It's Not Just About The Music: How Music Lessons Expand Your Mind

At Sage Music School, we truly believe that music has the power to expand the mind, body, and soul. Not only do we embrace the transformative nature of music in our company ethos, but we try to pass it on to our students. We believe that once a student develops a passion for music, many incredible benefits will unfold in their lives. Here, we’ll explore just a few of the benefits that music students may experience.

It can be incredible to witness the difference in a student’s mood and demeanor before and after a music lesson. The student is often arriving at their lesson after school or work, and often has a million things on their mind when they come in. But after focusing on their music for the duration of their lesson, they often emerge as a changed person. But don’t just take our anecdotal word for it. According to this article, playing music has been linked to “lower blood pressure, lower stress levels, decreased heart rate, and a reduction in anxiety and depression”.

Who couldn’t use better coordination? Playing an instrument has been proven to help both children and adults develop and improve motor skills and coordination. Many instruments require movement in the arms, hands, and fingers; some, like the piano, require movement in the feet as well. Just these movements alone improves muscle memory and dexterity.

However, by adding reading musical notes to the mix, you get a powerful boost in hand-eye coordination. Reading and playing music can prove tricky at first, but with time and effort, it truly does become far easier. This improved coordination and dexterity not only improves concentration, but may serve students well in many other artistic pursuits as well.

Yes, playing a musical instrument can help improve your memory. While this is often seen as a benefit for signing children up for music lessons, these benefits aren’t just limited to kids or even young adults. Music lessons can improve memory and possibly reduce the risk of dementia for adults, as well!

Per this fascinating article on Live Science, “Musical activity throughout life may serve as a challenging cognitive exercise, making your brain fitter and more capable of accommodating the challenges of aging”. As the article goes on to say, “since studying an instrument requires years of practice and learning, it may create alternate connections in the brain that could compensate for cognitive declines as we get older.”

Music can help facilitate improved communication skills in a variety of different ways. For one, as you begin to work with your teacher, you’ll begin to communicate not only with words, but with non-verbal musical cues. This requires a certain level of sensitivity and trust, and can help facilitate better interpersonal connections.

As you begin to gain more prowess with your instrument, you may choose to play with other musicians. Playing music with others helps forge a strong sense of teamwork as you begin to communicate through music, accommodating other sounds and players in a group setting.  

Playing music simply makes you feel good about yourself. As you begin taking music lessons, you’ll be able to monitor your personal progress over time. As the weeks and months progress, you’ll be astonished and impressed with your own progress. It feels good!

At Sage Music, we work very hard to help each and every student reach their own personal musical goals. As teachers begin lessons with each student, they have a consultation about what the student hopes to gain from their studies. In this way, teacher and student can work together to form a lesson plan that will truly give the student that gratifying sense of accomplishment as they progress on their journey.

Music has the power to expose us to expand our horizons culturally. As students begin to master different styles of music, they will simultaneously be exposed to different cultures, geographical areas, time periods, and people. This can have extremely positive and far reaching effects on their lives.

In the big picture, this exposure to culture can lead to an increased interest in other arts, travel, and learning pursuits that the student might not have been exposed to otherwise. On a day to day level, it has the effect of helping to wake up the student’s mind and inspire curiosity!

But it’s not just about other cultures. If students want to play the music they know and love, they will become more deeply involved in their own culture.

At Sage Music, we don’t just want to help our students learn the technical aspects of how to play an instrument. Our larger and more intrinsic goal is to create a musical community. In addition to teaching great music lessons, we aim to foster connections through our community focused environment. We hope for our students to become more confident by making progress, and want to offer them a space where they can connect with like minded people as part of the Sage Music family.

As you can see by reading this post, music lessons can offer students much more than mastering the technical aspects of playing an instrument. Music lessons can help students expand their minds! At Sage Music, we want to help our students reach their full potential in all aspects of life through developing a lifelong love of music. We hope that you’ll consider adding music lessons to your repertoire so that you can life your best life!