How Music Helps Mental Health
By - Karen Frost, Upper String Teacher and Mental Health First Aider
Elton John once said, "Music has a healing power. It has the ability to take people out of themselves for a few hours." And there is no better time than now to help people understand how music can help us heal, both as listeners and artists.
After the last 18months , I have developed a whole new appreciation for music and the teaching of music that I love. I have played an instrument since I was 7 years old and it has always helped me through difficult times, but I believe I can speak for many of my colleagues when I say that as a musician I never truly appreciated it until the pandemic hit and everything I regularly took part in as a violinist stopped overnight.
Whilst COVID cases rose, so did mental health figures across the UK. A study carried out by the charity MIND found that 76% of people they surveyed admitted they struggled with mental health problems in 2020. Mental health is believed to have taken more lives than COVID in August 2020 alone.
Music, no matter what genre, constantly engages with different parts of your brain and releases different chemicals. This creates a new balance and gives you a new mood.
Over the many years I've been working with children in schools, I've seen so many children bloom, find their feet and grow in confidence. Music provides an escape and an opportunity for expression. Research shows that music uniquely activates every part of the brain. The power of music for that reason is limitless, even magical if you like. Music soothes the soul. It impacts us biologically, psychologically and socially. It's a connector and it can reset our emotions and how we feel.
So as we acknowledge World Mental Health Day on October 10th perhaps now is a great time to start learning to play an instrument, whatever age. Children are growing new brain cells all the time, so when they're learning music, some of those brain cells are devoted to playing their instrument. Adults on the other hand, have to work with the brain cells they already have and create new connections, but adults have advantages in that they can see and hear things in the music that escape children.
It has been well documented that playing a musical instrument offers many benefits to our mental well being, such as improved memory, coordination, perseverance, relaxation and confidence but music, like all art inspires hope and at some point when you or your child finally masters a particular skill, a smile will break out and that smile can change the course of your day and possibly your world.