Self-Care Tip: Music

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My first self-care idea is playing a musical instrument. There are many benefits to playing a musical instrument, but a big one is actually that it improves your memory and helps you learn new things. As you constantly are learning new songs and sometimes how to work with others, as well as new beats and times, you'll find it easier to learn new things unrelated to music. 

Another benefit is that it improves your confidence as you are often going to be playing in front of people if you have a tutor or family that is interested and if you decide to take part in competitions. Being able to play a musical instrument is also a good conversation starter that helps with making friends as those who play instruments are interested in the same thing as you, and those who don't play anything are interested in how you play and how you may read sheet music.

Some other benefits is that you will find proud as you learn new songs and how to play faster and with more emotion. You'll feel proud if you go to competitions and get good marks and your family or teacher will compliment your playing sometimes. It can also improve your patience as it takes a while to learn how to play and you can't rush your way through lessons and skip parts to try and be an expert right away. You have to stick with it for a while to see progress.

One pillar of wellness that playing addresses is the physical pillar. It's not one commonly talked about, but you are always standing or sitting up very straight, which benefits your posture, and most instruments have to be held up to be able to be played, which can be very taxing if you have a long show to do. All instruments are taken around by the person who is playing, so bigger instruments like the Saxophone give a workout to those who decide to play that. 

Two pillars that kind of interconnect is the emotional and spiritual pillars. People who play musical instruments can find all their focus put into playing and some find it as a sort of meditating experience to be able to play music, especially if it's a song that's played a lot. Other pillars could be the intellectual pillar, as talked about in the first benefit and the social pillar as I talked about in the second benefit.

To actually learn a musical instrument is different for the instrument everyone chooses, but for most, you start with picking your instrument and usually having a teacher. A teacher can be your school teacher or a tutor you hire, I know most that play professionally grew up with both and I have also been through music in school and got a tutor to help. Based on experience, you start with learning to hold the instrument and breathing exercises that will help in the long run before you even start playing. Then, you usually start with a small part of the instrument, usually the mouthpiece and focus on getting sound out of the mouthpiece first. Then, you learn fingerings and positions of the instrument and start with scales to learn sight-reading from the beginning, though some teachers will have the notes written underneath the sheet music to help. Then you start with easy songs before going into harder songs. This is personal experience though and every teacher may mix up the steps a bit, but you usually take some time to learn posture, sheet music, and breathing exercises before actually playing anything.

I specifically play a flute and find it very beneficial in helping my mental health as when I play, all my focus is on the music I am playing. It has really helped my confidence as there is no time for shyness when I am in a competition or when I was playing with senior band in high school. It did also grow my social circle as being in band, you talk to a lot of people who are interested in the same thing as you, which is why you are all in band, and spend a lot of time together for rehearsals. 

My resources used were:

Nanna, J. (2021, December 8). 8 benefits of learning to play an instrument. Musical Arts Center of San Antonio Inc. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.sanantoniomusicschools.com/music-lessons/

Francine. (2021, March 1). The health benefits of playing a musical instrument. YouAlberta. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.ualberta.ca/youalberta/2021/04/the-health-benefits-of-playing-a-musical-instrument.html

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