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Here are some major benefits for brain health and overall health from learning an instrument. You can see links to the original scientifically published articles for each benefit.

Improved Mood / Reduced Anxiety and Depression

A study in 2011 of patients suffering from depression noted that those who engaged in music therapy saw lower levels of depression and anxiety than patients who did not.

Maintain Language and Speech Skills

Playing a musical instrument has excellent cognitive and verbal benefits too. A 2014 study notes that playing an instrument activates the same brain pathways as word generation and language tasks.

Rehab and Injury Recovery

Brain plasticity (or neuroplasticity) is the ability of the brain to form new connections, or re-wire itself. Without this ability, the brain would not be able to recover from injury, e.g., a stroke, and thus it is a vital aspect of brain health. To this point, a 2013 study found that musicians had more grey matter than non-musicians.

The Ability to Multi-Task

You have probably noticed that the brain can sometimes lose concentration when stressed – that is when it is dealing with several things at once. However, learning a musical instrument has been proven to help process multi-sensory information and to cope better when many things are all happening at once