It is often stated that children that learn a musical instrument are able to progress more quickly at school. I’ve often wondered if there is any truth behind this, or whether it’s just speculation. I did some reading of the research that has been done on the subject and put together some notes on what I found out.
You use both sides of your brain when playing a musical instrument, so if you do this regularly, you’ll improve your memory. It also teaches patience and perseverence and has been shown to improve literacy and numeracy skills.
There certainly seem to be some parallels with music students and high achieving students in schools. Some of the reasons behind this are clear, some less so. Some of the things that musicians seem to be more successful at in school are:
- Memory
- Literacy and Numeracy
- Concentration and persistence
- Coordination
Does playing an instrument improve your memory?
When you play a musical instrument, you are training your brain in a different way to how you would normally. Reading music and simultaneously playing it requires you to use both sides of your brain at the same time, something not too many skills do. This translates to be quite a stimulating workout for your brain.
Because your brain is being worked hard, the amount of grey matter increases. All of this causes significant improvements in your cognitive and most obviously affects your memory. Musicians will often have greatly improved memories compared to non-musicians. In terms of school abilities, this translates into a better capacity to retain information and therefore an improvement in academic achievement.
Does playing an instrument improve your literacy and numeracy skills?
It has also been shown in several studies that there is a strong link between playing a musical instrument and high achievement in literacy and numeracy at school. This is partly due to musicians having better memories in general, as discussed above, however, there is a more specific link to literacy and numeracy.
In terms of literacy, children who can read music will have a wider vocabulary, as their vocabulary includes a set of words rarely used outside of music. They will also show improvements in comprehension. This seems to be because reading music has a lot of parallels with reading other languages, and learning a second language in general leads to improvement in the understanding of both languages.
In terms of numeracy, there are quite a few parallels between music and maths. Until around the 1400s, music was actually considered to be a branch of mathematics, as there were so many similarities between them. The most obvious is learning to read rhythms. To do this, a child music be capable of interpreting time signatures, dividing bars into beats and even subdividing these beats to include more complex rhythms. This takes quite a lot of mathematical ability for a young child and often leads to an enhanced understanding.
Does playing an instrument improve concentration?
It’s definitely the case that learning a musical instrument requires patience and persistence. Improvements are slow at first and it can be easy to give up. Children who are able to persevere when playing becomes difficult are able to show similar levels of determination in their lessons at school.
To really progress well in music, a child will have to have a good practice schedule. Practice requires a lot of patience and can be very frustrating. Young children don’t tend to have very long attention spans, but having a set practice schedule can help them to improve on this. Similarly, when they are struggling with a particular aspect of playing an instrument, they will have to persist through it, giving them more determination than the average child.
This can easily transfer into a child’s schooling. If children are unable to concentrate for long periods of time at school, they will miss aspects of the work they’re supposed to be learning. Children that play a musical instrument have been shown to be less likely to lose concentration and therefore more likely to retain information over time.
Does playing a musical instrument improve coordination?
Playing a musical instrument requires you to do multiple things at the same time. You need to be able to read the music, process it and translate it to a finger position, while also blowing air through the instrument, breathing correctly and thinking about posture. The ability to process all of these things at the same time requires many skills and one of them is definitely coordination.
Wind instruments require coordination between the fingers and the tongue. The fingers of each hand must firstly be in time with each other. Additionally, when you play a note, you start the note with a movement from your tongue. The faster the notes, the more effort it is to keep your fingers in time with your tongue. For others instruments, particularly drums, you have to coordinate hands and feet at the same time.
There is also coordination required between the processing of the notes in the brain and the playing of the notes. It may be subconscious after a while, but when you see a note, your brain has to work out what that note is, and how long it lasts, and transfer that information to your fingers in time for you to play the note in the correct place in the bar. This improves mental coordination as well as physical.
Summary
To sum up this article, there are loads of correlations between children that play musical instruments and children that do well at school. Playing an instrument has been shown to have a significant impact on your memory, helping you to learn more effectively. The discipline required to play an instrument is also exceptionally useful for children, as it helps them to pay more attention for longer periods of time.
There are loads of good arguments for teaching children to learn a musical instrument. I would always recommend letting your child try out playing an instrument if you are able to afford it. If they don’t enjoy it, however, they will probably quickly get frustrated with it and this could end up negatively impacting their learning as their concentration is likely to suffer as a result. Learning an instrument is a brilliant and useful hobby for a child, but only if it’s something they enjoy doing.