Do you ever feel like the real value of music lessons gets pushed to the side? Many times we highlight aspects like improved math and reading skills, or increased coordination and perseverance, discipline and memory. All valid points, to be sure. But these traditional talking points don’t really tell the whole story. What if we consider how music lessons shape us and remind us of who we are? Or how learning to sing or play a musical instrument offers pathways for each of us to explore the depths of human experience?
Here at Teach Music 21C, we invite you to consider five deeply personal dynamics at the heart of learning to sing or play a musical instrument:
1. Music. The whole point of making music is to make music. The reward for music making is its own fulfillment of sound, colour, texture, and energy. To experience the wondrous glory of music is to immerse ourselves in its endless possibilities and open ourselves to resonant explorations that connect, inspire, and enrich the human experience.
2. Autonomy. Making music shapes us as individuals just as much as we shape it. Every person regardless of age, education, or socioeconomic position experiences our own autonomous meaning of music, choosing what, when, how, and why we make music throughout life. It’s why one student gives a Harry Potter concert, another chooses Broadway classics, and another feels most at home in their own improvisations.
3. Community. Making music connects us. We use it as the glue for social interaction, as the momentum for dancing, singing, celebrating, and connecting with others. Across cultures, geographies, and generations, music making transmits traditions, builds relationships, and transforms society.
4. Risk-free Exploration. Making music provides safe spaces for us to explore as active, curious, and creative participants. Without fear of failure, we use music making to step beyond our comfort zones, embrace new challenges, and try something new. Music making gives us permission to go where we’ve never gone before. There’s protection, renewal, and resilience in music making.
5. Quality of Life. Making music is an amazing way to invest in our personal wellbeing. It’s like a comprehensive workout for body, heart, mind, and soul. Just a few moments of making music can restore balance, fuel imagination, and strengthen resolve. From distraction to refuge, challenge to companion, art form to entertainment, making music accomplishes so much by meaning so many things. That’s how making music nourishes and exercises our entire inner self.
Music Making & Whole Person. Rather than advocating for music lessons because of what they do for the brain, let’s emphasize what making music does for the whole person - like a student who improvises when they feel overwhelmed, a teen who returns to their instrument during difficult moments, or adults who consistently name making music as one of the most significant activities of their lives. Let’s talk about real life personal dimensions that resonate more powerfully with students and families than cognitive benefits alone.
What are the real benefits of music lessons? Why music lessons? It seems really important for music teachers to remember that making music helps each of us explore who we are, how we belong, and what gives meaning to our lives. And those are benefits we - teachers, parents, and students - can all stand behind with confidence.
How do you feel about the Benefits of Music Lessons? What do you notice in common with your own experiences?
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