Drum classes increase brain activity

It’s a parents worst nightmare. Your child comes home from school one day and says ‘I want to learn how to play the drums!!!’. All you can imagine is the unbearable ‘bang, bang, crash’ and the complaints from the neighbors. You want to say ‘NO’, but how can you crush the enthusiasm of your young offspring?. The good news is there is a much brighter side to playing the drums and can benefit your child in more ways than one.

The benefits of playing drums are both physical and psychological. Acquired from ancient humans, this primal activity is considered to be one of the most beneficial activities for both adults and children. As humans we are equipped to hear tone, pitch and melody, timbre and rhythm. Subconsciously, our brains integrate all of these together and create music in our heads, often resulting in an emotional reaction.

Drumming is a great workout for the brain. It activates both left and right hemispheres of the brain and helps synchronize the activity levels of both sides of the brain. Thus it helps the two hemispheres to achieve coordination. This coordination fosters higher levels of creativity in the drummers. This is why it is believed that children who attend drum classes perform better in mathematics and other logical thinking problems. Children who are suffering from Attention deficit disorder are advised to attend drum classes regularly to boost their brain activity and concentration.

Playing drums is also believed to be helpful in releasing stress and pressure. Rhythm is everywhere around us. Living beings, including animals, plants, fungi, and bacteria follow circadian rhythms for their physiological processes. Even the non-living things such as the sun, the moon and the seasons, follow a certain rhythm. It is said that by playing drums, we can become aware of the rhythms around us. We can also connect to the surrounding rhythms and by doing so we can release the stress tremendously. Children who attend drum classes regularly are said to have a better mental health. While playing drums, our brain produces endorphin which causes feelings of happiness. Endorphins are a natural pain killer. So drumming also serves as a great distraction from pain. In some places of the world, drumming is used as therapy to help addicts deal with their emotions.