It is widely known that there are so many benefits of playing an instrument on the brain. Learning to play an instrument stimulates the creative sensors, which can have amazing effects.
Music affects our brains in a variety of ways, and in a surprising number of different areas too. Music affects our mood, our response to things, our ability to exercise, our attention span, our reasoning skills... even our choice of music can reflect and affect our personality (see this article here from Buffer '8 surprising ways music affects and benefits our brain' to see if you agree!)
What are the effects of playing music on your brain?
When you not only listen to music but learn to play music, you are using many different areas of the brain; the motor cortex that controls movement is used when you are physically playing an instrument, and the corpus callosum connects both sides of the brain which is used particularly when you have to use two hands when playing an instrument and the sensory cortex controls tactile feedback when making music.
When you are not just listening to music but learning to play a musical instrument you are simultaneously engaging all these areas of your brain at once, making them work together more efficiently - every time you practice your brain gets more and more efficient!
It sounds quite complicated, but you can watch below how playing a musical instrument really benefits your brain in this TedEd video...
The interest in the effects of music on the brain has led to research called neuromusicology, which explores how the nervous system reacts to the brain. The evidence so far has found that music activates every known part of the brain. When comparing brain scans of musicians to non-musicians, musicians have bigger, better connected, and more sensitive brains!
Read more...
For more information on how music affects and develops the brain you can read the full article on bebrainfit.com.
Oli Braithwaite has pulled together over 200 studies, by far the largest collection of its kind, which prove the benefits of music and music education.
Sophie Blackmore
Experienced in marketing and PR, Sophie loves connecting with people through strategic communications and is responsible for Governance360’s marketing strategy, brand and content. An advocate of lifelong learning, in late 2020 Sophie completed the Marketing Week Mini MBA with Mark Ritson.
Graduating from Durham University with a BA in Theology, Sophie worked in events and communications, before moving into the events industry. With a sideways move into marketing for a busy agency, she has since gained over 14 years’ experience through a variety of industries and roles. Most recently she spent two years at Queen’s Award for Innovation winner Warwick Music as Marketing Manager before starting her marketing consultancy, Happy Marketer Ltd in 2021 alongside her work at Governance360.
