Image courtesy of Latina Moms.
What would our lives be without music? Music brings joy, enthusiasm, and rhythm to our world. It invokes our spirit to sing and dance.
It can express sadness just as much as it can express happiness. Music is an other-worldly expression of ourselves, appealing to our senses and lighting up our minds.
For as long as I can remember, music has always been an essential part of my life. My mom would always play cumbia and salsa on Saturday mornings while she cleaned. I believe this is what developed my keen sense of music, quickly learning all lyrics and learning how to read musical arrangements.
At this time I wanted to learn a musical instrument because I felt as if I had a natural talent for it. From stories I heard, my father was a self-taught guitar player.
Unfortunately, my mom did not see the importance of me learning a musical instrument. I have always felt as if this was a missed opportunity for me to have an outlet to express myself besides writing all my thoughts and singing along to Anita Tijoux or Bad Bunny.
Now that I am a mom myself, I am aware of the importance of introducing my children to a musical instrument.
Here’s why this can be such an essential part of their development and how it can be life-changing.
Improves Cognitive Development
Music can heighten brain function in children. Various studies have concluded that exposing children to musical training enhances their cognitive abilities, such as language processing, planning, and memory.
Because of this, it promotes school readiness due to its fostering of language development and reading skills.
Learning a Musical Instrument Fosters Creativity
Learning how to play an instrument can help children use their creativity as it promotes problem-solving and approaching things from various perspectives.
A musical instrument can become a method of self-expression for your children, so they will constantly develop their artistic side. For example, they may want to invoke a specific emotion with their instrument and try to find the right combination of beats and rhythms in order to accomplish this.
Boosts Mathematical Skills
I don’t know about you, but I am terrible at math. I will legitimately pull out a calculator to confirm simple mathematical calculations because I do not trust my skills.
To prevent this from happening to our children, learning to play a musical instrument will actually boost their mathematical skills. Since music requires sequencing and formulaic progressions, our children would constantly have to use critical thinking, which involves math knowledge.
This is life-changing because what seems like a simple hobby for our children is also setting them up for success at school.
Amiga, let’s set up our children for success with enjoyable hobbies that they will enjoy forever.