Have you ever wondered "is it worth the sacrifice of having my child study an instrument, even if it will not be his/her chosen profession"?   A Nobel Prize winner thinks so. Thomas Sudhof, who shares this year’s Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology, told The Lancet in August 2010 that he owes his powers of analysis and concentration to studying a musical instrument. When asked "who was your most influential teacher, and why?", he replied, "my bassoon teacher, Herbert Tauscher, who taught me that the only way to do something right is to practice and listen and practice and listen, hours, and hours, and hours."

For another fascinating report on the "music-success" connection, see this New York Times article which mentions notables Condoleezza Rice, Alan Greenspan, and many others:
Click here for article.

Our family places a high value on music study, because it develops the full person. I don't know if there is any other endeavor which simultaneously engages every part of our person with equal intensity other than the practice and performance of music. All at once the mind, body, and spirit are called forth to analyze, coordinate, and express. The act of music-making is a work of God to be sure, with overwhelming evidence of its importance in the Bible. It's a no-brainer: whether your child is a Mozart or can't carry a tune in a bucket, studying an instrument (or voice) should be part of their development. When you hear those almost painful sounds coming from the next room, remember that your children are not just learning how to read notes and reproduce them, they are developing core skills that will follow them all their lives; things like focus, concentration, and persistence. As the well-worn cliché goes: "Let's do this!"

*Source for Thomas Sudhof article by Norman Lebrecht