You Should Learn To Play A Musical Instrument

THESIS: You should learn to play a musical instrument.

Introduction:
ATTENTION-GETTER: I play three instruments: piano, guitar, and bass. I’m not amazing at any of these, but I know enough to be able to play some of my favorite songs. I didn’t bring my guitar in, but I would still like to play a song for you. This is “Tangled Up in Blue” by Bob Dylan. Feel free to play along if you know it. That was both fun and stimulating.

THESIS AND PREVIEW: You should learn to play a musical instrument. The reasons include mental and physical benefits and more developed intelligence. Also, it is easy to do, it doesn’t need to cost a lot of money, and it can establish a sense of achievement.

TRANSITION: I will begin by describing the benefits of learning an instrument.

Body

I. There are many benefits that come from learning to play a musical instrument.

a. Learning to play an instrument has mental and physical benefits.
i. Recently, studies have been completed looking at the emotional benefits of music. Results have shown that taking music lessons has decreased the levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
ii. Playing an instrument such as piano can increase coordination skills, according to the article “Benefits of piano lessons for a beginner.” On piano, your hands tend to operate individually of each other. Your right hand plays the melody which is on the sheet music as the treble clef, while your left hand is playing the bass clef which is usually a part that is like a beat.
iii. An experiment done by the Michigan State University Music Therapy department in 1996 and 1997 revealed that senior citizens taking music lessons had a 90% increase of Human Growth Hormone levels.
iv. This is significant because the level of hGH is usually decreasing as one gets older. The higher levels lead to more energy and decreases in the rate of illness.

b. While hopefully we won’t have to worry about hGH levels for a long time, playing an instrument can also help develop intelligence.
i. Researchers from the University of Montreal found that sight-reading and playing music involved activity in all four regions of the cortex’s lobes.
ii. John J. Ratey, MD said in A User’s Guide to the Brain, “The musician is constantly adjusting decisions on tempo, tone, style, rhythm, phrasing, and feeling–training the brain to become incredibly good at organizing and conducting numerous activities at once.”

TRANSITION: Your body might thank you in the long-term for the reasons I just mentioned, but there are more immediate reasons too.

II. Learning to play a musical instrument is easy to do.

a. While it can take years and years to master an instrument, it does not require too much time in the short-term.
i. Most people who take music lessons tend to practice for fifteen to twenty minutes a day.
ii. There are many opportunities during our normal days to find this time.
iii. I know that I usually stay in bed for at least fifteen minutes after my alarm goes off. I could take that time to practice an instrument, but I’ll wait until I’m back home and I can go in my basement and not wake anyone else up.

b. Playing an instrument does not need to be expensive.
i. Instruments can be expensive, but there are many models more suited for beginners that are also much cheaper.
ii. If you need to play a guitar like one of your musical heroes, instead of buying the $3,000 Eddie Van Halen guitar, you could buy the $500 Jack White guitar.

c. Finally, learning an instrument can create a sense of achievement.
i. The article “Benefits of Music Education” says that once you’ve mastered your first piece, the satisfaction you’ll feel is priceless…you’ll never forget the first piece you’ve mastered.”
ii. I can attest to this. For my first piano recital, I played a song called “Tap Dance.” Almost twelve years later, I can still play the song from memory.

Conclusion
REVIEW: Today I told you about why you should learn to play a musical instrument. It can make you feel better mentally and physically, along with helping to make you smarter. You can find time within your regular schedule to practice, you can find good, cheap instruments, and every time you learn to play a new song, you’ll feel a real sense of achievement.
FINAL COMMENT: There was an article in the Musician’s Educators Journal entitled “We Need More Amateurs!” It makes an excellent point that there is no shame in playing an instrument as a hobby. You don’t need to get paid to play to have a good time. I know that no one in their right mind would pay me to play music. They might try to pay me to stop, but I don’t think I would take them up on that offer.