Even I myself, as a musical mom with two children learning instruments, didn’t realize that their daily practice was going to be more about learning to handle frustration, self-criticism, and delayed gratification than making beautiful music. But I witness day in day out how much my two are benefiting in unexpected ways from daily practice where they learn to take time to focus, to listen, to try – and most important to learn how to handle it when they don’t succeed as quickly as they are conditioned to with other media. Making beautiful music will be the long-term reward of this arduous journey. What this widely discussed brain-imaging study discovered about the benefits of learning to play a musical instrument is fascinating and surprising…read more