LFP 071 | Using Music Lessons to Keep Your Brain Limber

Hello and welcome to the Learn Flute Podcast this is episode number seventy one, and today we’re going to exploring the idea of using music lessons to keep your brain limber. Stay tuned:

Welcome back! Today we’re going to get started with an awesome little thought I received from one of you good online flute students of mine. It says, “I am having such a great time following your online lesson plans for flute! Your instruction and exercises are not difficult to understand and execute, and they are fun! At 58 years old, I began your program as a means to keep the learning centers of my brain limber, but already I can easily imagine myself as a reasonably accomplished flutist as I negotiate your lesson modules. Thank you for your efforts in creating this excellent learning system! William”

Well thank you for sending that in William. Whether you are trying to find ways to keep your brain awake and firing or if you’re working on keeping it in tip-top shape, it’s not only easy to get your brain in shape, but you can use your flute to get there.  Using music lessons to keep your brain limber is a superior way to age with grace and make that thinker tick easier.

I remember there were some years of mine where I used to tell my husband that I felt like my brain was going to mush a little. I had three little kids at home and was definitely not getting enough sleep. I was kind of worried I was getting sleepy in my thinker as well because processing felt kind of slow most of the day… well, except for when I’d be practicing or playing my flute. Those were the times I felt the most alive.

I wonder if any of you can relate. It was almost like I was looking at life through a foggy lens, but when I’d step into my music studio, things slowly, but surely became more clear depending on what I was doing. Let me explain;

I would pick up my flute and start slow warm-ups first, usually because this is all I felt like doing at the moment. Then, slowly but surely I would move to my scales and if I had troubles on any of them I had to muscle some extra thinking in.

By the time I finished those I was in a better mood and ready to play a new reading study- like an etude. Etudes are designed to wake you up I’ve decided because there’s usually one skill that is being highlighted in the piece and it definitely  keeps your eyes and fingers hopping.. Even starting at a slow pace, sight reading is a super duper way to limber up those brain muscles. It’s new music, and has to be figured out.

You know that they say doing puzzles is one of the best ways to keep cognitive strength? Small puzzles that take a short period of time are awesome for pleasure and brain waves, but large puzzles that take weeks to conquer are said to be ever better. Well, I can’t think of anything more fitting to this recipe than learning how to play an instrument such as the flute.

It takes us weeks and months even to solve musical riddles and practice them to the point where they are simple. It’s like passing off levels of video games. Have you ever approached your musical learning in this way?

Think about it: right from the very first day we start checking off the list of skills to be learned, and then just when we think we’ve got it under control, we are thrown for a loop by having the levels mixed- so we then have to go back and review, review everything we’ve already learned, but this time making it even better than we did the first time. It’s a fun game, and all ages get to play!

By learning and practicing our musical skills often we are doing ourselves a favor by learning to become better problem solvers, and also in more creative ways, and the best benefit is that we become faster thinkers! I feel like being able to think fast is one of the best bi-products of playing the flute. We have to use both sides of our brains at the same time to do pretty much any part of playing the flute, and I know that every day I learn something new my little sparks up there in my skull are lighting off a bit faster. It’s kind of like cardio in an exercise routine.

I personally don’t really want a rusty brain, so if I can use playing the flute and my other instruments to handle this part of life for me, then I’ll do it! What about you?

Another part of using music lessons to keep your brain limber is the ‘challenge yourself’ part of it. Finding something to aspire to keeps us alive for sure! And, using our muscles- both big and small to challenge our various skill levels is a superior way to exercise our minds. It’s like the weight-lifting part of exercise. Sometimes we have to focus in and concentrate hard to get something to happen. What a neat skill for our body also!

Having something new to look forward to is another part of keeping our brains in tippy-top shape. There are many things in life that get kind of dull-ish as we move through a mundane schedule. But, if you’re in a habit of moving your musical skills forward, there will never be a dull moment. When playing the flute, we have to think about so many different ideas simultaneously – from tone to fingering to reading, counting, and even more dynamic skills.

I personally love to have something new. I like new clothes, new pillows, a good change in the weather, and I love new music. The great thing is that new tunes don’t cost a dime especially if they come right out of your brain. Yup- it’s fancy fun that you can have all by yourself, and your mind is bending, twisting, and circling all over in the meantime. If that isn’t an exercise, I don’t know what is!  

Realizing that you’re not alone in this musical adventure is also a great way for you to keep your mind limber and in a happy mind-set that there are many, many, many others on the same journey you are on.

I’m so glad you’re here with us today exploring more of what we can do to further our skills and enjoy our musical path, and I invite you to come in and take a lesson this week.

If you have any questions or comments let me know. Leave your thoughts here on this subject, and know that we’re here with you!

We’re a happy army of determined practicing musicians, and it’ll be fun to continue this conversation later.
I’m Rebecca Fuller. Bye all!