A busker wanders the streets of downtown Canton, loudly blasting bluesy bends on his harmonica while strumming along on a beat-up classical guitar. The busker wanders around his corner, dancing lightly on his feet around a guitar case that’s slowly collecting a meager fortune in shining coins and crumpled $1 bills. His pastime may extend his life and improve its quality in life’s twilight years.

Although making music may seem like a hobby at the least, a street-corner distraction at the most, playing an instrument has a number of benefits to both your mental health and the health of your brain itself. In one study on people over the age of 65, those who had played an instrument for a mere four of five months outperformed those who did not play an instrument on cognitive tasks. Other studies also showed that playing an instrument can improve word recall, cognitive flexibility and even memory. In fact, learning to play an instrument can even increase your IQ by up to seven points!

And the benefits of picking a guitar or trumpeting a horn don’t end there – the act of playing music combines several brain processes, including hearing, memory and the part of the brain that controls the hands, leading to better overall coordination. It also provides stress relief, lowering blood pressure, decreasing heart rate and lessening anxiety or depression.

If that wasn’t enough, playing an instrument increases self-discipline by influencing your time management and organizational skills. To learn an instrument, the player needs to be organized and manage their time, and the better they’re able to do this, the faster they will learn. This also results in increased patience, perseverance and responsibility.

It’s never too late to learn an instrument and reap the brain benefits of engaging your hands, ears and memory in the single task of making music. Whether you’re 6 years old or 60, you can pick up an instrument and fortify your mind for the future.

Source: http://wxrt.cbslocal.com/2013/11/05/10-good-reasons-to-learn-a-musical-instrument-its-not-too-late/