Finding Time for Music – The Atlantic

The recorder used to be an instrument that people wanted to hear. As an article from 1946 in The Atlantic explains, it is lovingly mentioned in Shakespeare’s works hamlet and Milton’s The lost paradise. A 17th-century English naval leader wrote in his diary that it made the best sound he had ever heard. The recorder was the instrument of kings and queens: Henry VIII had a collection of more than 70 recorders.

But as early as 1946, recorders were often associated with horrific screeching noises, mostly from children. And today only a few adults play them. In fact, they don’t play any instruments at all – certainly not recorders, but also no piccolos or pianos. A 2022 survey conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts found that about 11 percent of American adults play a musical instrument. Children receive a lot of music lessons, but as people get older, they lose practice. Many people stop picking up their instrument.

That’s unfortunate, in part because plenty of research shows that adults could benefit from playing music. This is neuroprotective. “It helps you build larger brain networks and new pathways,” says Daniel Levitin, the author of the current book I heard there is a secret chord: music as medicinetold me. You build these pathways by listening to music, he told me, but physically playing an instrument also strengthens motor pathways: “You build a lot of brain capacity.” Musicians tend to have better attention than non-musicians. Beating a drum or blowing a horn can also relieve stress, reduce burnout, and help with anxiety and depression. For older people in particular, research has shown potential cognitive benefits as well as a possible reduction in the risk of dementia.

I heard there is a secret chord: music as medicine

From Daniel J. Levitin

So why don’t more adults do it? In fact, part of the problem may be that music education is tied to childhood and academic achievement. “If it looks like a school thing, it looks like something you’re aging out of,” Mandi Schlegel, a music education professor at the University of South Carolina, told me. (Another way to think about it: Have you ever made a math worksheet for fun?) Anyone can make music, but the idea is “taught to us,” says Michael Spitzer, a British musicologist and author of The Musical Man: A History of Life on Earthtold me. As people grow out of music training in childhood, they tend to think “that music is a special talent,” he said. When I tell people I play the flute, I always warn them that I don’t play like Lizzo. Although I am very proud of my tone, I admit that most people may not want to spend a lot of time listening to an intermediate level flautist.

Of course people are busy; They may simply not have the luxury of studying Bach once a week, let alone the money to pay for an instrument or private lessons. Once you overcome these hurdles, finding others who have done the same is another challenge: It’s easy to go to a park or the gym and play a game of pickup basketball, but people with the same skill level Getting together to play a concert or just jam in a garage is another thing. Few adults even play musical instruments and even fewer do so in a group. That’s a shame, because research has shown that making music together has additional benefits: “We become more trusting; We feel more connected to others — perhaps even more connected to the world at large,” Levitin said.

Nevertheless, I can attest that it is worth learning an instrument, even if you cannot do it in a group. Once a week you can find me at my local music school, waiting in the lobby next to the cool kids of Los Angeles. One evening last summer, my flute teacher Derrick surprised me with a recorder. It was partly a joke gift – I had sent him a viral video of a man playing the recorder while surfing and vowed to learn to do the same. But it was also serious: Derrick is also teaching me to play the recorder, and the gesture touched me.

We spent most of that lesson laughing – I managed a few notes and then burst into a giggle in the middle of the song. The recorder can sound almost medieval, as if you were suddenly inside one game of Thrones Episode where you actually just play “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”. But I learned that it can also be beautiful and that it’s a lot of fun to play. I plan on continuing to learn, not because it strengthens my neuropathies per se (although I certainly don’t mind that), but because it’s just a lot of fun making music, even when it’s silly – maybe especially when it’s silly is.