Are There Any Downsides to Learning an Instrument?

On the 12th of December, around 9pm, the mother of a chinese middle schooler received a call saying her daughter had been accepted to the conservatorium high school of Sydney. The entry auditions for the music school had been very competitive and her daughter was thrilled to have gotten in.The conservatorium high school of Sydney is an australian selective school and like most selective schools, tests are required to be accepted. One being the audition and the other being the WISC IQ test. This reporter was startled to find the well known music school was also in 15th place for the HSC (high school certificate) results the previous year, a surprisingly good achievement for a school not very academically focussed.

Does this show the learning an instrument develops the brain as well? A better questions is, if learning an instrument is only beneficial for the brain why doesn’t everyone do it?

Research shows that in a study in 1993, college students got better results on a spatial reasoning test after listening to mozart, although the reason unknown. Nowadays, this result doesn’t really stand up to scientific scrutiny. Nevertheless more and more schools both private and public schools are including music programs in their schools. New research shows that learning a music instrument from a young age improves reading skills, logical and mathematical reasoning, spatial reasoning, self motivation etc. According to a father to the middle schooler “Learning to play an instrument for a long time and well takes diligence and loads of self motivation. After a certain point most people quit, but those who continue are likelier to succeed later on because of self motivation and being hard working in general.”

According the the stereotype, Asians are smart and exceptional at academics and music.  Even though this is a stereotype, it is somewhat true but not because asians are asians.

The actual reason comes embedded into their culture. As written Amy Chua’s article “Why chinese mothers are superior”, ‘In one study of 50 Western American mothers and 48 Chinese immigrant mothers, almost 70% of the Western mothers said either that "stressing academic success is not good for children" or that "parents need to foster the idea that learning is fun." By contrast, roughly 0% of the Chinese mothers felt the same way. Instead, the vast majority of the Chinese mothers said that they believe their children can be "the best" students, that "academic achievement reflects successful parenting," and that if children did not excel at school then there was "a problem" and parents "were not doing their job.".

According to her book “The hymn of the Tiger Mother”, her two daughters were not allowed to have a sleepover, have a playdate, be in a school play, play anything other the violin or piano, not play the violin or piano, get anything less than an A etc. Most of these typical “rules” make it quite hard for her daughters to interact with people socially as studying and playing an instrument to a high level requires a lot of time. Having rules like not being able to have a playdate or a sleepover prevents getting to know fellow students well. Another thing is many of the suicides in China, Hong kong, Singapore and other Asian countries have been caused by academic pressure. The University of Nottingham study of “The mental health support needs of international students (with particular reference to Chinese and Malaysian students)” shows that Chinese and Malaysian students make up the majority of the depressed students and in Yale university, 45% of Asian students had depression symptoms and another 27% suffered from anxiety.

This data proves being extremely competitive and high performing in academics does have problems. Likewise, if one were in a community where everyone participated and competed in high performance music, around the same amount of social pressure would be applied.


All in all, Music is still beneficial for the brain as is learning instruments, but excessive practice can lead to empty social lives, anxiety and possible depression. Next time parents, check if your child is simply whining about not wanting to practice, or expressing hate. It may be expressed in similar words, but the difference can mean a happy child or a miserable one.

Written by Jasmine

#STOPTHETWERKTEAM

After I paid the driver and jumped out of the cab, and walked down the steps into ‘The Cathay’. I was early for dance so I didn’t have to do my usual speed walk to the escalator that lead down to the basement.

As I was walking past the oh so popular Starbucks, I happened to notice a very young girl, by the looks of it a 9 year old. But what shocked me was that she had an unnecessarily large amount of makeup that was spread across her still undeveloped face. It was quite a sight. However her bright green crop top, and short shorts just added insult to injury. I was shocked, but I soon realised that she was pretty brought up on people dressing in revealing clothes and wearing a ton of makeup. One of which is a new song ‘Anaconda’.

You may think that Nicki Minaj’s latest hit ‘Anaconda’ is about her in a bakery asking for food for her pet snake, but no. Just like many other songs nowadays, it is promoting the idea of sex, drugs, alcohol and many other things not suitable for the targeted age group. You may wonder why songs like ‘Anaconda’ are targeted at children and young adults. Well, anyone around the age of 40 and above are probably too busy listening to Bob Dylan and Billy Joel on their cassettes. Anyone in their 20’s-30’s probably think its just more modern-day garbage full of autotune and meaningless lyrics. That leaves the pre-teens and the teenagers, still impressionable and raised up on the tragic evolution of Hannah Montana, and a time where technology rules the world. They are constantly under the influence of photoshopped models and profligate behaviour.
Almost every month a new trend is created. Whether its taking drugs or forcing yourself to throw up so you can be called ‘pretty’. “I think this trend of having a “perfect body” that is often referred to in recent pop culture gives young girls the impression that they need to look a certain way to be accepted.” Akanksha explains. “I think its gross!” spat Kiana, disgraced at the behavior of children nowadays.

Is beauty really a necessity to the world? How come all those ‘cheesy’ sayings like “dont judge a book by its cover” and “its what in the inside that counts” are not actually put into use?! I want to promote the idea that modern day music has become auto tune, and a catchy beat. Everything is all about being top on the charts and having money and fame.

If celebrities want to behave like role-models (given that they realise most of their views and likes on youtube are from kids) then they should behave more like ones.

As lady Gaga once said “Baby, you were born this way.”

Written by Patrick.

The Reasons of Art

Practice. Practice your art till you feel like dropping. Don't stop. Keep going. Enjoy it. Do it like you were born to! Take that extra effort and push through it. Hone your skills till you could perform in front of the whole city. Set goals. Achieve those goals. Motivate yourself. Keep trying. Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outlier says that it takes 10,000 hours of pure concentrated practice to achieve mastery in that field. Do you want to achieve mastery in your art? Then work for it. Get your rhythm and get comfortable. Go out and perform because it can only do you good. Make every moment feel magical like you were in Hogwarts. Flow through it like it was water. Lose yourself in it and lose all sense of time. Go back in time and relive your favorite memories. Have a blast and enjoy every moment.

Art is not just music or drawing, it’s a language that cuts across all barriers. It brings out the personal strengths in you and helps you focus. It takes you to places, it makes you fantasize. It lasts long, something that will be there forever. Art says what words couldn’t possibly express. It gives you power over yourself. Moreover, it’s good to make things now and again. You don’t need a reason to, you need a reason not to make it.

At a Grade 8 assembly, the Mashed Potatoes got ready for performing in front of an very eager and restless bunch of students. As the band members filed into position, the crowd went dead silent. The drummer started the countdown, the guitarist started strumming, the pianist started playing soft chords and the singers got ready. As the instruments melded together, the singers began. Nobody talked for the 3 minutes that they performed. Every eye was on the band. Either the intricate finger movements of the guitarists or the nodding of the drummers head or even the pianist swinging his head from side to side.

As the song receded, the audience erupted into applause. Manini Banerjee, the guitarist of Mashed Potatoes said” I really enjoyed playing her guitar because she could share music and her thoughts. I really like playing my guitar because it gives me a sense of relief. Arjun Achar of 8JRa said “All the instruments were in ensemble and everything seemed perfect for the 3 minutes. The sound of all the instruments together made me forget my worries. The performance was great and I wish that I had the guts to perform and loose myself like that.”

Written by Kunal