Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

New research suggests that having children learn a musical instrument yields a wide range of academic and social benefits. Join Mike Smith as he discusses these benefits on today's Home School Heartbeat.

Many would say that having a child enrolled in music lessons is a financial and emotional investment, an investment that can only be paid off when your budding beginner grows up into a musical genius. But even if your homeschooler never gets beyond an average level of musical mastery, the benefits to learning an instrument reach far and wide.


Research has proven that learning an instrument improves overall brain function in several ways. It challenges a child to use both the right and the left sides of his brain simultaneously. As a result, your child may increase his aptitude in such subjects as math, science, reading, and history. As your homeschooler learns music, his abstract reasoning skills will increase, giving him a broader intellectual repertoire. Some studies suggest that your child may even score higher on his SATs.


Beyond academics, a musical child will experience an array of social benefits. As a child practices and gets ready for a recital, he will be challenged in the areas of personal responsibility and perseverance to achieve his goals. Anyone who has ever successfully finished playing at a recital will tell you that music can dramatically increase self-confidence. In addition, the nature of music is dependent upon teamwork, as players of various instruments must learn to play together to achieve the desired sound. Until next time, I'm Mike Smith.