MINDY PETERSON, NCTM

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash

As we dive into 2025, this special message is for parents of young musicians. Music lessons are so much more than notes and rhythms—they’re a gateway to perseverance, confidence, self-discipline, creativity, and lifelong success. Discover how the gift of music today shapes timeless skills your child will carry forever!

I’m Mindy Peterson, host of Enhance Life with Music podcast, where we explore the ways music makes our lives better. And this is Microhance, a micro-dose of musical enhancement.

Happy New Year! As we enter the first full week of 2025, I want to give a special message to parents who have children in music lessons. As someone who was a piano teacher for 30 years, and had children who took music lessons, I have a special place in my heart for the parents of music students. This is probably the week you are re-entering reality with your family – heading back to school, work, sports, and music lessons (and the at-home practice sessions that go along with lessons). It can be a challenging week after the holiday season’s fun, sweets, and little-to-no routine or homework.

As you bring your family back into reality this week, I want to give you an encouraging word about the incredible gift you are giving to your child through music lessons. There are countless ways music training benefits students of all ages, and benefits on a developing child’s brain are well documented. And while many skills have a shelf life, our musical abilities bring us pleasure and meaning until the day we die. Long after we’ve stopped playing soccer and retired from our jobs, music provides a way to connect with others, engage the entire brain, and express ourselves and our emotions without words.

But what I want to focus on today is the life skills that are hard to quantify or measure, but make the difference between thriving now in childhood and in the rest of your child’s life to come. And they are learned through music lessons.

All parents want their children to develop marketable skills for their future endeavors so they will be successful in life, be it financially or otherwise. In the book, The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of America’s Wealthy, co-author Dr. Thomas Stanley says that wealth is built on hard work, perseverance, planning, and, most of all, self-discipline. Confucius said, “Hear…and forget. See…and remember. Do…and understand.” It is through the “do” that the learning of these skills sticks and values take hold. Many of these qualities required for success are acquired through the process of learning to play a musical instrument (in other words, “doing”), and include the following:

1. Perseverance and Determination: In an age of instant entertainment, food, photos, and communication of all sorts, many children grow up expecting instant results in life, never learning to work or wait for a reward. When things don’t come easily or immediately, they give up. The process of learning to read notes, developing hand-eye coordination, listening, and counting rhythms teaches the priceless lesson that determination and perseverance equal success. For more on this topic, I recommend the excellent book, Grit, by Angela Duckworth.
   
   
2. Self-Discipline: Any goal – whether in music, sports, relationships, or business – requires mastering the art of self-discipline. While perseverance is learned over time, self-discipline is exercised daily, such as in the day-to-day task of practicing an instrument. Instead of viewing difficult measures of a piece as something to avoid, a child over time learns that they are a challenge that can be solved by breaking the piece into workable parts. The difference between the person who daydreams about goals and the person who accomplishes goals is self-discipline.
   
   
3. Creative Thinking, Imagination, and Invention: It is well established that the study of music develops those areas of the brain that expand human creativity.
   
   
4. Building Confidence: Mastering complex tasks, facing fears, and successful performances instill true confidence, a sense of accomplishment, satisfaction, and the courage to tackle even more.
   
   
5. Developing Critical Thinking and Problem-Solving Skills: Music training develops not only hand-eye coordination and symbol recognition, but interpretation, problem solving, and executive function as well.

Whether your child has any interest in being a professional performing musician someday is irrelevant – the music lessons you are providing them today are developing transferable skills that will allow them to thrive, flourish, and live their best lives now and in their future, both personally and vocationally.

If you’d like to learn more about the life-enhancing gift you are providing your child, check the episode notes for more resources on specific books and topics:

• Ep. 59: How does MUSIC learning impact OTHER learning? With Dr. Anita Collins
• Ep. 83: Connecting the dots between SEL and music, with Scott Edgar, PhD
• Ep. 60: How does music training affect children’s Social-Emotional Learning, and how is SEL affected by a pandemic? With Dr. Assal Habibi
• Ep. 106: How to Talk… when kids don’t want to practice, with authors Joanna Faber & Julie King
• Ep. 164: Adaptive Music Education: Achieving potential and nurturing exceptionalities with harmony; with Erin Parkes, PhD
• Ep. 120: The inclusive, sustainable music classroom; with United Sound’s Julie Duty
• Ep. 108: How is music boosting skills and learning in students in special education? With Natalie Hawkins, MT-BC
• Ep. 152: Helping children identify, express, and regulate emotions with music; with Stephanie Leavell, MT-BC
• Ep. 77: Music interventions in speech development & disorders, with Laura Moorer, M.A., CCC-SLP
• Ep. 122: Transferring music skills to life, with Dr. Dylan Savage
• Ep. 119: What is the best way to find a piano teacher?
• Ep. 113: What is the best age to begin piano lessons?
• Ep. 82: What is the relationship between musicianship, mental disorders, and genius? What is the difference between prodigy and genius? With Dr. Craig Wright
• Ep. 49: “Traditional learning methods don’t work for me.” Utilizing Multiple Intelligences in Learning, with Graeme Winder
• Ep. 48: Tips from a time management coach on accomplishing (or helping our kids accomplish) musical goals, with Elizabeth Grace Saunders
• Ep. 45: Laurie Berkner describes music’s stabilizing effect for children during uncertain times, and serenades her graduating childhood fans
• Ep. 36: Mental Skills for Stress Reduction and Peak Performance, with author Dr. Vanessa Cornett
• Ep. 31: “Good Music, Brighter Children: Simple and Practical Ideas to Help Transform Your Child’s Life Through the Power of Music,” with author Sharlene Habermeyer
• Ep. 28: My CHILD is taking music lessons; what’s MY role? with Suzanne Greer
• Ep. 22: Putting Joy on the Menu for Hospitalized Kids, with Children’s Cancer Association’s MyMusicRx
• Ep. 6: How to Get Your Child to Practice…Without Resorting to Violence! (Author Cynthia Richards)
• Ep. 105: What are the top three skills desired by corporate recruiters, and why are they found in musicians? When should musicians consider a day job in the business world? With Christopher Caliendo

I wish you all the best as you and your families kick off a new year of learning and enhancing life with music. If you know of someone who would enjoy this message of encouragement – perhaps a parent, caregiver, or music teacher – please share it with them!

You can always connect with me on email (mindy@mpetersonmusic.com), Facebook, Instagram, X, or LinkedIn.

I’m Mindy Peterson, and I hope this inspires you to enhance your life with music.

View all Microhance episodes

If you enjoyed this episode, please:

1. Follow us in your podcast app: This is FREE and conveniently delivers each new episode to your device when it releases, so you don’t have to search for it.
2. Share us with others: If you know of someone who would enjoy this episode, please share it with them! It’s easy to do right in your podcast listening app. Just tap the Share feature for options to share by text, email, or social media (or share this page).
3. Rate & review our show: This fuels our creative energy, and also helps others find the show!

Note: We occasionally use affiliate links for products and services we whole-heartedly believe in. We may receive a small commission, at no extra cost to you, for purchases made through these links. This helps support the free content we provide.