Four ways playing drums can have a positive impact on your life
Thinking of taking up the drums? Or is one of your children interested? Here are four ways playing the drums can have a positive impact on your life.
There’s a huge variety of interests and hobbies can choose to pursue. And sometimes you find that children will choose to expand their skills and abilities in a specific field, and pursue a hobby or interest as a career.
If you’re musically inclined, there’s a wide array of talents and skills you can build up, which can include playing instruments.
And of all instruments, the drums can be the most accessible to start with. You can learn simple beats and rhythms from your drum practice, which can later on progress as you start to learn more advanced techniques. If you happen to stumble upon this article looking for a gift for a loved one who just started playing drums, then head over to the list by Music Critic.
But if you’re an aspiring drumming enthusiast, or future drummer, how can drumming help you in other ways? Here are four ways drumming can have a positive impact on different parts of your life.
1) Drumming gives you an intellectual advantage
Several studies have found an association between playing drums and increased cognitive function. They’ve also been found to have therapeutic effects on some mental disorders.
It’s been reported that there is an association between a student’s musical and rhythmic inclinations and their academic performance. Here are how drumming may have a positive impact on the performance of children in different subjects.
Math
The fundamental principle of drumming is to create and follow beats through counting cycles. By playing drums, students can find more exciting ways to learn basic counting by incorporating drumming into the subject.
Another study discovered that music stimulates brain function to learn more complicated concepts in mathematics, like memorizing math formulas and learning the multiplication tables. Students were able to do better in their exams after integrating rhythmic notation into their learning.
Science
Teachers can use drums to teach children about the nature of sound, frequency, and vibration. Dum heads can be made from a variety of materials, such as skin, metal, wood, or plastic, which can affect frequency, vibration, and production of the sound of each instrument. So drumming can help students to grasp how sound is produced and influenced by different elements.
Music
Through playing the drums, young musicians will discover more tuned percussion instruments like the piano and xylophone. This will also encourage them to try and practice other instruments too.
Languages
Drumming doesn’t just produce beats and rhythm, but it can also serve as a means of verbal communication between people. Chanting and singing while drumming can improve the pronunciation and vocabulary of students. Drumming integrated with foreign lyrics can help them discover a new language and gain foreign language skills.
As well as all these benefits, playing the drums requires your limbs to work cooperatively to produce beats and establish rhythm. Drumming can also be associated with limb dominance and non-dominance, where right-handed people get to practice coordination with their non-dominant hand, and vice versa. This enhances the brain’s ability to send messages to both the right and left hands, plus the two legs as well.
2) Drumming offers learning and career opportunities
Playing drums isn’t just a hobby or talent toshow off during classroom performances or family gatherings. Excellence in playing instruments can open up learning and career opportunities for people dedicated to pursuing this career path. W
hen you’re still starting out as a young drummer, you can join various clubs and organizations to improve your skills. Years of engagement in these musical groups can eventually nurture and prepare you for adulthood and work life, especially if you’ve decided to pursue drumming as a career.
And knowing how to play the drums, and excelling in them, doesn’t just limit you to being a drummer. There are different ways to boost your career opportunities aside from being a professional drummer. Here are some career opportunities yo may consider:
- Drumming instructor
- Music teacher
- Musician and drummer
- Sound engineering technician
- Music director and composer
- Music workshop founder
- Therapeutic drumming
- Involvement in the music business
A career in drumming requires you to maximize your potential and differentiate yourself from other drummers in the field. Being a great drummer isn’t enough, as you’ll have to find your unique selling points and improve them – and build a network of people in the music industry.
3) Drumming can be a source of financial support
Who said you couldn’t make money with your musical talents? Playing drums can significantly contribute to your finances. If you’re still a student with predilection for drumming, you can use this hobby to earn money by performing with bands, teaching younger drummers, or even playing in various musical workshops.
It’s like hitting two birds with one stone: you get to earn money and finance your studies, as well as broaden your artistic skills. You can also join musical contests, with the chance to win cash prizes, as well as acquire college scholarships.
From a broader perspective, choosing a career path doesn’t depend solely on your passions and skills. You also have to look at the financial perspective. Can you financially support yourself and your family through music? If your answer is yes, then you can get a job related to music. There are a lot of music jobs that can pay six figures, enough to provide for yourself and your family’s financial needs.
4) Drumming can give you an emotional lift
During tough emotional times, people tend to release their frustrations by expressing themselves in a variety of ways. And drumming fit this bill perfectly.
Sitting down with your drum set, playing beats, and even composing a song has a great impact on battling depression and other neurological conditions. Drumming also induces relaxation that can reduce stress and lower blood pressure, in turn lowering the risk of heart attacks and strokes for both drummers and listeners.
Drumming in groups can also lead to an immune system response, due to the feeling of closeness and oneness of being in a group. Enjoying a drumming session with friends greatly contributes to your emotional stability, and acts as a bridge for social relationships to grow. Having these positive encounters in your life gives you an emotional lift and lessens the chances of depression.
Photo by Ingridi Alves Photograph
