Trumpets, horns, tubas, euphoniums galore! Blowing your lungs into a brass instruments creates a melody of sounds that are both aesthetically pleasing to listen to on their own and simultaneously instrumental to music bands as a whole. But that’s not the only great thing about brass instruments!
Samir Becic, 4 times Number 1 Fitness Trainer in the world and HFR’s Top 10 Health Benefits of Playing a Brass Instrument.
- Develops confidence – Building the courage to start playing a new instrument is great way to build your confidence. This confidence is especially built when you decide to choose an instrument that isn’t as popular as many other instruments like that of guitars or drums. Choosing a brass instrument will show you a world of making music that creates sound waves in a less-than-conventional manner. Making this beautiful yet unheard sound for all to hear will help bring you out of your shell and build your confidence, which is always a healthy attribute to develop.
- Breath control – The most used part of your body when playing a brass instrument is your diaphragm. As your lips vibrate to make the music, you need to measure your breath!
- Strengthen core muscles – Because your diaphragm is just under your lungs, using your diaphragm requires constant use of your abdominal muscles. These aid in helping you controlling your breathing. The more you practice, the more you strengthen your core.
- Boosts your adrenaline – You may have to perform in front of a large audience. This takes lots of guts and you may even find butterflies in your stomach. But the adrenaline rush you get from presenting in front of an audience may turn that unease into a form of confidence and excitement. It is up to you have a good time and not be scared! It’s important to remember, an adrenaline rush, to an extent is a healthy because it burns calories, gives you quick energy and makes you feel great! So go out there and have fun!
- Increases hand-eye coordination – Keeping rhythm is harder from some people than you might think. Blowing air into your instrument while pressing knobs here, or putting your fingers there, or pushing a brass arm that way to produce such a beautiful sound, takes skill and practice. The more you practice playing your brass instrument the more your neural pathways strengthen and the more new ones can form. You will learn to use hands in a new way, building dexterity and fine motor skills.
- Develops you emotionally – While learning something new may be fun, it can also cause some bumps in the road. Sometimes you may find yourself frustrated with the learning process, whether that is learning a new tune or a new technique. Your emotional development depends on overcoming these struggles because how you handle them will define your character. Once you overcome your goal, nothing feels better. You will find yourself in a happier and better emotional state.
- Promotes sociability – If you are playing a brass instrument you will find yourself surrounded by people who play similar instruments or even instruments in general. Being a part of a group helps build confidence and your social skills, and you will find yourself relating with those who are like you and even those who are unlike you. This will diversify your thinking, your skills, and social compatibility leading you to live a healthy happy life.
- Relieves stress – Any means of an outlet for stress, struggles and unhappiness will always be a method to relieve your stress levels. If playing a brass instrument is for you, then it will act as a great stress reliever. Do something that you love and makes your happy to help to get rid of your stress and forget your worries.
- Reach goals – Whether it’s learning how to play a brass instrument, or learning a new song, playing a brass instrument is a great way to set the foundation to help set and achieve your goals. If you can complete one thing, no matter how difficult it is, what is in your way from completing the next? This will have a ripple effect in your health and your lifestyle! Having a set of goals will provide give you tons of motivation and achieving those goals will make you feel accomplished and happy. While the physical body is only half the equation of your health, your mind is the other half, so feeling great about your accomplishments will put you on the right track for your healthy goals.
- Get rid of that couch potato! – By being a part of the brass instrument community will open the door up for a change in scenery, providing you with a new skill you can spend plenty of time honing. As you spend time with your newfound hobby, you get rid of mindless habits, such as endless scrolling on your smartphone, watching T.V., and even careless eating.
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Wow, I never would have thought there were so many advantages to playing a brass instrument! I’ve often idly thought about playing something like the trumpet (my only experience with instruments in strings, so I’m looking for something different). I’ve got to say, your point about it strengthening the core is pretty compelling. I’m going to have to look more into getting a trumpet!
I agree, but it’s also the same with woodwind instruments…
Not to be a downer, but much of that goes down the tubes. For example, all that hyperventilation pumps a serious amount of carbon dioxide into the bloodstream giving a false sense of appetite and thirst, mostly for carbohydrates. While the lungs were indeed doing heavy duty breathing, which usually accompanies serious exercise, that physical work was not really performed as in the manner of lifting bails of hay on a farm. So the intake of carbs (and of course brass players do love their beer and food after a gig) tends to add a bit of a paunch on the seasoned player. It takes pretty serious post performance physical exercise to keep that all in check. But heck the food and beer leads to camaraderie which leads to the brass players usually being the most gregarious and friendly bunch in the orchestra. Of course, the larger the instrument, the greater the sociability of the player. I am speaking from experience, having been a professional tubaist for over 30 years. Pass a slice of the pizza, cheers! and bottoms up.
“Coach” potato? What about “couch,” instead? 🙂
Es cierto. Te da seguridad y en cierto punto te ayuda a descubrir lo que realmente te gusta. Yo toco el corno francés y me encanta? realmente ya me quedé con el. Es excelente para mitigar el estres de la vida diaria.
A very well written article. Thanks I’ve been tell my students this for years now I have it in writing
“Couch potato” not coach
Under Breath(e) Control…..Air pumped into the trumpet doesn’t actually make a sound…Its the lips!!!
With regard to Breath(e) Control……Air pumped into the trumpet doesn’t produce a note…It’s the lips that vibrate!!!!
Isn’t this true for ALL musical instruments?
One apparent health benefit overlooked included how controlling your breathing has helped people with asthma. There have been a few medical studies published which basically said training to control your breathing to play a brass instrument also helps control in other ways.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7928933
AND NOT FROM A MEDICAL JOURNAL >>
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1029956/How-playing-brass-instrument-helped-boy-beat-asthma.html
Gosh, I’ve spent 45 years mindlessly playing woodwinds. Of course, none of these 10 points apply to woodwinds! Does nothing for your core, or confidence, and you stay a couch potato.
Honestly, this article is SO banal and amateurish. If the writer calls the valves on a brass instrument ‘the knobs’ that is your best clue they have no idea.
And no mention about the art of making music? Experiencing the great composers? Discerning and studying the playing of the virtuosos?
And I know of plenty unhealthy and unhappy brass players as well as other instrumentalists along with happy heathy ones.
Why would this not apply to woodwinds as well?
These are all very generalized and not specific to brass at all. I’ve played both, so I would know.
Good to know this
My potatoes don’t need coaching!