Learning a musical instrument is a great activity for kids and can teach them a great skill that they must have in their last life while allowing for extra extracurricular activity during their school years.
I wanted to write an article about some of the points you should keep in mind if you are choosing a musical instrument for your child to learn during their school years.
1. There are two basic aspects to learning a musical instrument. The first is the student’s musical development. This includes things like a sense of rhythm, training their ear, a sense of melody and harmony,…others being the actual dexterity required to play the instrument. I think when a student learns their first musical instrument, it is best to reduce the difficulty of learning the actual instrument so that their time on the instrument increases their music development.
As such, an instrument like the violin is a very challenging instrument school to learn how to make sound believable and a student will need to make a great deal of progress before they can develop a strong sense of music. On the other hand, instruments like keyboard or drums, etc., are much faster in developing skills to make the instrument sound reasonable. As such, students develop their music faster. I think this is an important consideration.
2. Point 1 above is closely related to the aspects of music that the instrument will help develop. Some basic musical skills include things like rhythm, sense of melody, sense of harmony, improvisational skills,… Some instruments provide the student with an opportunity to develop a wide range of these skills while other instruments really only allow the development of a limited set of skills.
For example, a drum student will primarily develop a strong sense of rhythm. On the other hand, a keyboard student should be able to develop a sense of melody, harmony and rhythm with their instrument. An instrument such as a trumpet can only play one note at a time, so it may be useful for developing a sense of melody and improvisation, but it will be less effective at developing a sense of harmony. I think the wider the range of musical skills a musical instrument can learn, the better for developing students’ musical abilities.
3. A lot of progress comes in developing musical skills, as well as a lot of benefits from being able to play an instrument along with being able to play with other musicians in groups. When a young student learns their instrument, they should have the opportunity to participate in musical groups at their school. Different tools will allow participation in different groups. These groups may include a school band, orchestra, theater group, jazz band,… Students will be able to develop their music in a group environment.
For example, a student of violin will only be suitable for an orchestra from among the groups listed above, while a trumpeter must be able to participate in any of these groups. I recommend looking at the musical groups your child’s school offers and thinking about instruments that will allow a wide range of participation.
4. Finally, it is useful to consider the situation in which he takes the student to the instrument and becomes a musician in the last life. What kind of different musical styles will your instrument allow the student to easily follow. For example, the guitar or keyboard is used abundantly in a variety of styles such as rock, jazz, blues… It is useful to think about the kinds of musical activities or professions that a student might be able to participate in if they continued with their instrument because they are adults.