It’s not exactly the kazoo. That’s what you told your wife when you finally put the old guitar in the back of the basement or in the garage, planning never to take it up again. After a while, some of your other belongings have piled up, but during day of spring cleaning, you’ve come across it again: it’s a guitar you never do anything with. Do ever you wonder how much it might be worth?

Many of us wish life would come with maps, guides, and instructions. In some cases, it does: when you learn how to drive, you learn about it from instructors and practice it until you’re capable of passing a test. But not everything in life comes with a license – and even a license doesn’t guarantee success. That means you’re left to your own devices.

For all of the people you see who have learned a musical instrument, there might be twice as many stories of failure. While that might be an entirely unverifiable fact, it’s not hard to see that it may be true: how many times in your life did you start or even just want to take up a musical instrument? And how many times did you actually succeed at it?

If you own a drum set, then there’s a good chance you’re thinking about playing on it right now. After all, it’s right there, it produces great sounds, and it’s just begging to be played right now. The problem? The angry neighbors across the hall who can’t stand hearing your “racket” at 8 p.m. – or whatever odd point of the day you decide to play.

If you know anything about musical instruments, you know that there are a few separate categories that separate many of the instruments by their common characteristics. If you don’t know anything about musical instruments, however, you probably don’t even know about these essential instrument “groups.” If you’re thinking about taking up an instrument, it might help you to take a look at the different kinds of instruments to see which appeal to you: if you enjoy the oboe, for instance, but want to take up something a little more mainstream, you might upgrade to a similar “woodwind” instrument like the clarinet or saxophone.

Jazz is the quintessential “cool” form of music, a relaxed, almost informal take on musical notes that avoids all of the traditional chords and focuses on rhythm, sound, and the texture of live performance. But if you’re looking to capture that same jazz soul, you can’t do it by taking up the wrong instrument – you need to take up an instrument that some of the great jazz musicians like Miles Davis or Charlie Parker have actually used.

When the great Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was still a toddler, he was touring Europe as a musician prodigy. This, annoyingly, makes late bloomers of us all – but it does reveal something very interesting about music and our youth: they don’t have to be mutually exclusive.
It doesn’t take a genius like Mozart to figure out that music education can help your child develop skills that can last a lifetime. Music is like the mathematics of art – complicated, often predictable, and definitely character-building. But if you’re already sold on the idea of “music as education,” then maybe you simply need less convincing and more information.