If you know either Jukka or me in real life, you know how much we like to play our bass and guitar, respectively. What started as a joke in elementary school, became something really important to us over time; We started playing because of some famous rock bands (that we now don’t like and therefore won’t mention), and our taste developed as we grew up. Throughout all the genre changes, we kept practicing playing the bass and the guitar and we came to the conclusion that now when we are grown up, playing an instrument has really changed us for the better. With that idea, we decided to make a list of all the beneficial things playing an instrument has brought us. With no further ado, here are some of the benefits you will get from playing music:
Inner Peace
Yes, we know it sounds corny. But it does really help you with finding your peace. We talked to a lot of our musician friends, and they all agreed that music helped them release all their emotions and feel better. When you play any instrument, you get to be in the “zone” (yes, this is a reference to Pixar’s “Soul… If you watched it, tell us what you thought of it) which helps you with your emotions, your inspiration and well, your inner peace. Try it, take any instrument, give it some time until you learn the basics and you’ll feel it!
Memory Booster
When I started playing guitar, I had my dad’s old Yamaha and I learned my first few chords on it. In the beginning, it was extremely difficult to remember them all and differentiate them when most of them were located in the same place. But as time passed, I realized I remembered not only the position of the chords but the chords to all the songs I tried to learn (and trust me… there were a lot because I wanted to impress people)! And the boost in my memory did not only stick to the field of music, I started doing better in school. I know that it sounds like these two things have nothing in common – but believe me; you will make use of the links in your brain that are created while memorizing chords or notes.
It disciplines you
It is a common fact that you need to practice something in order to get better at it. Take, for example, writing, or… riding a bike! You need to repeat these actions multiple times in order to avoid mistakes and get better, right? The same goes for playing instruments. While writing and riding a bike is something we do not only for ourselves but for others too, it gets easier to get better at it. Playing an instrument, however, is something we often do because of ourselves only, and while that is a beautiful and motivational idea, it doesn’t always push us to go forward. Sometimes, without motivation from the outside, we don’t feel like playing. We are bored, and seeing we don’t improve overnight makes us feel angry. But the thing with playing an instrument is that it disciplines you. It makes you want to play it every day in order to get better, even though you won’t always feel up to it. And the discipline you practice with playing an instrument is a transferable skill; it transfers to all fields of life.