You’ve probably noticed a correlation between successful people and instruments just from watching the news. Bill Clinton and his saxophone is a famous example, but if you look closer, you’ll notice many leading politicians, industry stars and wildly successful business people can play an instrument and read music. Learning music gives you an ever-valuable boost in life, and here are four reasons to prove why.
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1. Boosts Your Creativity
Creativity is sadly underrated, as people often associate this skill with only the ability to paint, sculpt, draw or write. But in reality, being creative can get you out of tight corners in a business deal or help you out-think competitors when it comes to product development or marketing. People thinking outside the box is exactly how businesses like Amazon, Netflix and Apple got to where they are today.
Be open to learning a new instrument, no matter what your age or skill level, just for the ability to boost your creativity and express yourself alone. Arrange for lessons with a local provider for the instrument you want to try or, if time or finances are an issue, try learning what you can from instructional videos. Either way, being musically creative is being creative, too, and it will help you boost your success in other areas of your life.
2. Allows You To Connect With Others
Music can be a gateway to connecting with other people from different cultures or backgrounds. A person with whom you have nothing else in common may share the same taste and instrument preference you do, giving you both an immediate shared ground. Often, just the act of taking out or talking about an instrument you play garners interest from other people, even if they’re strangers in an unfamiliar location.
Use your developing musical prowess to connect with people on different levels. Be open to new experiences as part of your development as a musician.
3. Develops Your Other Skills
Math skills, problem solving and memory may all get a boost from learning music, according to Psychology Today. Playing an instrument and learning how to read music requires problem solving, focus and concentration, all things that can boost your other cognitive abilities once improved.
Learn to read music as well as play an instrument. While it can be tempting to jump to the fun stuff, like learning how to play the beginning of “Stairway to Heaven,” actually knowing how to read scales and notes gives you a better understanding of music and sharpens your other mental abilities at the same time.
Playing an instrument, by nature, improves your rhythm, which is another skill-enhancing bonus. Better rhythm is not only great for dancing it can actually increase your productivity in general. Having rhythm gets you into the groove faster, making repetitive tasks easier to accomplish in a timely manner.
4. Increases Your Perfection Drive
The goal of any developing musician is to get better and do things like play that one song that’s giving him or her trouble perfectly or improve his or her tuning time. This drive for perfection and improvement can be applied to other areas of your life, like your job.
Work toward becoming a better musician by practicing as often as you can and accepting constructive feedback. While you don’t want to drive yourself up the wall over obtaining utter perfection, having the will and desire to improve is a good thing. You’ll also reinforce the idea that you have to work hard to succeed, which makes it less likely you’ll resort to quitting right away when you try something difficult.
