If you take a look at our school mantra, you’ll see that “we aspire to foster creativity, confidence, and grit.” Creativity and confidence are no-brainers, but what exactly is grit? Why is it important? And how do music lessons promote it?
When you hear the word “grit”, you might automatically think of professional athletes, or hardened characters out of a Western movie. But having grit means more than just having a tough attitude. In a now-viral TED talk as well as in her resulting book, Angela Duckworth defines grit as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals”. Specifically, she mentions five separate characteristics that make up grit: courage, conscientiousness, perseverance, resilience, and passion. These are all great characteristics on their own, but, according to Duckworth, the combination of all five can mean the difference between failure and success in almost every area of life - she says that grit is a more significant predictor of high achievement than natural talent or even IQ.
Here at the Academy, we want our students to succeed in every area of life, not just music. That being said, we believe that music lessons are a great way to build grit in kids! Here’s how music lessons can foster each of the five characteristics of grit.
Courage
Learning to play an instrument is no small feat. In addition to learning how the instrument works and developing the physical skills needed to play it, such as finger strength and air support, students essentially need to learn a whole new language in order to be able to read music. Putting yourself out there to learn all of that takes some guts! Kids also learn bravery through music lessons by participating in recitals and other performances. Most adults would agree that standing in front of an audience and playing an instrument is pretty nerve-wracking! Learning to overcome stage fright through musical performances will help kids with other future endeavors, like presentations and public speaking.
Conscientiousness
In her book Grit, Angela Duckworth says that conscientiousness is the trait most closely associated with grit. In this context, to be conscientious means to motivate oneself to work extremely hard, with care and attention to detail, in order to achieve the best results possible. Music lessons teach kids to be conscientious by encouraging them to spend lots of time outside of lessons practicing their instrument. 30 minutes a week isn’t enough to master an instrument - most of the real progress students make comes from the time they spend practicing at home. Music lessons give kids the opportunity to develop a routine of self-motivated practice, and their instructors’ guidance allows them to pay attention to the small details of their pieces that allow them to improve their musicianship. In this way, music lessons teach kids that hard work and attention to detail yields amazing results!
Perseverance
One of the best things about learning to play a musical instrument is that there is always more to learn - even professional musicians are constantly improving and learning new skills! However, this also means that the better you become at playing your instrument, the more complex and difficult your new material will be. As kids become more advanced and are presented with increasingly challenging pieces, it can be easy to get discouraged. But their prior experience with progressing in lessons, as well as the example set by their accomplished instructors, will inspire them to persevere through these challenges and to reach even higher goals. Many music instructors even implement some sort of motivational program so that kids have physical rewards of their perseverance - for instance, the Powell Academy of Music offers both the 100 Minute Practice Club and the Level Up program, which gives kids the opportunity to earn prizes and medals for their hard work!
Resilience
As with any human endeavor, some amount of failure is inevitable in a music student’s journey. Even the most accomplished musicians have suffered a bad performance or have failed to master a particularly difficult piece. What separates those who have grit from those who don’t is the ability to recover and keep going, using these experiences as a basis for improvement rather than being discouraged. Music lessons teach kids to do just this by encouraging them to keep trying until they’ve succeeded!
Passion
Ludwig van Beethoven himself once said, “To play a wrong note is insignificant; to play without passion is inexcusable.” And, according to her work, it seems that Angela Duckworth would agree - she argues that when it comes to developing grit, passion is just as, and perhaps even more, important than perfection. Luckily, music is something that’s easy to become passionate about! Every student will eventually find some style of music that just “clicks” with them, whether it’s by Mozart, Miles Davis, or Beyonce. Once a student has mastered their instrument to the point where they’re able to find and play the music that they really love, the real magic can start. Even if a student doesn’t continue with music through their whole lives, music lessons will teach them that it doesn’t matter if you get every detail right - as long as you bring passion to whatever it is you’re doing, you can achieve your goals.
Give us a call today and see for yourself the amazing benefits of music lessons!