8 Reasons Why Now is the Ideal Time to Learn a New Instrument
There has never been a period recently where you have so much time on your hands to invest into self development. So many people are taking the time to self reflect and invest the time they have into developing new skills and hobbies that will take them out of the monotony of lockdown From reinvesting your time into an instrument you took up at school, age brings a different outlook. Perhaps you’re a career minded mid-40s individual that needs to find a way to escape. It’s also a great way to keep the kids stimulated and give them something to do!
Learning an instrument is not only an escape mechanism but something that can potentially be lifelong. Many pupils are taking up new challenges and doing all the learning and development from the complete comfort of their own homes and fully over the internet.
Video conferencing makes the distances in location a non-issue with clever screen sharing technology and professional audio there are some who have really taken to this approach to learning. You can read music together, play through exercises together, even annotate exercises using a virtual whiteboard. An insane teaching tool which music education takes an important role in.
Learning online also saves on commute time which is often a grievance with many modern busy families. Life during lockdown needs structure to have that normality people need. Routine, self discipline. Scheduling a weekly music lesson gives you an hour or so of complete escapism and self development.
With that being said, this is the ideal time to learn a new instrument – stop waiting and start doing! We take a look at a few reasons why, with benefits far-reaching even after this period!
1. Reduce Stress and Boost Mood
Playing along to music you enjoy creates endorphins and serotonin – the feel good release. Even more so when the piece is physically demanding. Learning music is wonderful for people with anxiety/depression as makes you focus on the small movements/actions required to play the song, giving you an escape from a cluttered and over active brain. Physically you will feel the burn in your fingers, wrists, lungs not so different to a mini workout.
2. Keeps You Busy
Scheduling a weekly lesson creates routine and structure. Allocating additional time before and after the lesson also creates more time that you are dedicating to developing that routine. As a parent, you need time to invest in yourself so offering the children an hour of complete escapism through music lessons allows you to reinvest in your own self development, work or even getting on with the other jobs that life demands.
3. Unlocks Your Creativity
Are you one of these people who is always humming or do melodies come to you in your sleep? You will learn how to translate your creative brain by physically turning ideas into real life productions. Most people have a wealth of untapped creativity that never sees the lights of day. The next hit? The next concerto? This creativity will leak out of music and into any other expressive medium. Creative people sit on the board in marketing departments, financial companies, billion dollar tech companies. Music creates that thought pattern.
4. It Keeps You Fit
Tying in from point 1, instruments are sometimes physically demanding to play based on genre. The more aggressive styles of rock drummers burn off the same amount of calories as a workout at the gym. You have 4 limbs working independently not only requiring complete hemispheric co-ordination but the muscles need to fire rapidly. Try a fast rock beat for 3 minutes straight and you will start to feel tension and ache in your tendons and fingers. Learning music is a great way of staying fit mentally and physically.
5. Open up future opportunities
There is a wealth of monetisation opportunities at all levels with music. For example, people choose to play part time live shows at weddings and events at the lower end (pay varies from £200-£1000) a gig. What other hobbies could you say actually pay you to do it? Many pupils of ours at some point will receive paid gigs even if it is 10 or 15 years down the line. Playing live is and always will be a great income for musicians and even as a side hustle for people with full time jobs, or perhaps you want to keep as a fun side pocket money job. The hours spent practicing and developing are paid off tenfold. For those young pupils who find a real passion by learning an instrument may go onto making it their full time career and even attend some of the best music colleges out there. It’s never been a better time to get into music!
6. Surprise Family and Friends on Zoom
Many people are stuck on the hamster wheel of Zoom pub quizzes and often the only way to communicate with friends and family is online. Next time grab your guitar? Does anyone sing in your family? Perhaps you can collaborate together.
7. Develop A Lifelong Skill
After a while of learning, our brains do a wonderful thing and store the information you’re trying to process and, eventually complete muscle memory sets in. After a while you can take this muscle memory and translate it over to different instruments. Developing your skills right now could give you a love and passion for music that could see you travel the world with it. On a different level you could choose to play only to yourself in your bedroom but its still the same level of satisfaction.
8. It’s Social
The whole point of music is to invigorate the human spirit, music of course can be enjoyed in isolation but at the very core of music it’s supposed to be enjoyed with other people. Playing alongside your friends in a band is a sure fire way to make friendships for life. You never know who you may meet in a live performance space.
What Are You waiting for?
No matter what instrument you’ve always wanted to learn there is a space for you and there has never been a better time to start! You never know you could be the next Phil Collins or Jimi Hendrix.
If drums and guitar are your thing, why not get in touch with the friendly team at Southern Drum School? Our professional tutors are currently offering online lessons or via Zoom or Skype or your preferred platform. We’re passionate about nurturing new talent – no matter where you are in the UK.
Learn more about our online drum lessons and guitar lessons.
