We love measuring childhood by usefulness. English? Useful. Coding? Definitely useful. Sport? Good for health. Music? “But they’re not going to become a musician…” And that’s exactly the point. Learning music isn’t really about becoming a musician. When a child plays an instrument, their brain is doing several jobs at once: reading a complex symbolic language, controlling precise movements, listening, anticipating, keeping time, correcting mistakes and expressing emotion. It’s an extraordinary mental workout disguised as music. But perhaps the most valuable lesson is simpler. Music teaches children how to be bad at something long enough to become good at it. There’s no instant dopamine. You practise the same four bars again and again. You get frustrated. You make mistakes. You perform while nervous. And eventually, something that once seemed impossible becomes easy. Most children who learn an instrument will never become professional musicians. That doesn’t make those years waste...