Getting started · 3 min read ·
Why learn to play an instrument?
I started because I loved hearing my sister play. My curiosity about music grew, and something I enjoyed also became my profession.
Why learn to play an instrument? I believe this is a question music teachers should ask all the time. And, of course, look for answers. I say “answers” because I believe there are countless reasons to learn to play an instrument, ranging from a search for personal satisfaction to the neurological benefits of learning. We hear music all the time: we are in the car on our way to work with the radio on, at the gym, or simply taking a moment to feel good.
There is a fantastic book called Musicophilia, by the late, well-known physician Oliver Sacks, in which he explores and presents various clinical conditions related to music. For me, this book developed much of my fascination with the process of listening to and studying music. Sacks writes a wonderful preface in which he explains that an inclination toward music appears in early childhood, manifests itself and is essential in every culture, and probably dates back to the earliest humans. All of us, with a few rare exceptions, perceive timbres, rhythms, notes, melodies and harmonies (I always like to remember that each culture perceives music from a particular perspective, because it is not restricted to what we in the West recognize as music). In short, we are naturally musical beings.
We listen to music with emotion and perceive it with our bodies. Many studies have looked at the process of listening to and studying music, and the results indicate that music has access to parts of our brains linked to affection, impulses, emotions and motivation. In this way, it stimulates the type of memory called nonverbal memory, allowing us to integrate different sensory perceptions. (For example, when I went to Disney for the first time, “Let Her Go” by Passenger played on the radio almost every day. Today, when I hear the song, I relive the feeling of that trip.)
Studying an instrument allows us to develop all these aspects related to emotion and affection, as well as several other skills, such as:
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Concentration: playing requires focus and attention to the movement we make, whether the notes are correct, and whether the sound being produced is the one we want;
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Motor coordination;
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Dedication: progress only happens through persistence and patience in practice.
Besides all these intellectual benefits, listening to and playing music have a great deal to do with pleasure. We live in such a busy and stressful world that we need more than just school or work and sleep. Just as exercising is physically and psychologically healthy, having a hobby related to the arts engages the mind and takes us away from everyday worries. Many students, especially adults, say the instrument has become an escape. When they are tired or stressed, they begin to play and start feeling better, more motivated and happy. I started studying for pleasure: my older sister was learning, and I thought it was wonderful. I was around six years old. Since then, I have never stopped, and what began as pleasure also became a profession.
To finish, I would like to leave a quotation from Schopenhauer that sums up very well all the pleasure of listening and playing.
“The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but without reality and far removed from pain.”
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Sylvia de Morais. Informational content, reviewed with sources.