Mindful Melody: The Benefits of Learning an Instrument

Playing music at any age gives our brains a cognitive leg-up.

A detail of "The Guitar Player," 1908, by Joseph Rodefer DeCamp. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Public Domain

As it turns out, strumming a guitar or singing a song isn’t just a leisurely way to pass the time.

When we are engaged in musical activity, almost every part of the brain is working. This has wide-ranging positive effects on the body and mind. For example, doctors sometimes advise patients with neurocognitive disorders such as dementia to learn a new musical instrument to help counteract cognitive decline.

Just as a good physical workout keeps muscles strong, a good mental workout keeps the brain in shape. Giving brains a good workout gets more important as people age. Dr. Jonathan Burdette, professor of neuroradiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, thinks that music makes the perfect set of metaphorical weights.

“I know nothing that uses your brain more than playing music,” he told the nonprofit organization AARP.

Benefits as We Age

A BBC Science Focus article recently shared the results of two scientific studies relating to music and cognitive health.

“Older adults who play musical instruments have healthier brains,” the article reads.

The first study focused on the brains of people who spent decades learning the craft of music. The second study gathered data pertaining to senior citizens who took up learning a new instrument.

The results of both studies revealed similar findings.

“In both, playing music was associated with better brain health and less age-related cognitive decline,” the media outlet reported.

Our brains get a cognitive boost while practicing music partly because it increases our cognitive reserve, which deals with the brain’s resilience and ability to adapt. As we age, our cognitive reserves help our brains stay young.

"An Elderly Man and Woman Playing Stringed Instruments," circa 1494–1533, by an unknown artist after Lucas van Leyden. Oil on copper. National Trust, Dorneywood, UK. Public Domain

The first study compared the cognitive ability of older musicians to both young nonmusicians and older nonmusicians. The participants listened to a recording of background noise featuring someone speaking slightly louder than a crowd of about 50 people. Then, they had to repeat what the speaker said.

Findings show that the results of the older musicians were similar to the results of the young nonmusicians. Also, the older nonmusicians “showed signs of age-related cognitive decline,” according to the article.

Even if someone waits to learn an instrument until later in life, it’s not too late to reap the benefits. This is thanks to neuroplasticity, one of the brain’s powerful adaptive abilities. It makes learning new things, such as languages and instruments, a possibility throughout life.

In the second study discussed in the BBC Science Focus article, researchers at Kyoto University in Japan conducted a follow-up with participants who had learned new instruments for a previous study four years earlier. The goal was to track results involving cognitive decline in senior citizens who had learned how to play an instrument. Although the results of the earlier study had not shown much, the follow-up four years later revealed an interesting turn of events.

“Those who had stopped playing their newly learned instruments performed less well on memory tests,“ wrote Hatty Willmoth, an editor with BBC Science Focus. ”In fact, their putamen—the brain region responsible for motor function, learning and memory—had actually shrunk in volume.

“However, those who had continued playing music for the four years since the initial study did not show these signs of cognitive decline.”

Pick-Me-Up in Melodic Form

"The Guitar Player," 1908, by Joseph Rodefer DeCamp. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Oil on canvas. Public Domain

People experience more nuanced positive effects at any age when learning how to play an instrument and continuing practice routines over the years.

Like an afternoon cup of tea, practicing music can provide a significant mood boost. It’s a pick-me-up in melodic form. It adds meaning to memorable experiences, helping them become fond memories. Doctors also see it as a tool to help manage anxiety and depression.

Even simply turning on the radio can produce positive physical changes.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, a research site representing the leading medical institution Johns Hopkins University, “Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.”

The social aspect of music also provides benefits to older individuals. Private lessons allow for continuing education opportunities and a deeper understanding of the craft, fostering an active brain. Group classes or community jam sessions are social outlets that foster a sense of belonging among participants.

The ancient Greek philosopher Plato understood the gravity of the art form.

“Musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul,” he wrote in his seminal work, “The Republic.”

One has an intense feeling when learning and playing music because the brain has to multitask to get the job, or song, done. Although multitasking is often discouraged, it can actually be good for your brain if it’s working toward a shared goal.

“Playing an instrument requires reading, listening, movement, memory, even emotion,” wrote Rachel Nania, a health editor and writer at AARP. “All of the areas of the brain responsible for those processes spring into action—from the frontal lobe to the cerebellum and several regions in between.”

Burdette offered a powerful visual that explains the beneficial hard work your brain is doing with music education.

“Your brain is on fire,“ he said. ”[Playing music] basically lights it up.”

Musical Patterns

Over time, human brains have learned to engage with patterns, including musical ones. Our brains love the subtle patterns found in the chorus of a song and its connection with the slight shifts of the second verse or the sudden, expansive changes of the bridge. As we engage with these patterns more and more by way of piano keys, guitar strings, or a violin bow, no matter our age, we grow.

As the saying goes, “Practice makes perfect.” By learning a new musical instrument and sticking with it, we may not reach perfection, but we can certainly get a healthier brain.

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