Question: How does playing an instrument make you smarter?

Jen Machin answered on 18 Mar 2015:

Some scientists have suggested that playing an instrument improves something called “neural processing” – this is how your brain takes information and interprets it. In the case of people who play instruments (and enjoy it!) then their neural processing of sound is supposedly improved, and they can even hear sounds that other people can’t!

So, how does this help them get smarter? Well apparently, their reading abilities and processing of speech also get better, which means they tend to do better in class 🙂 The scientists who studied this say that you can’t get this ability just by listening to music, you have to actually play an instrument. Not only that, but you have to enjoy playing it! 🙂