S1Ep3: A Personal Connection With Your Instrument

In this episode, Will discusses the multiple benefits of musical education for children, both expected and unexpected. He draws upon studies to back up his points about its benefits for cognitive abilities, behavior, and overall well-being. Will also talks about 'head fake learning' where children learn useful life skills while believing they're just learning music. The episode ends with an actionable tip for parents on building a personal connection between children and their chosen musical instrument.

If you'd like to read more about the studies I mentioned: 

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242560857_The_power_of_music_Its_impact_on_the_intellectual_social_and_personal_development_of_children_and_young_people

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

Please send in your questions to be answered in a future episode! 
will@groovelinemusiceducation.com

www.groovelinemusiceducation.com
@groovelinemusiceducation on social media!

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Transcript

 Hello and welcome to another episode of Heard It Through The Grooveline. My name is Will Bennett and I'm the founder of Grooveline Music Education. I'm here to help you know how to best support the musical education of your child, even if you are not musical yourself.  At Grooveline, when the lesson ends, the learning doesn't stop.

And so as part of our wraparound approach to music education, This episode we'll be discussing the benefits of music education and at the end of the episode one quick tip as to how you can help your child build a personal connection with their instrument. 

 I think there are a lot of obvious benefits to learning music, learning, instrumental study music.  Having fun, learning a new skill, practicing creativity, building your confidence. They're all things that we all know and agree upon. But there are actually quite a lot of unexpected benefits as well. 

Things that you might not realize. Are actually happening when we asked it in music. I'm going to reference a couple of studies. I will put links to these in the show notes. So you can check out these studies in more detail. If you like. 



So learning an instrument can actually develop a child's ability to do things like reading comprehending social environments and communicating. Helps with their memory, 



particularly that eco. Quick memory, which basically means. Memory's based on sounds pattern recognition.  It can also improve your physical health and wellbeing and even boost your immune system too. So there's quite a lot of benefits there that I just mentioned. Maybe you didn't necessarily think that all of those could happen just by studying music.  There's a really cool and quite emotional and moving lecture on YouTube.  



, there's a guy called  professor Randy Pausch. I think I'm pronouncing that right. And he gave a lecture called my last lecture. He knew he was unfortunately gonna pass away. He had a terminal illness and he gave one final lecture. Reflecting upon his life and education as well. 

It's really great lecture, but within it, he talks about something called head, fake learning. That's basically the idea that whilst someone thinks they're doing something, they're actually learning something else. So for example, a child might think. That we're teaching them to sing, but actually they're learning how to notice emotion within spoken language. 

For example, based upon changes of intonation.  What was the child thinks they're learning some new guitar chords. They could actually be learning perseverance concentration. Whilst they think they're practicing for a great exam. They might actually be practicing discipline and learning that hard work results in success and rewards. 

 These are all transferable skills. And these will benefit a child's entire academic education and life.  There's something you may have heard of called the Mozart effect. Which basically is the idea that musicians are unusually good at maths.  And it's probably something to do with the pattern recognition. 

If you think, if I think about, if I related to a guitar, which is my first instrument lots of times we're moving our fingers in certain shapes and those same shapes can be moved up or down the neck. And so it really becomes a game of remembering. Patterns and applying them in different situations.  Now, obviously that's specific to the guitar, but you can apply that to any, anything in life, really, particularly maths. 

But, but also, you know, maybe, , day-to-day life, there's a lot of patterns you can recognize in behavior. You can recognize patterns when this happens. I noticed that this is often the result and it can be great to kind of comprehend those kinds of things at a young age.  



There's a study called the power of music by Susan Hallam. Which I'll put in the show notes and I'm just going to quickly read a sentence out of there.  Learning to play an instrument enhances the ability to remember words through enlargement of the left cranial temporal regions. Musically trained participants remembered 17% more verbal information than those without musical training.  So this kind of proves my point that I'm saying it can really help with your echoic memory based on verbal information that they heard. They were able to recall information really well. If I think about my brother, Harry, who's a very, very good musician. He can watch a film once and he knows most of the words. In fact, he can still remember. Things from when we were children. Who said it, how they said it when they said it. , he's got a really incredible memory in that sense. 

And I think that's no coincidence that he's also, , spent his whole life study in music.  



Studying music can also help with behavior. So if your child struggles to sit still or is hyperactive gets angry and upset, then quite possibly, they were a lot. Like I was when I was younger. All of those things definitely describe me as a child.  I think I can look back on my own childhood and see that learning the guitar was like a pivotal moment. In my development and it was like a turnaround point, a pivot point in my life. Whereby I went from being all of those things. 

I just explained and just, just mentioned. To having something that I loved something to focus my energy on. A sense of identity that comes along with that. I'm a guitarist. It's not, I play guitars. I am a guitarist. That sense of identity. And I think in general, , my behavior at school and schooling.



Before and after learning the guitar with two very different things, I think after learning the guitar, you know, I was quite focused, behaved, well achieved, great grades. I think before that my behavior, particularly at home was difficult for, for my parents to manage. Let's say, I think. I was getting very angry. 

I couldn't control myself, , couldn't control my emotions. I'd be playing up. Fighting with my brothers, , all of those kinds of things. So if your child. Has anything like that, or maybe , they're struggling with a certain part of their life like that. Then maybe learning music could be the thing for them. 

We could really help.  



So as you can see, music is so, so important. And I just wanted to share these little bits of information with you today as a little reminder, and just to highlight the benefits. Of what a great music education can do for a child.  Thank you as always for being interested and engaged enough to even listen to this podcast. 

It shows a certain level of care that you have for your child's music education. And I promise you that that will pay dividends. Even if they eventually don't become a world famous concert pianist. That doesn't matter. You know, the education they get in. As I mentioned in the previous one of the previous episodes will really shape your child. And that's going to really pay dividends to their future. 

A quick actionable tip from me this week. Is this. If you can identify an area in which your child is struggling. For example, we mentioned an example about behavior, but whatever it could be, it could be communication skills. It could be their confidence. Why would love you to do is discuss with them that playing that instrument can be an outlet for them.  What I think is important that they don't just think of. I must practice the piano. 

It's something that I must do. Like homework. It's a chore. I have to be calm and relaxed and ready to learn in order to play the piano. I mean, if you're one of those things, that's great. You're going to have an  effective practice lesson. But that's not all it is. It's not, it's not just something you have to do when you're calm and ready to focus. 

It can be a really fun thing that you do just to get some, get some emotion out. You can just smash out some chords on the guitar or just.  Really angry drum solo. You know, whatever it may be. I think it's great for the children to see that instrument almost as an outlet, but almost like as a companion. Even a friend. , I feel an almost personal, oh, well, not almost. 

I do feel a personal connection to my guitars. Particularly the one that played. Throughout all my teens or did all the gigs were there and, , went to university with it. I felt like me and that guitar had been through things. We've worked through things together. We've had shared experiences. And it's an outlet.  Especially when you're younger and maybe you struggle to get your emotions out in other ways. 

So, and I would love for your child to be able to build that kind of connection. With our instrument too. Just something to think about this week.  I see you again next Monday. A new episode, every single Monday. If I could ask one thing, if you enjoyed this episode, Please, could you leave a review? On Spotify or Amazon or apple, wherever you're listening. 

It really helps us with the algorithms to try and get more people to notice this I'm trying to help as many parents as possible, not just those who are clients of Grooveline, I'm trying to help and make a difference with music education in general, in the UK, if at all possible I'd really appreciate that. 

And also in some future episodes, I would love to do some. Q and a where I actually answer directly your questions. So if you guys have got anything feel free to send me an email. I'll put my email in the show notes. Or you can comment or send it on Instagram, Facebook, whatever it may be. I'd love to answer those questions in a future episode. Okay, have a great week, guys. 

Thank you. 

  Thank you for listening to another episode of Heard It Through The Groove Line, the podcast that helps parents like you best support your children's musical education, even if you are not musical yourself.  To find out more you can follow us on social media and don't forget to hit like and subscribe.