Joining a sports team is a valuable experience for countless children. As a team member, they learn many lessons that will help them in the future, like teamwork and confidence. But not all children take to sports easily, and many actively dislike them. So what’s a parent to do? Try music instead! A combination of sports and music creates a more well-rounded education for those kids with little to no interest in sports; music provides an opportunity to learn self-confidence, make friends, and learn acceptance in a social setting. Here are nine reasons to get your sports-averse child into music!
Where Sports and Music Intersect
Improve Social Lives
One of the key benefits of a sports team is that it provides an easy social setting for kids with a similar interest. This is also true for group music lessons! Just as with a team, joining a musical group helps encourage relationships with new kinds of people. Both sports and music build skills in leadership, team-building, and the reward that comes from working with others towards a common goal.
Stress Relief
Physical activities like sports are a great way for kids to burn off excess energy and relieve stress. But so is music! Music uniquely affects human emotions and has been shown to lower heart rate and blood pressure.
According to psychologist Jane Collingwood, classical music may be the most beneficial: “Listening to music can have a tremendously relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, especially slow, quiet classical music. This type of music can benefit our physiological functions, slowing the pulse and heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of stress hormones.”
A Sense of Accomplishment
One of the most rewarding parts of playing on a sports team is the sense of accomplishment a child feels when they finally nail down that skill they’ve been working on in practice. It could be throwing that perfect spiral, or when the whole team comes together to perform a play flawlessly.
The same feeling is possible with music! Learning, playing, and succeeding with a musical instrument creates a sense of pride and achievement, too. Especially when the band plays a passage perfectly after struggling with it for weeks.
Confidence Boost
Just as learning all the skills required to succeed in sports naturally boosts self-confidence, playing an instrument helps children become confident with their self-expression. As they master their instrument, they’ll start playing for audiences, usually beginning with their parents and teachers, before moving on to perform for other students and concert audiences. Playing in public, even only for parents, helps foster confidence outside of the context of traditional school.
Improve Patience, Discipline, and Time Management
When it comes to learning to hit a fastball or sink a three-pointer, there are no shortcuts. The only path to success is through practice and patience. When it comes to learning to play an instrument, the same is true! Whether it’s with sports or music, the important lesson is that the more effort you put into something, the better the results.
For that reason, it’s recommended that you and your children allow for at least a year of practice before you expect to see major improvements in ability and confidence. Only then can they can then look back and be glad for their hard work. Learning to play an instrument takes time and effort; it helps children understand that in order to be good at something, they’ll need to put in that effort and organize their time effectively.
Music Makes Them Smarter
As Albert Einstein once said, “Life without playing music is inconceivable to me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music… I get most joy in life out of music.”
As usual, Einstein knew what he was talking about. Countless studies have shown a correlation between musical training and academic success for kids and adults!
Memory Skills
Another incredible benefit for your child from playing music is its boost to memory. Research has shown that learning to play an instrument helps to enhance verbal memory, spatial reasoning, and literary skills. In fact, playing an instrument requires using both hemispheres of the brain, which in turn strengthens memory power.
Build Creative Ability
Practicing week after week to perfect a piece of music helps strengthen the brain’s creative side. The fact is, no matter how many annotations a composer adds to their composition, they can never fully express how their music should be played. That means it’s left up to the players to interpret it themselves; and gives the opportunity to inject some of their own personality into each performance.
Sports and Music are Both Fun!
What really matters most is that both sports and music are fun!
Other “hobbies,” like watching TV or scrolling through social media, sports, and music, actively stimulate the brain, helping make children and adults feel happy, satisfied, and occupied!
Are you on the hunt for the perfect place to start your child’s musical journey? The Music Studio is here to help! Since 1990, The Music Studio in Etobicoke (Toronto) has focused on offering the best in music education, customer service and value for money. We believe that these themes are reflected in the examples below and in the relationships we build with our students. We invite you to experience The Music Studio difference for yourself. Whether in-person or online, The Music Studio has Music Lessons You’ll Love!
