We’ve spent a great deal of time talking about the many benefits of a life of music. We’ve covered a lot of mental benefits of playing and more than a few physical benefits of playing. Moreover, we’ve even touched on a handful of more existential benefits. We’ve even delved into the incredible benefits of simply listening to music. This subject is massive – and still expanding. That’s why, this week, we will turn back to that topic. This time, we’ll focus on a particularly anxiety-inducing aspect of music – performance – and its benefits for your life skills and musical ability.

Performance & Musical Skill

Let’s start with the more practical of our two subjects and see how performing actually helps you improve your musical skills.

A Goal

Having a desired outcome for any task is essential, but doubly so for learning new skills. Many young or new students quickly become disenchanted or otherwise bored with their instruments without a goal. Performance fills that need beautifully by allowing students to work towards something, either as a group or solo. What’s more, if a student happens to be part of a band, they can strive for individual and group goals for any given performance.

Record Progress

Musicians, like everyone else, can be pretty hard on themselves. Perhaps even more than others. It can often be difficult for a young musician to notice the progress they are making. Students can become frustrated that they are not getting to the skill level they want as quickly as they want. Some may even think they aren’t improving at all if it doesn’t come to them quickly and naturally.

However, recording performances is an excellent way for students to hear themselves and recognize the progress that has been made. They may not be progressing at the speed they had dreamed of, but showing students that they are improving and can master skills, even if it takes a little longer than they might have hoped, can be enough encouragement to keep them practicing.

Encouragement

Speaking of encouragement, performing is a fantastic way for students to receive much-needed praise. Being told by your teachers, peers, and family that your performance was excellent adds to the drive to improve.

Performing more leads to more encouragement. This, in turn, leads to more practice for the next performance, etc. Skills can only improve with that kind of attention and support.

Constructive Criticism

The other side of the encouragement coin is, of course, constructive criticism. Having the opportunity to perform and then review the performance offers the chance to deconstruct how they played. Students who work with a teacher or band leader can take in the criticism and correct minor errors to improve their overall skills. Without the chance to perform, any criticisms are purely hypothetical. However, with the addition of an audience and the next performance, there is more drive to improve and understand how they can improve.

Performance & Life Skills

Aside from the apparent advantages performing has for your skills as a musician, it also has several hidden benefits. Many of which can be applied to other facets of life.

Commitment

Preparing for an upcoming performance can teach music students about committing. Becoming a musician is a big commitment, but preparing for a performance ups the stakes. Anyone can commit to picking up an instrument and practicing a few hours a week, but performance opens a whole new world of commitment. There is a deadline, and specific smaller goals must be set and met before the student is fully prepared. Preparing for a performance requires more from a musician than simple practice. This is something students will learn is true of the professional world as well.

Patience

Mastering any art form, including music, takes a long time. Even so-called “prodigies” take years to develop their skills. As a student prepares for a performance, whether their first or five hundredth, it takes a lot of patience. Skills are honed through hours of practice, new pieces are played repeatedly until memorized, and a group of individuals comes together to form a single musical unit. Learning patience can be an extraordinary skill in our modern world of instant access. One that could set a music student apart from the crowd later in life.

Public Speaking

Speaking in public always appears on lists of top 5 fears all over North America. Luckily, musicians who perform have a massive advantage over the rest of the population when tackling this fear.

Performing music is like speaking in front of a crowd; musicians walk out onto a stage, stand under hot lights, and have many people they don’t know stare at them. After all that, just talking should be pretty easy. Performing gives students the experience of being on stage, usually as part of a larger ensemble, just another face in the crowd, so to speak. This relatively noninvasive introduction to being in front of people with all eyes on them can work as a primer for future presentations. And just like everything else, the more it’s done, the easier it becomes.

So, the more often musicians perform, the more comfortable they become on stage, and that kind of confidence can be carried into any presentation.

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Looking to take advantage of these benefits for yourself or your children? Take a look at the programs and lessons offered by The Music Studio! All our programs are taught by musical professionals, with lessons and classes for all ages and skill levels. It’s never too early or too late to start!