The year is coming to an end. In a few days, the festive month of December shall be upon us. Very soon, it would be another opportunity to start again, but this time in 2023. You may be waiting for January 1st to write a set of new resolutions, but like every other year, you may give up before June. Before all that happens, we have an exciting challenge for you that would be greatly beneficial to your life. You don't need to cross over to a new year before forming new habits. If you've been looking for a sign to start learning a musical instrument, here it is!
To help you make up your mind, we've put up together a list - call it a push-list, if you may. Here are a few reasons why we believe you should start learning a musical instrument before 2022 runs out.
Appreciation of Music
Whether you're an artist or a music lover, learning to play a musical instrument helps you deepen your appreciation for music. Not only would you understand the effort that has gone into a piece of music, but it would also help enjoy music more. It is very likely that someone who for example, plays the saxophone, will better grasp the value and understand the intrinsic contribution of a saxophone solo in a music track, than someone who knows nothing about the instrument. If we are being honest, learning an instrument attracts you to the genre of music which is saturated by the influence of that particular instrument and that's equal to opening a door to a paradise of exploration and discovery.
Patience - building
A challenge has been set for you to pick up an instrument before the year runs out. One thing's for sure, you'll discover one virtue in the process - patience. When it comes to musical instruments, you are guaranteed to indulge in repetition for perfection; you're expected to keep trying until you get better than when you started. This, in itself, plants and waters the seed of patience. This perk gets truer if this is your first rodeo with musical Instruments because you'd realize that sometimes, it goes slowly but steadily and even when you want to quit - because there would be days like that as it is with all great and noble endeavors - you observe the progress you've made and plunge right back into the process.
We want to make this as clear as it is genuine: learning a musical instrument would give you patience, perseverance and the knowledge of how to play a musical instrument. That's a "buy one get two free" deal. Who doesn't like a promo?
It's fun!
Whether it's percussion, string or wind, you can be assured that there's a level of joy and glee that comes from learning how to play a musical instrument. It is an intriguing thing to see that if you placed your fingers somewhere or blew into something, a sound would be produced that generally hosts a euphoria of emotions. Plus the more you learn, practice and get better at the instrument, the more it transforms from labour to excitement when it's time to play. And it's called play-ing an instrument for a reason: this brings the combination of enjoyment, creativity and constant mastery into one mix - and you are at the centre of it.
It helps Your brain
It's a known fact that when you play a musical instrument, both sides of your brain are engaged. The learning of a musical instrument would greatly help to stimulate different parts of your brain, improving your cognitive capacity and helping the relationship between your neurological and muscular systems. In other words, playing musical instruments keeps you sound in mind (pun intended).
Boost - Why now?
As aforementioned, at one point in life we've made New Year resolutions which didn't get any attention from us until the next year to make another set of goals. Life could be crowded sometimes - we know this. So here's a possible fix to that: start learning a musical instrument today. How do they relate? Simple. When you begin to learn a musical instrument this month, it actually boosts your confidence in completing or - at the very least - starting out to complete goals.
It may not seem like it, now, but this singular act is a veritable morale booster you could use for the coming year - 2023. Your mind may not tell you but by achieving this late-minute desire, you've proven to yourself (and all those watching) that you can do whatever you set your mind to do - no matter how tough it may look on the outside or no matter how long the journey may appear from the starting point.
The Bible tells us to do so
When we read the book of Psalms 150 from verse 1 to 5, the psalmist encourages us to praise GOD with trumpets and the harp and the lyre and with timbrel and strings and pipes...the list actually goes on. If you look carefully, these are musical instruments and are components of modern day instruments for music and worship. The Bible is actually telling us to praise GOD with the playing of musical instruments but you can't do that unless you learn one today.
Learning a musical instrument is an integral part of your journey to independence as well as the corporate worship of GOD. This means that you join the community of worshippers on a deeper and more engaging level. Most importantly this positions you for a most intimate worship where your spirit, mind, and body are fully and intentionally engaged with worshipping GOD. Judging from the importance of this, we'd say it is very important you started your training on that musical instrument. You don't have to be left out of this heavenly train.
Be part of a Community
It's true what they say that music is a universal language because that's the only reason why people who don't speak the same language can communicate beautifully when they play the same musical instrument or score. Learning an instrument enrolls you in a community with people who love that instrument, play that instrument or just listen to music where that instrument is prominent and influential. And if you started to learn an instrument today, you'd get access to this amazing opportunity to be a part of this ever-growing community of diversity and creativity.
Improves Perception
In addition to accessing a new and engaging community of like-minded people, learning a musical instrument could be vital in improving your emotional perception. There are so many portrayals of emotions in music that when you begin to play and make music, you are better exposed to recognizing emotions especially vocally inclined emotions where your brain recognizes these sounds and can easily tally these sounds to an emotional meaning. This is very important in improving your relationship and interaction with other people and there's no better time to start having this than now.
Stress relief
An added bonus to all these is the fact that you actually get relieved of stress when you play musical instruments. It could be a great way to silence your burdens in life while giving yourself some time to breathe and better appreciate the gift of life. It's not always that deep but while playing or learning to play an instrument, your concerns are usually on getting the score right rather than the troubles you may be facing in and with life.
Finally,
With all we've said, if you are charged and inspired to learn a musical instrument and to begin now, we have a list of musical instruments you could start with. They are easy to learn and access. Now that we have all these pointers in place, kindly tell us in the comments, what musical instrument you would begin to learn before the end of the year. We are rooting for you!