9 Skills Your Child Uses in Music Classes

Learning how to play an instrument or to sing, particularly as part of an ensemble, is a wonderful opportunity for your child to develop skills useful in other disciplines as well. Here is a non-exhaustive list of ways including MUSIC TUITION, education, and performance positively shapes other academic and social skills you will be proud your child is honing.

Teaches Responsibility And Time Management

Adding instruction in music requires your child to plan for both lessons and outside practice, helping him or her to balance other subjects and activities with learning how to play and care for an instrument. Being responsible for maintaining a band, orchestra or other instrument in good working condition teaches appreciation for tools of many kinds. If your child's tool is his or her singing voice staying healthy, well rested and respecting others' time and commitment to music becomes a set of internalised values.

Enhances Ability to Memorise And Improves Cognition

Just listening to music plus playing an instrument or singing from a variety of musical compositions exercises and stimulates your child's brain. The need to remember the techniques used to play or sing well expands the musician's ability to memorise complicated sets of information. A person's brain undergoes many positive changes when performing musical tasks, with some some research indicating it may increase IQ by seven points. Musicians both young and older experience this phenomenon.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/6447588/Playing-a-musical-instrument-makes-you-brainier.html

Requires Collaboration

Working with a music teacher and other members of a musical group, large or small, provides many opportunities to practice and become more adept at collaboration. Musicians strive to make a unified sound and act together as a whole. Teamwork like this is applicable in many other environments in school, sports, leisure and work activities for a lifetime.

Encourages Persistence And Perseverance

Working hard as individuals and as part of a group to master and improve musical ability is a rare chance to persist in a multistep learning experience. Music teaches the benefits of practice and commitment, the pride your child can take as he or she reaps the benefits of persevering something earned through this hard work and dedication.

Hones Fine And Gross Motor Practice With Added Improvement In Eye Hand Coordination

When your child takes up an instrument many different movements must come together as a whole to produce the sound and rhythm desired. Fingering, breathing at just the right time and with the correct intensity, strumming or bowing while simultaneously moving the other hand to change and improve the sound are very complicated actions. Many instruments are also heavy or awkward and will required physical strength to manage. Finally, reading the musical notes and using the brain to translate that reading into producing sounds is a very high level eye hand coordination task.

Enhances Mathematical Understanding And Ability

Keeping track of notes and rests and playing within appropriate time signatures requires a range of mathematically related skills. Counting, breaking segments of notes into fractions and keeping to a rhythm are all mathematically related. Studies have shown producing and listening to music can raise maths performance.

http://gettingsmart.com/2012/05/can-music-really-aid-math-learning/

Improves Reading And Comprehension

The concentration necessary to play or sing requires on-task reading of musical notes, instructions and, in the case of choral performance, the reading of words and sounds out loud while also molding them into sung phrases. This practice has been shown to lead to improved reading ability in all areas.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316075843.htm

Builds And Enhances Listening Skills

Listening to the music teacher, following the direction of a conductor and carefully adapting one's performance to the sounds of others around him or her really helps sharpen your child's listening skills. Both one on one and group listening skills are enhanced, and the specialised listening needed to tune an instrument or correct a sung note are hard to replicate anywhere else.

Enhances Physical And Mental Well Being

Learning and performing music improves your child's life in many ways. The act of breathing in and out to produce sounds improves respiration. Holding, playing and carrying an instrument builds muscles in arms, legs, core and fingers. Music performance can reduce stress and improve mood. Working as part of a group enhances social skills and playing better with practice increases confidence and self esteem.

http://www.effectivemusicteaching.com/articles/directors/18-benefits-of-playing-a-musical-instrument/

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