"Early Music Lessons Have Longtime Benefits"

New York Times article on the positive effects of early music lessons

“To learn to read, you need to have good working memory, the ability to disambiguate speech sounds, make sound-to-meaning connections,” said Professor Nina Kraus, director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern University. “Each one of these things really seems to be strengthened with active engagement in playing a musical instrument.”

Studying an instrument seems to have long-lasting benefits. From learning to read  to learning foreign languages, studying music as a child seems to have profound effects on the brain!

I recently heard that the No. 1 major for students being accepted into med school is Music! Who would have guessed! Except that my personal physician has practiced a couple of hours every evening for years.... and is very accomplished. Condi Rice is an excellent pianist. And on and on.

Read the entire article.