Cost per use was discussed a couple posts back, now return on investment…what are all of these statistical, mathy terms doing in a music blog? A lot, is the short answer!
Musicians of all sort and manner, professional and amateur alike, are not only performing countless analyses of time and space, dissecting information on the page and turning it into algorithms of sound. They are not just vibrating columns of air at finely tuned intervals to create soundscapes so amazing that listening can bring audiences to tears. They are getting something out of it, too!
Now, normally, return on investment (ROI) is a very simple term that means what you sell a product for minus its cost and then divide by that cost, which gives a percentage return. It’s a simple way of analyzing how good a deal is – how much profit was made on a transaction.
Since most people do not make their living as musicians, a simple monetary ROI is going to look, at first blush, rather paltry (I paid how much for music lessons for my kid!? And what do I have to show for it?!).
But if we get a little creative with our terminology here (and really, who in statistics and finance doesn’t), then it’s pretty easy to see what a great deal learning and playing an instrument (and, gasp! taking music lessons!) really is.
We know that learning an instrument, and being part of a musical group (choir, band, orchestra, what have you), do great things for our brains.
Music helps us think critically, notice and analyze the little details.
Music also helps us think creatively and quickly – you can’t stop and fix something in the middle of a performance!
Music helps us see how our little part fits into the larger part...and isn’t that the whole point? Not just of music, but of everything – of life in general?
So, if we expand our idea of return on investment to be not simply monetary, but humanistic, then it becomes abundantly clear that the return on musical involvement is incredible. And of course, the greater the investment, the greater the return!
Get started on your investment today! The Music Momma
