BENGALURU: Two weeks into 2020, we are still riding the ‘new year, new me’ high. Gyms are still full, books are still being read, and screens are still going off at a reasonable hour. We are playing around with ways to add more culture to our lives, whether it’s learning how to dance or going out on a quest to find the best pizza ever made (it counts as a legitimate New Year resolution).
In that spirit, I would like to offer another great way to kickstart the year, especially if there are kids involved – music. And as always, I come armed with evidence. Here’s why it is a great idea to start off as early as possible: It helps build entrepreneurship: Panos Panay, founding managing director of Berklee ICE (Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship), had some great insights to share on the subject.
He says learning music is an exercise in listening, collaborating, working with discipline, and getting up even after failing over and over again. Sounds familiar? Those are also qualities seen in successful entrepreneurs (and in me, according to the stories I tell my kid).
It helps prepare kids for life: There is no telling what the workplace will look like 20 years from now. If someone from a few decades ago stepped right into this year and saw people ordering their phones to play their favourite song or give them directions, they would definitely think they woke up on the set of Back to the Future. Who knows what we will wake up to? One thing is clear, however: no matter hmuch the landscape
changes, some of the most valued skills will always be empathy, problem solving, and teamwork. And
music is one of the most effective ways to build these skills. It helps children perform better in school: Music is a gateway to developing skills that children will use in school. Group activities will teach them team spirit and learning an instrument or singing will teach them the value of practice and patience.
And as they get older, subjects like physics and math get easier when musical concepts are used as a starting point (unless they’re anything like me, in which case those subjects will never get easier even if Einstein personally tutors them).
(The author is a singer, songwriter, educator and social entrepreneur)