Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

This is a persuasive paper I wrote once. Let's see if you like it!


Everyone Should Play a Musical Instrument

I was sitting at my desk, stuck for the first time in so long because I couldn’t think of a hook for my persuasive paper. I thought to myself, how could I lead people into a persuasive essay that is trying to convince them to play a musical instrument? I could talk about the academic bonuses or the beautiful entertainment that playing an instrument provides. I might even open with how it can build your confidence! For now, this paragraph will have to do, but I must add one thing, everyone should play an instrument.

SATs are very important, tedious, long, dreadful tests that people spend countless hours studying for. Don’t bother asking, “What does this have to do with playing an instrument?” because here’s your answer. Studies have shown that people who play an instrument score an average of 39 points higher on their math portion of the SATs than people who don’t play a musical instrument. On the verbal portion of the SATs, people who play an instrument score an average 56 points higher than people who don’t play a musical instrument. Another study had second graders take a piano keyboard and music training class for eight months. These children, when taking the Stanford 9 Math Test, scored in the 65th percentile. Before the keyboard and music training, they were scoring in the 30th percentile. They were now doing sixth grade math. This is a major academic plus!

Playing an instrument not only benefits you academically, it benefits you mentally. When you play an instrument you can create beautiful music. The music that you play can sooth you and everyone listening to you. When you play music you often forget about your day, good or bad, and you only concentrate on what you are playing. This can be very stress relieving. While you play, you can, in a sense, “pour out your soul”. You may put all of your feelings into the music you are playing. This personalizes your music and makes practice time more enjoyable.

Struggling through a difficult piece of music is tough and seems unrewarding at times, but it’s not. Once you master that once difficult piece of music you realize, “Hey, I’m good at this. It’s not that hard after all!” You’ve just boosted your confidence. You can build your confidence other ways, like by getting passing grades in school, or getting promoted at your job, but neither of these have as many other benefits as playing an instrument.

I bet you’re dying to get your word in, so this paragraph is for you. “Buying an instrument and paying for lessons is too expensive.” “There’s no time to practice, I’m too busy.” “I don’t want to work at it, it’s too hard.” “When I play, I sound horrible, not like the professionals at all!”

Now that I’ve been so considerate to listen to your thoughts . . . My reply! You don’t have to have private lessons, it would be best but it’s not necessary. You can always play in the school band or orchestra and if you need to, borrow an instrument from the school. There are always places where you can either rent an instrument or “rent to buy” so that you don’t have to have all of the money right then and there. There’s no need to practice for an hour every day, twenty minutes every night is the suggested practice time by many music teachers. Practicing in chunks of five minutes over the afternoon is one way to get your twenty minutes of practicing done quickly. You shouldn’t worry if you sound slightly horrible when you first start, most people sound that way when they start too.

This time I’m sitting on my couch thinking, “How do I end my paper without boring my readers to death?” Honestly, I have no idea, so I’ll get this over with. Playing a musical instrument benefits you both mentally and academically by boosting your confidence, entertaining you, and helping you on your SATs. What do you think? Should you play an instrument or is it a waste of time? If you read my paper and understood it, I think you would agree with me. I’ll say this one more time; everyone should play a musical instrument.