From: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2277983/Those-violin-lessons-werent-waste-time-Learning-instrument-makes-children-grow-smarter.html

Research shows that sending youngsters to music classes from age seven will speed the development of motor skills - the part of your brain that plans and carries out movement.

There is a special window of learning between the ages of six and eight when musical training interacts with motor development, producing long term changes to the brain, according to the study.

'Learning to play an instrument requires coordination between hands and with visual or auditory stimuli,' said lead researcher Virginia Penhune, professor of psychology at Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.

'Importantly, the younger a musician started, the greater the connectivity.

'Practising an instrument before age seven likely boosts the normal maturation of connections between motor and sensory regions of the brain, creating a framework upon which ongoing training can build.'

However, if you think piano and violin lessons will turn your offspring into a classical composer think again, as it has little impact on their development as musicians.

Professor Penhune said: 'It's important to remember that what we are showing is that early starters have some specific skills and differences in the brain that go along with that.

'But these things don't necessarily make them better musicians.

'Musical performance is about skill, but it is also about communication, enthusiasm, style, and many other things that we don't measure.

'So, while starting early may help you express your genius, it probably won't make you a genius.'