Many of the great scientists and engineers we know of today played instruments as children but does that imply that playing an instrument makes you smarter? “Boston Children’s hospital found a correlation between musical training and improved executive function in both children and adults.” There have also been several studies showing 3 brain benefits of learning or playing an instrument. These benefits include how musicians have enhanced sensory information such as hearing, touch, and sight. Learning an instrument before the age of seven is also the most influential to their cognitive ability. With this being said, children who are learning how to play instruments will also learn time management. They will learn how to split up practice time, school time, and play time. Mozart, Beethoven, and Bach, all very famous composers all had very high IQs. All of these musicians started learning music at a very young age, supporting how helpful it is to start before the age of seven.
Some psychologists will argue that it is not the music that is making children smarter. Research showed that those who played instruments often came from a more privileged background, where the parents are well educated. They believe that this is the real difference, not the musical part, the family income.
On a more psychological basis, the University of Liverpool conducted a study and found that with musical training, there is an increase in blood flow to the left hemisphere of the brain. That is the language side of the brain, suggesting that music and language share common brain pathways. The Huffington post also believes that playing an instrument involves almost every part of the brain at once. Almost like exercising making someone more fit, playing an instrument is exercising the brain to keep someone sharp, supporting the fact that playing an instrument makes someone smarter.
Very interesting blog post as I have always grown up hearing that same thing; playing an instrument makes you all around smarter. I never really knew much about left and right side of the brain and how to two communicated. It is very interesting that specifically playing an instrument acts as an exercise of the brain as it incorporates all aspects and parts of it. I knew that right brain was more artistic where left was more logical but I sort of assumed that within everything we do there is a little bit of both so I thought that we were always using both sides. Very interesting blog post. Its also important to note that correlation does not prove causation… i.e.: “just because you play an instrument will mean you are smart”!
Madeline, thank you for posting this it is very interesting. I used to hear so many times that playing an instrument or even just having an ear for music enhances cognitive ability. I view music, especially playing an instrument, as another language. It gets you to think in a totally different context and allows your brain to approach matters in ways you would otherwise be incapable of accessing. However, it was interesting that you brought in the reverse causation aspect (kids who play are more privileged, therefore come from more intelligent background). I think that once again, this reverse causation aspect proves very telling.
Personally learning how to play the piano helped me tremendously in my artistic and literary paths. Even more than that, learning how to read music and understanding the nuances of such a difficult art actually helped me in math more than anything.
I have heard this said many times, in fact my grandma made me take piano lessons for years even though I was awful and did not enjoy them because she told me it would make me smarter. However, later I got involved in dance, another form of the arts and thrived in that setting. I believe that also helped me in my academics, ability to mature, and in building a sense of responsibility. This caused me to wonder if other forms of the arts could mimic the same effect that music has on the brain, basically stating that participating in any of the arts can be beneficial to a young child. Involvement in an art can help a child “develop a passion”(Foster), which is an important and incredible thing to experience at any age. The arts in all areas have components where children’s “motor skills can be developed and exercised”(Foster). Children will develop important qualities such “motivation, commitment, cooperation, leadership, self-discipline, self-awareness, time management, and communication”(Foster), that can help them in all stages of their life no matter what they do. In addition, like any extracurricular, the arts can enable children to develop social skills, confidence, have fun, and provide them with a sense of achievement.
Citation:
Foster, Leslie. “Top 10 Reasons Your Kids Need Arts-Based Extracurricular Activities – Life In Pleasantville.” Life In Pleasantville. 18 Sept. 2014. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.
At first I did not believe that playing an instrument would make one smarter. I could not correlate the two together. This was because I was not looking at the right thing. It was not the instrument itself that made you smarter, rather how it worked your brain. Through the physical attributes of playing an instrument, your brain becomes acquired to quicker finger movements, and it learns to adapt better to different scenarios. This article from psychology today shows many benefits of playing an instrument, https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201406/does-playing-musical-instrument-make-you-smarter . They state that musicians are not as focused on memory as they are using extensive connectivity throughout the brain. This means that they are using their brains more efficiently than a non musician is, and this is because of what the instruments have taught them. This was a very interesting topic.
This is a good idea. However, I don’t completely agree with the fact that playing an instrument correlates with time management. Yes, children will have to balance practice time with homework and school, but so does every child who is involved in any activity. A child involved in sports or boy scouts or something else of the sort will also have to learn time management. And since a lot of kids do activities, they probably also develop the same time management skills. Also, I am wondering how many kids were involved in these studies. It would play a great role in whether the conclusions are reliable or not.
Sadly, I never ended up learning how to play an instrument. I do believe that learning how to play one, especially at an early age, will help your cognitive development. You are forced to learn coordination and exercise your memory and creativity all in one activity. Although I am inclined to believe that playing an instrument can make you smarter, there are certainly confounding variables involved. One highly probable variable could be that the child has parents who put more pressure on their kid to excel in their grades and in other activities, resulting in a child who receives good grades and knows how to play an instrument. I do think this was an interesting topic for a blog, (and I would like to point out that both the Valedictorian and Salutatorian of my high school class were both incredible musicians and each played numerous different instruments.)
Interestingly enough I always had a theory that playing an instrument made you smarter. In elementary school a lot of kids decided to play instruments whether they were orchestra or percussion. Personally I felt that ones that stuck with playing the instrument in elementary school were the kids that were smarter. Now this definitely is not a credible theory and has no evidence, but the evidence that you provide is really compelling and makes a lot of sense. When you talk about how learning an instrument uses many parts of your brain it makes sense that it would make you smarter because you’re using cognitive and spatial abilities and you also have to access memory. I wonder what other activities are similar to playing an instrument that have a somewhat similar impact on the brain. To me it seems that there must be other activities that can potentially make you smarter that aren’t playing an instrument.
Hi, I think this is a very typical topic. I think playing an instrument can make our smarter in a indirectly way, but not a main factor. I learn to play electronic keyboard when I was five. I indeed find out I learned English faster than others. However, I think this effect is side effect. In your blog, you illustrate two different argue about why kids playing instrument are smarter and you also quote the study result from University of Liverpool which is pretty good. I think if you can add some trail observation done by contrast the life of kids who play instrument in earlier age and kids do not playing instrument or the life differences between kids playing instrument in different ages will be more perfect. You may find something useful in this PDF. http://www.waldorflibrary.org/images/stories/Journal_Articles/RB15_2renate.pdf
The link did not work in my previous comment so here it is:
Instrument Benefits
http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifestyle/top-17-ways-learning-musical-instrument-gives-edge.html
I decided to read this blog post because growing up my mom always tried to get me to play an instrument and I never listened. After reading your blog, I think that maybe I should have listened to my mom and played an instrument. This blog made me think of what else can come from playing an instrument and there are actually many benefits that come from it. From playing an instrument, one can gain time management and organizational skills, have better coordination, improve on their comprehension skills, sharpen your own concentration, reduces stage fright, and enhances your respiratory system. Here is the article that is very interesting and lists many benefits of playing an instrument:
Instrument Benefits