8 Ways Playing an Instrument Helps Your Child’s Brain

Thanks to the National Association for Music Education (NAfME), March has been “Music In Our Schools Month” for 40 years. The designation aims to increase awareness of the benefits of high-quality music education programs in U.S. schools and support equitable access to these programs. 

If your child has been thinking about taking up an instrument—whether in school band, orchestra, or through private lessons, check out these insights into how the activity can help their brain.

Playing an instrument improves memory.

A 2017 meta-analysis of multiple studies found that musicians have better long-term, short-term, and working memory than non-musicians. Although the type of stimuli influences the advantage (e.g., tonal stimuli), the researchers also believe the improved memory performance may be due to the enhanced auditory perception, which extends to verbal memory tasks.

It increases gray matter.

A 2003 study published in the Journal of Neuroscience showed that adult musicians had more gray matter—neuronal cell bodies and dendrites that help you process information—than non-musicians. These structural changes seem to indicate that the repetition of steady practice forces the brain to adapt to the complex motor and auditory skills needed, making room for more gray matter. 

Playing an instrument builds white matter.

While gray matter is responsible for processing information, white matter serves as the communication pathway between the different regions of gray matter. White matter is especially essential in the corpus callosum, which bridges the two hemispheres of the brain. When your child plays an instrument, the right brain contributes to creativity and understanding of the emotions associated with musical expression. Simultaneously, the left brain is gauging rhythm and reading music, communicating both mathematical and linguistic information. The two sides of the brain are working together—even fine-tuning motor responses of the hands—by communicating across the corpus callosum, thanks to this white matter.

Music reduces stress and anxiety.

There are several ways that playing an instrument can help reduce stress and anxiety. Consider, for example, that the release of dopamine and endorphins can not only create feelings of joy and pleasure, but also block nerve cells that cause pain and stress. Likewise, playing music can decrease the levels of cortisone—the hormone associated with stress. Not to mention that focusing on such a complex activity can keep your brain engaged to prevent rumination on negative thoughts.

Playing an instrument improves executive function.

Executive function skills are a set of cognitive abilities that allow us to manage our thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. They include skills like planning and prioritizing, organizing, flexible thinking, impulse control, task initiation, self-monitoring, emotional control, and working memory. Among the key aspects of playing an instrument that enhance executive function:

• Cognitive flexibility: Musicians have to switch between different tempos, keys, or sections of a piece, which requires the ability to adapt and adjust.

• Attention and focus: Musicians must have strong sustained attention—the ability to maintain focus and engagement on a specific task for sensory input for an extended period of time—in order to concentrate on following the score.

• Multisensory integration: Cognitive flexibility is increased in musicians as they must regularly integrate multisensory input. This integration includes reading sheet music (visual processing), listening to the sounds (auditory processing), and playing the instrument (motor coordination).

• Inhibitory control: To focus on the correct sequence while playing, musicians must suppress incorrect rhythms or notes and stay focused on the correct sequence, boosting their ability to control impulsive actions.

• Working memory: It’s a skill to be able to temporarily hold and manipulate information in your mind while you perform a task (e.g., remembering a license plate number while you search your car for a pen). Playing an instrument requires the musician to constantly train their working memory to remember notes, patterns, and chords. Regular practice strengthens the connections between the hemispheres, helping the brain to process faster and more efficiently. 

• Goal setting and planning: Musicians need to break down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable parts while learning a new piece of music. Improving their technique requires setting achievable goals and practice and assessing their progress, then adjusting as needed. 

Read More: 5 Kid-Friendly Cognitive Exercises >>

It improves reading ability. 

Enhancing the brain’s processing skills can translate into the improved ability to decode phonemes (the individual sounds in each word) when reading. The better the brain is at recognizing and interpreting complex sound patterns in music, the better for decoding language. The same is true for the visual decoding of musical notation, which can activate similar regions of the brain used for reading text.

Playing an instrument increases processing speed.

Simultaneously engaging multiple areas of the brain requires rapid coordination between auditory, visual, and motor functions. The repetition of practice and performance strengthens the neural pathways to help the brain process information quickly. 

It improves math understanding.

Beyond boosting cognitive skills—like working memory, spatial-temporal reasoning, planning, organizing, and processing speed—used in math, playing a musical instrument also develops the musician’s ability to recognize patterns. Learning to recognize and replicate rhythms and compositions can help with mathematical equations, sequences, and functions. 

Finally, it’s worth noting that playing a musical instrument increases blood flow to the brain by activating different areas simultaneously. A 2022 research study of musicians used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and positron-emission tomography to show that blood flow “significantly increased” for both “music in practice” and “already mastered” participants. 

Among the many benefits of increased blood flow to the brain? More oxygen and nutrients to the brain cells, which are crucial for optimal cognitive function, memory, and overall brain health. 

If you’ve been debating whether playing an instrument is worth the investment of time and money, look no further than the long list of benefits to your child’s brain!