capacity and concentration. Similar studies have also shown that in both children and adults, learning to play an instrument can increase your IQ by up to seven points.

In my hunt for information about the benefits of playing an instrument, I ran across a study that after numerous tests and surveys concluded that “the effects of music are much stronger than those of sports, theater, and dance.” Now this doesn’t mean I want you to give up dancing or playing sports or doing theater, but it does show just how important and beneficial creating music could be in your life now and in the future if you learn to play an instrument.

In addition to the cognitive benefits of playing an instrument, there are numerous social benefits also.  I won’t stand up here and tell you that learning to play an instrument is easy. For some it is, but for most it comes with challenges. But that’s the beauty of it; having to push through the difficulties and anger that making music can sometimes cause, gives you an enormous sense of achievement when you finally get it right. Everyone needs to feel that, especially when everywhere else, all you get is more and more pressure to do better, instead of being able to relish in your accomplishments. Plus, who cares if you mess up the first couple or hundreds of times? There aren’t any negative consequences for getting it wrong, which means there’s no pressure to get it right.

About 8 months ago, I picked up a guitar for the first time. I saw lots of people I knew were playing guitar so I decided to try it out, it looked interesting enough. When I first started playing it was a major struggle. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get my fingers to go where I wanted them to and make a noise that was somewhat pleasing to the ear at the same time, but I liked it and was continually drawn to it; always wanting more. I kept trying to get it right and I quickly figured out that that old saying “practice makes perfect” actually had some merit to it. I eventually got to a point where I could make the sounds that I wanted come out of my guitar. I can’t say that I have completely mastered guitar, I actually still have a lot to learn, but I am now able to pick up my guitar and use it to escape from the stress and hardships life may throw at me. I know now that this is why I didn’t give up on playing an instrument. And just like it did for me, playing an instrument for you can act as a release, a getaway from the increasing pressure and stress you encounter every day.

You’re probably wondering, “If my life is so busy, when am I going to have time to learn to play an instrument?” I can almost speak for all of us when I say that when there’s something that we really want to do, we make time to do it. Those 20 minutes you waste on social media could be time spent improving not only your cognitive ability but also the emotional and social aspects of your life.

You don’t have to become an internationally known musician, you don’t have to play in a band or orchestra, you don’t even have to take music lessons. All you have to do is decide that this is what you want for yourself.

Who knows, maybe it will help you forget about that impossible physics web homework problem.

 Works Cited

Alleyne, Richard. "Playing a Musical Instrument Makes You Brainier." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 27 Oct. 2009. Web. 11 Dec. 2014.

Hille, Adrian, and Jürgen Schupp. "How Learning a Musical Instrument Affects the Development of Skills." SOEPpapers (2013): 2-33. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

How Playing An Instrument Benefits Your Brain. By Anita Collins. N.p., 2014. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.

Matthews, Michael. "18 Benefits of Playing a Musical Instrument." Effective Music Teaching. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Dec. 2014.

Skoe, Erika, and Nina Kraus. "A Little Goes a Long Way: How the Adult Brain Is Shaped by Musical Training in Childhood." The Journal of Neuroscience (2012): 11507-1510. Web. 13 Dec. 2014.