There can be no doubt that music can engage the mind and body.  Beyond lowering stress, improving mood and helping one to sleep, music can reduce depression, can improve memory and learning and can help soothe pain.  So, you definitely need more music in your life, as do those on your holiday shopping list. Now, if listening is good then playing must be better, so why not consider wrapping up an instrument for those on your list.  

It could be something soothingly simply like a singing bowl.

Ohm Store Tibetan Singing Bowl Set – Helpful for Meditation, Yoga & Relaxation

Or going the raucous route a blue kazoo.

The Original Blue Kazoo | Ultralight Aluminum Backpacking Kazoo | Canvas Bag and Carabiner

Don’t knock a kazoo.  You certainly can’t be depressed and play a kazoo.  Ever heard of sad kazoo music or a lament for kazoo?

Improving memory, better math skills, improving perseverance, sharpening concentration and fosters creativity are just a few of the benefits of learning to play an instrument.  Giving the gift of a musical instrument promises years worth of learning and creativity. And, I’m sure if you’ve been good this year someone would gift you with perhaps a guitar or ukulele starter kit.  

Whether you’re looking for a starter kit or an upgraded replacement, remember that old, unused instruments would make a wonderful gift for your local school band or community arts program.

Here’s a few options…

Starter Instruments for Children

Hohner Kids Musical Toys MS9000 Baby Band, Colors of Product May Vary

Casio SA76 44 mini Sized Keys 100 Tones

Award Winning Hape Happy Harp Kid’s Wooden Musical Instrument

Toddler Musical Instruments – Ehome 15 Types 22pcs Wooden Percussion Instruments 

17- Inch Guitar Ukulele Toy For Kids With the Picks and Strap

Mugig Kalimba Mbira  for Beginners

Best Suzuki Recorder  for school ensembles & children

Adult Instruments

Official Kala Learn to Play Ukulele Soprano Starter Kit, Light Mahogany

Hamzer 61-Key Portable Electronic Keyboard Piano with Stand, Stool, Headphones & Microphone

Glen Burton GA204BCO-BK Acoustic Electric Cutaway Guitar, Black

Gammon Percussion full-size complete adult 5-piece drum set

GP Percussion B2 Pro-Series Tunable Bongos 6 & 7 Inch

Fender FA-115 Acoustic Guitar Bundle with Gig Bag, Tuner, Strings, Strap, Picks, and Austin Bazaar Instructional DVD

And, just in case someone calls for more cowbell

10 inch Steel Cowbell with handle

4334199180

Author: TJ Nelson

TJ Nelson is a regular CD reviewer and editor at World Music Central. She is also a fiction writer. Check out her latest book, Chasing Athena’s Shadow. Set in Pineboro, North Carolina, Chasing Athena’s Shadow follows the adventures of Grace, an adult literacy teacher, as she seeks to solve a long forgotten family mystery. Her charmingly dysfunctional family is of little help in her quest. Along with her best friends, an attractive Mexican teacher and an amiable gay chef, Grace must find the one fading memory that holds the key to why Grace’s great-grandmother, Athena, shot her husband on the courthouse steps in 1931. Traversing the line between the Old South and New South, Grace will have to dig into the past to uncover Athena’s true crime.