WILL GUITAR LESSONS HAVE BENEFITS?
For people eager to learn this is both an obvious and pointless questions. If they want to learn an instrument then they don’t need another reason. But there can be other benefits.
Some people ask this same question but mean something different. They have been teaching themselves or trying to. Should they have formal guitars lessons instead? Well, perhaps that means should they have formal guitar lessons as well as trying to teach themselves. Yes, formal lessons will give you feedback that you need. Everybody is self-taught in the sense that they have to sit down and actually play the instrument. At the same time everybody learns from what they observe in others, sometime unconsciously. Like language acquisition we learn both formally and through exposure.
WHAT DO YOU LEARN OTHER THAN MUSIC ITSELF AT A GUITAR SCHOOL
Music does seem to have a positive benefit for memory and spatial-temporal intelligence; research supports this though the details are still being discussed. Yet it is almost a forgone conclusion that it improved finger dexterity. Other positive influences include:
- Teaching some time management skill, and to values quality of learning and practice of quantity. This is something that we can learn to some extent from any pursuit, but it is also something that applies to so many aspects of life.
- Co-operation; Being part of an orchestra teaches you how to work together for the sake of the end result. Even local school bands can convey this skill, and produce likable results. Solidarity in a band can be a great thing.
- Teaches responsibly: Again, we learn this from a lot of task in life, but we can also apply it to so many tasks. Looking after an instrument, knowing that this particular instrument is yours, and preparing for events … all good things.
- Cultural history: The instrument you play and the music you are exposed to are the product of centuries of development, both in this culture and in earlier ones. Playing makes you a small part of that process.
Hopefully a student picks up the notion that the process is far from finished.
- Teaches perseverance and achievement: It is very satisfying to look at something that seemed impossible a few months ago, and be able to do it proficiently.
- Learn to be the performer in front of other people. Start this from a young age and stage fright is not an issue.
- Realize that life is about something more than just procedure and numbers. Music can be dissected analytically, but it has an effect on us without that level of understanding. And we’ll never be sure if our analysis captures everything that goes on in an art-form that affects us so strongly.
Have some guitar lessons, and have a little insight into the individual nature of playing an instrument, the ability to co-operate with other musicians, and the mixture of science and art that comes with all creative endeavours.