Music Radar has presented as part of the Mental Illness Awareness Week, eight reasons why you should play the guitar. Well, we metalheads are pretty aware of that.
Here they are:
1 – Guitar as a form of therapy:
“The benefits of music therapy are becoming ever more apparent, with schools, charities and health organizations using playing the guitar to manage a person’s stress, enhance their memory, improve their communication and motor skills, and to help them feel more able to cope with life.”
2 – Good for your heart:
“Music therapy is widely implemented in general health care in the Netherlands, so it’s unsurprising that a group of researchers from the country set out to explore the link between music practice and blood pressure.”
3 – Enhances your creativity:
“Whether it’s writing original material or reworking a song for your covers band, the guitar is unlike any other instrument for unleashing your creativity. OK fine, we’ll throw piano in there too.”
4 – Future-proof your brain:
“We’ve all seen those stats about brain decline in later life, but did you know that playing guitar can boost your grey matter? Early brain scan studies show that learning to play the guitar, among other musical instruments, not only increases grey matter volume in various regions of the brain, but it strengthens the long-range connections between them.”
5 – Strengths your support network:
“…if you play in a band or jam regularly with other people. Don’t underestimate how much of a wellness boost you can get from being around like-minded people. Playing guitar with others can also, in time, lead to new friendships and a richer social life.”
6 – Enables you to express your feelings:
“We all have those moments when it’s hard to verbally express our feelings, but many guitarists find it easier to show their emotion, to process their feelings and to feel truly heard through playing the guitar. Kirk Windstein of Crowbar is one such guitarist: ‘I run through a lot of emotions while playing guitar. It’s a perfect vehicle for letting out my feelings,’ he told us. ‘While playing, I often feel my aggression, my sadness and any anxiety leaving my mind and body.'”
7 – Boost your confidence:
“Learning to play the guitar can have an enormously positive effect on your self-esteem and confidence. As you learn to play and continue to improve, chances are you’ll end up playing in front of a family member, a mate, some potential bandmates or even an audience.”
8 – Helps you feel part of something bigger:
“As we now know, there are several ways in which playing the guitar can improve your mental health and overall wellbeing. But perhaps the greatest way is how it connects us to each other.”
Extra – It’s so damn good!
