You might think Chopin is for the people who sit around in a room titled "Sitting Room" with escargot on their plates, but it's not. When I first started practicing piano, that's what I thought. It felt pointless at first as I tapped the keys one note at a time. Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star was beginning to sound like a mindless chant and Mary Had A Little Lamb kept me awake at night.
After a couple months, everything changed. Suddenly the music was a part of me. I listened to Jean-Yves Thibaudet and cried. I fell in love with soundtracks from any Jane Austen movie and played some of my favorites until my sister begged for me to stop.
Music isn't just about which note to play and chord memorization, it's about the heart. It's a different language and it can describe emotion better than words.
Not only that, it increases cognitive abilities. Recent studies have shown music can juice up your grey matter. Both playing and listening to an instrument will unleash those BDNF proteins and CREB binding proteins.
The Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor will essentially jazz up your memory capacity while giving you a side of neurogenesis. With all those freshly made neurons, you'll have a pretty peachy mood, butt-kicking productivity and you won't be the last person to get the punchline of a joke anymore.
The CAMP Response Element Binding protein will help you solidify your memory while increasing brain malleability. Because of this, we are the able to live well in any situation. Brain malleability reimburses our mental abilities when something happens like after an injury or in the case of a disease.
Instrumental music can change your life. It'll make your brain bigger and it'll give your soul something to relate to on a deeper level. It has the power to calm anyone down and it can translate any unsaid feelings.
Music may have helped me focus and balance my emotions better, however, it ultimately showed me the beauty of love, hurt and passion. It welcomed me into the world of joy and recreated an even deeper fondness in me for my Creator, my God.
Pick up an instrument and let it touch your soul. It will be difficult at first, but trust me when I say it's worth it. Keep it up and before you know it, you'll feel something different, something free.
