Why you should learn how to play an instrument now

When you listen to music, multiple areas of your brain become engaged and active. But when you actually play an instrument, that activity becomes more like a full-body brain workout.

If I had a chance to write a letter to myself at the age of 22-23, I would write something like, "Please learn how to play a certain musical instrument like the guitar". When I just graduated, I enrolled in a guitar course at a centre on Nguyen Dinh Chieu Street, Ho Chi Minh City. I came to attend the first lesson and quit right after that. The reason being I was not patient enough at that time to hone the guitar skill.

I just watched a short video on Youtube entitled "Why playing an instrument can be useful for your brain". The video is also short, just over 4 minutes - you can watch more here

According to the video above, neuroscientists used machines to measure the parts of the human brain while playing music to see the effects of playing music on the brain. The conclusions show that when playing music, different parts of the brain light up like fireworks. That helps in the development of the different divisions of the brain - mechanical, visual, and auditory skills. Specifically, the part of the brain named “Corpus Callosum” is developed. This part acts as a bridge connecting the left and right parts of the brain.

You might want to ask who this person is - He is Paul Yang - CEO of startup company Lomotif - a mobile application that turns your favourite moments into a music video. When I was working at Blk71 regularly, he would make me coffee for me to drink sometimes. When he got tired due to work, he destressed by playing the guitar put next to him. I did not know at that time that he was the CEO of the company, I thought he was an engineer.

If you or you want your child to develop memory, intelligence, and emotional skills, you should invest in yourself or your child in musical instrument skills from now on.