It is no secret that having a creative outlet enhances our well-being and allows us to better express ourselves. However, you may have heard some interesting information about playing the guitar that seems too good to be true. Is playing guitar good for your brain?
Yes—there are scientific studies supporting the fact that playing guitar may benefit the brain. Playing guitar stimulates several parts of the brain at the same time, and it improves many left-brain skills that typically are not accessed when we use the creative right-brain. This activity preserves the brain for years, and may even ward off degrading diseases like dementia.
Keep reading to learn more about how playing guitar is good for your brain. This article also covers some other brain boosting benefits of playing this particular instrument.
Why Is Playing Guitar Good for Your Brain?
Playing guitar is good for your brain in ways that build on one another. Playing guitar benefits your brain in the following ways:
1. Guitar Stimulates Many Brain Regions
Everything we do causes neurons to fire in certain regions of the brain. However, if neurons are not being used, our brains trim them away for good—this is what the old saying “use it or lose it” is referring to.
Playing guitar causes neurons from nearly every region of the brain to fire, especially in the auditory, visual, and motor regions, the last of which is responsible for physical movement. This stimulation prevents you from losing several transferable skills, such as the dexterity that comes with plucking the strings, that you may not have honed otherwise.
2. Guitar Improves Cognitive Functions
All of that stimulation that occurs while you play guitar includes the region of the brain that links the right and left halves. Due to this, you are doing more than using the more creative-oriented right-half of your brain. You are also able to use the rational left-half.
The stimulation of the rational part of your brain generally improves some of the cognitive functions that this half controls. The functions that tend to be enhanced are your memory, coordination, intuition, and solving problems.
Some guitar players even subconsciously improve these functions with other musical habits. They may commit information to memory by rhythmically chanting it a few times, for instance.
3. Guitar Keeps Your Brain Healthy
Since most of your brain is constantly active from playing the guitar, your brain will stay healthy for much longer than an aging brain of a non-musician. Studies have shown that this is the case. All of those healthy neurons prevent or reduce the degradation of any brain cells. This protects you from diseases like dementia or alzheimers that do just that.
What Are Other Brain Boosting Benefits of Playing Guitar?
For those who still are not sure if they would be interested in taking up the guitar, there are many other benefits in addition to the basic mental ones. The following advantages are some of the biggest extra brain-boosting benefits of playing guitar.
4. Guitar Expands Your Social Network
Whether you elect to take music lessons, join a band, or simply play in public places, new people will be drawn to you. These people will also be invested in music, so you should have plenty to discuss right off of the bat.
Should you choose to make playing guitar your career, networking will be required, but again, the shared passion for music will help you connect with others. While you may not like some of these people, you might also meet your best friend or the love of your life.
5. Guitar Relieves Constant Stress
Many guitarists have stated that playing is a great form of stress relief. It forces you to forget about the outside world and allows you to exist in a headspace of your own choosing. A Harvard study found that playing relaxing songs largely reduces anxiety and prevents high blood pressure.
6. Guitar Connects You to Older Music
As amazing as playing your own music can be, playing older music also allows you to connect to those songs more deeply. Several musicians delight in learning how to play the songs that they have complex emotional attachments to, like nostalgia for the song that first played at their wedding.
In Conclusion…
Playing guitar is indeed good for your brain. Several scientific studies have shown that playing the guitar stimulates nearly all parts of the brain, and this constant activity protects your brain from losing skills or physical cells. These studies show that playing guitar is not just a creative endeavor, either, and it enhances rational skills like memory.
In addition to the mental benefits, playing the guitar is also an excellent way to boost your social activity and to reduce mental and physical symptoms of stress. Many guitarists enjoy being able to express themselves both through original music and songs they feel strongly about.
Wondering What to Learn First on Guitar? Start Here
I recommend the first thing that all guitarists learn is how to choose, maintain, and care for their instrument.
Because surprisingly few players know how to do exactly those things.
And if you don’t even have a handle on those fundamentals…
Then it doesn’t matter how good you are, or what song you’re playing…
You simply aren’t going to sound good on a poorly maintained instrument.
That’s why in this book, I decided to reveal all the secret tips I know when it comes to buying, owning, and maintaining an acoustic guitar…
…Stuff that took me a decade to learn on my own, since it is scattered randomly around the internet (or rarely discussed at all)
In this book you’ll discover…
- how to choose a guitar
- what to look for in tonewoods
- guitar body styles
- how to get a good price
- whether to buy used or new
- a curated guide to the 10 best acoustic guitars for beginners
- how to choose guitar strings, and make them last 10x longer
- how to maintain your instrument for a lifetime
- caring for the fretboard
- should you use fretboard oil? how often?
- adjusting the truss rod
- flying and traveling with your instrument safely
- how to store and display your guitar safely
- caring for the fretboard
- what to learn first on guitar (fingerpicking? flatpicking? etc)
- where to learn it
- the best ways and resources to teach yourself guitar for FREE
- 30 secret hacks to unleash unstoppable guitar motivation
- how to stay in love with the instrument for the rest of your life
- much more
So if you’re ready to rocket past your competition…
And learn how to choose, maintain, care for, and fall in love with your instrument for a lifetime to come…
Then you can pick up my Ultimate Buyer’s and Maintenance Guide.