Ep 129: Struggling Teen? Learning Music Might Be The Answer...

Dr. Anita Collins, music educator and author of The Music
Advantage, explains the surprising and long-lasting positive
effects of music on the teen brain. Your teen doesn’t have to be
a prodigy to benefit from picking up an instrument!


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Full show notes


If you feel like your child isn’t living up to their full
potential because they get distracted too easily or lose focus of
their own goals, just imagine how hard it will be for them to
complete important tasks as adults when their responsibilities
lie outside of their personal interests. Today, teens have so
much going on in their lives that it can be difficult to commit
to tasks that they’re not particularly passionate about:
maintaining good grades for college admissions, managing chores,
and consistently showing up for work. Fortunately, there are ways
to help your teen develop discipline in their life.


It’s great if your teen has a personal hobby that helps them
develop a routine. Activities like sports, scouting, and working
on art are all great ways to inspire your teen to regularly
follow up with their interests. However, as they begin to take on
more time-consuming responsibilities, some of their hobbies might
fall to the wayside, and they can start to falter in keeping up
with more mundane, yet necessary tasks. Teens that haven’t
practiced discipline might start to take detrimental shortcuts on
homework when the assignment is too difficult or delay submitting
applications when they can’t rely on pure interest. If this
behavior continues to develop into a pattern, teens may find
themselves without the stamina to sustain themselves through
higher education or when they enter the workforce.


That’s exactly what I talk about in this week’s podcast episode
with Dr. Anita Collins, author of her new book, The Music
Advantage: How Music Helps Your Child Develop, Learn, and Thrive.
Dr. Collins serves as an award-winning educator, researcher, and
writer in the field of brain development and music learning at
both the University of Canberra and the University of Melbourne.
She’s also written one of the most watched Ted education films
ever made, “How Playing an Instrument Benefits Your Brain,” and
conducted research about how practicing an instrument can help
young adults implement lasting changes in their brain, making her
exactly the right person to talk to about developing discipline
for teens.


Self-Discipline That Lasts


In our interview, we talk about Dr. Collins’ neurological
approach to helping teens develop discipline through music. While
you’ll have to tune in to the full podcast to hear the extent of
her research, one aspect of playing an instrument that helps
teens develop discipline on a neurological level is practice.


Perhaps the most apparent link between developing decision-making
skills and playing an instrument is the dedication required to
master one. But before we get into how practicing a musical
instrument can help change your teenager’s brain structure, it’s
important for you to know that it is in fact possible to get your
teen to stick to their goals, pick up their trombone, and, well
... practice!


Throughout the years that Dr. Collin’s has worked with teens and
young adults, she’s gathered a few tactics that parents can use
to help motivate their children to consistently pick up their
instruments:



Designating a specific time period for your teen to
practice
Whether it’s for 20 minutes before school every day or for an
hour after soccer practice on Fridays, having a designated time
period every week dedicated to practicing music can help your
teen internalize their mental preparation. If their body
adjusts to a regular schedule to play music, then they’re more
likely to revisit the task because they both mentally and
physically expect to be playing music. Dr. Collins says you can
help clue your kids to practice by letting them know that there
are “20 minutes till dinner,” automatically setting a clock for
them to make some time.


Using a literal timer to help limit your teen’s
practice anxiety.
Sometimes teens face anxiety about completing their tasks
because they think they might take a long time. When kids do
homework for hours on end, it can be daunting to constantly
revisit another task that you feel like you need to get better
at. However, this can be frustrating for beginners who feel
like they haven’t progressed and might get discouraged or stuck
trying to improve until they notice a difference. Setting a
timer for playing an instrument can cut through some of the
anxiety around mastery, and you can reassure them that over
time, they’ll start to notice a difference.


Using the idea of a social environment as a
stick/carrot incentive.
One aspect about playing an instrument that teens can relate to
doing well in homework, getting into a good college, or
succeeding at work is the social quality. When playing an
instrument, there are many social settings that your teen might
be either required or tempted to participate in. For example,
you might consider enrolling your child in community lessons at
the local music center or having them take band class as an
elective. In this case, they might be motivated because they
know that other people are depending on them to do well. On the
other hand, your teen might want to practice at home so that
they’re good enough to perform at a talent show or at parties.
If they have to play in front of an audience at a recital or in
front of friends, they might start to realize that practicing
consistently will produce some kind of payoff.  In any
case, you can get your teen to consistently practice by asking
the question, “How well do you want to do when you play in
front of others?”


Give your teen the power to choose when they
practice.
Dr. Collins says that sometimes all teens want is to make their
own decisions. This is particularly wise because it helps teens
feel independent while reinforcing the impact of their
decision-making skills. One way you can do this, according to
Anita, is by striking a compromise with your teen. “You have to
play for 5 hours every week, but you get to decide when those
hours are. At the end of the week, we’ll check in and see how
you did.” This approach can help teens realize that playing
their instrument for five hours on Friday night might not be
the best approach. They’ll get tired halfway through practice
and realize that it’s easier to break into more manageable
pieces like any other responsibility likely to come their
way. 



This is how your teen establishes habits that allow them to
maintain a routine even after they stop playing their instrument.
Because they’ve had experience with negative consequences from
failing to practice, increasingly positive payoff from adhering
to long-term development, and managing time commitment among
their other responsibilities, teens will be able to convert
responsibility into habit through practice.


The Neurology of Learning an Instrument


But wait, how is it that playing an instrument is going to help
your teenager stay focused on other tasks? Just because they’ve
practiced playing an instrument, it doesn’t mean they’re going to
be able to stay focused when doing their homework, right? One is
loud and noisy and takes your full concentration, whereas the
other is an internal process. We...