Now comes research that shows that music, as we have suspected all along, has numerous rewards, from improving performance in school to dealing with emotional traumas to helping ward off aging. These come as a result of the brain biologically and neurologically enhancing its performance and protecting it from the some of the ravages of time thanks to the active participation of the player in the act of producing music.
Nina Kraus's research at the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University in Evanston, Il. has already shown that musicians suffer less from aging-related memory and hearing losses than non-musicians. They also found that playing an instrument is crucial to retaining both your memory and hearing as you age, and how well you process all sorts of daily information as you grow older.
It turns out that just listening to music isn't enough though. You actively have to participate as a player in order to receive any of the benefits.
That's as good a reason I can think of to learn how to play an instrument and keep on playing it for life. It's not only good for your spiritual health, but your physical side as well.
