Play an Instrument, Get a Superbrain

Pop quiz. Name one thing that boosts your memory and multi-tasking skills, reduces stress, and increases every aspect of brain function so much that it can actually mitigate the effects of aging? Hint: it’s not kale. Yes, the answer is playing a musical instrument—and it’s a lot more fun than eating kale. Research shows that playing a musical instrument improves nearly every aspect of your life that involves brain activity (so, everything). It even helps prevent diseases like Alzheimer's and dementia. It doesn’t even matter at what age you learn. If you missed out as a kid, picking up musical skills as an adult or senior will still have a significant positive impact. Playing music might not be the fountain of youth, but it’s the next best thing.

Overall Brain Function

         According to neuro-musical educator Dr.Anita Collins, “Playing music is the brain’s equivalent to a full body workout.” That’s because playing music stimulates regions on both sides of your brain—especially the visual, auditory, and motor function cortices. Between the two hemispheres of your brain is something called the corpus callosum, which is in charge of connecting the activity between the hemispheres. Since playing music actively stimulates regions across your brain, the corpus callosum gets an intense workout trying to coordinate all that activity and interaction between the hemispheres. As a result, the corpus callosum comes out faster and stronger with every guitar jam session. The more you play, the better your brain gets at processing information between all its different regions. 

 Executive Function

             Why does it matter if your brain gets really good at connecting information across all its regions? It’s because the everyday things you do require your brain to use more than just one region. The better your brain is at making connections across its different cortices, the better you will function at most skills, especially actions called “executive functions.” Think of executive functions as interlinked, complex tasks that involve planning and attention to detail. Executive functions are responsible for your decision-making abilities, emotional control, working memory, and more. This is why young musicians tend to perform better academically. By playing music, they are honing their executive functions and forming advanced brain connections earlier in life than they would without playing.

The next time you lose to your friends at a board game or make the poor choice to eat the entire ice cream carton while binge watching The Office, you can blame your executive functions or the fact that you never learned the piano as a kid.

Memory

          When was the last time you lost your keys? Or forgot to get something at the store? Or maybe you forgot your keys at the store. Playing “Don’t You Forget About Me” from The Breakfast Club won’t magically bring your keys back…but it will help you to remember them in the future. According to Dr. Collins, musicians create more associations with each memory, which makes it easier for them to index and recall things. Think of it this way. Every time you create a memory, you have “tags” associated with it. When you think about your dog, you remember certain tags—how he smells, looks, his personality, and maybe specific activities with him. Because musicians use more parts of their brain together, they create more tags with each memory. This gives them better recall (#brainhacks).

Multi-tasking

         For any musician, this shouldn’t be a surprise. Simply playing music is already a multi-tasking action. You have to focus on keeping the right time, playing the right notes at the right volume, and knowing where you are in the song. Are you playing the chorus next or another verse? Is the chorus louder than the verse? Are you playing too fast or slow? What’s the next note? And unless you’re lip-synching at the Super Bowl, you might even need to focus on the lyrics. It’s no surprise musicians outperformed every other group in a multi-tasking study published in the Journal of Cognitive Science. At your next job interview, tell your future boss you’re a professional multitasker because you can expertly play “Manic Monday” in your Bangles cover band.   

 Reduce stress

          Have you ever been so stressed out that you just needed to scream into a pillow? Is it because you left your keys at the store again? That urge to release your stress through noise can also be achieved through music—banging on some drums or strumming on your guitar. Playing music also helps get your mind off things and focus on something other than what is stressing you out. This is why so many people—including combat veterans—find benefits in active music therapy. Not only does it distract and relieve stress but it also makes you better at those executive functions we talked about earlier—including emotional control.

          Neurologists and Psychologists are constantly discovering more and more benefits to learning to play music. Scientists are quickly discovering that music has more benefits than almost any other single activity. So ditch those “brain-boosting” games or quizzes and relax with a ukulele or harp instead.