The Benefits of Learning Musical Instruments For Children from the moment of the womb
As is known, that listening to classical music is highly recommended for pregnant women. The reason, classical music is believed to stimulate the growth of the fetal brain in the womb. Not until there, learning musical instrument is also very good for children of early age. This is because learning a musical instrument can provide many benefits for the child's brain.
A study conducted at Northwestern University states that practicing or learning a musical instrument can change brain function in processing sound. That people who have been practicing music since childhood will be smarter in digesting the content of speeches delivered by others as they grow older.
The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, explains that research has been done to 44 participants, who have practiced music, and others have never practiced music at all. Then, the researchers tested participants' brains to determine their ability to respond to sound. Way, each participant is asked to listen to the conversation and then their brain activity is analyzed.
The result, the effect of the ability to play a musical instrument can survive to adulthood. As the ages of participants who are accustomed to playing music increase and their ability to digest information and the content of the conversation increases. This is clearly much different from what happened to the participants who never practiced music at all.
The ability to digest sounds also will not disappear even though the participants are old. In fact, even though they have not played music for 40 years. What is clear, if they ever practice playing the instrument at the age of 4 to 14 years, then the ability to respond quickly in digesting the speech will still be owned.
This study clearly shows the importance of music education from an early age. Because the benefits will not be obtained for the short term, but until the next few decades. That may be the reason why the current parent's interest in music school or music lesson course for children is on the rise.
Another study from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada also revealed that encouraging children to enter the music class from the age of 6 will speed up motor development. This is because learning a musical instrument requires hand coordination with visual stimulation (sight) and audio (hearing) in the brain. In fact, if the learning process has been done before the age of 7 years, then the relationship between the motor and sensory areas in the brain will be faster. Thus, practicing musical instruments will be easier and faster as well.
The researchers there observed 36 brains of musicians who had played music for almost the same time. They have also undergone several non-musical tests to measure their motor skills. Participants are also divided into two groups, namely musicians who learn music before the age of 7 years, and musicians who learn music after 7 years. Then, the results were compared with the results of other participants who were not musicians, either who had received formal music training or who had never received any music training at all.
It is known that musicians who have studied music before the age of 7 years can learn better. This is much different when compared to other musicians who studied music after 7 years and participants who have never studied music at all.
Brain scans also show that musicians who studied music since childhood or before the age of 7 years experienced the addition of white parts to the corpus callosum in their brains. Corpus callosum is a group of nerve fibers connecting the left hemisphere and the human right brain.
The Journal of Neuroscience also emphasizes that the benefits of learning instruments from the start are not just about playing a musical instrument, but more than that.