Everyday we get out of bed, shower, brush our teeth, pick out some clothes and head off to work. We try and make as much money as possible so we can buy nice things, pay for our gym memberships, go out to nice restaurants and, when the opportunity strikes, cast ourselves in a favourable light to a potential mate. We may live in a hyper-accelerated, highly developed society, but humans themselves have not evolved much beyond pre-agricultural Homo Sapiens from millions of years ago. Therefore, although we may think we are motivated by more sophisticated factors, at the end of the day a lot of what we do is geared towards finding – or keeping – a suitable mate who we are attracted to.
While some people may think this point of view is a bit crude, if you come to embrace it, you may find that it is a relief. People who are single will say that they’re “taking time for themselves” or that they’re “not interested in dating right now.” It’s a free country, and folks can pursue happiness by whatever method they choose, but the desire to attract a suitable mate is a biological imperative that cannot be repressed or ignored for very long.
Once you admit that a lot of your day-to-day activity is geared towards creating an attractive image, you can pursue hobbies with the dual goal of improving your body and mind and of attracting a partner – two birds, one stone. One of the most reliable ways to attract a partner is to learn how to play an instrument. Let’s be clear here, accompaniment instruments like to the bass guitar or the timpani can be impressive in the context of a bigger band, but if you’re taking on music as a hobby and to impress potential partners, you’re going to want to take up the guitar or the piano: instruments you can perform songs on, maybe even your own songs once you really get up and going.
The strength of a guitar is that it is extremely portable and typically they are lying around at most parties, hostels, campfires any place you can think of. In the digital age, however, digital keyboards are very affordable and light. Being a piano pro is very sexy and sophisticated, and although pianos are not as ubiquitous as guitars, when you can sit down at a piano in a public place or a friend’s house and bust out some tunes, it is extremely classy and impressive.
If you’ve never studies music, you can always take lessons at your local music store to get started – learning how to play music is actually easier and more intuitive than learning musical theory, and with the right teacher, you could be strumming and singing songs competently within a few months. The main factor in getting up and running is practice. You don’t have to kill yourself, but if you can manage even thirty minutes a day, you’ll be surprised at how quickly you make progress.
Learning how to play music increases hand eye coordination, improves memory and brain plasticity and can be very relaxing. In the end, however, performing music confidently will make you more attractive, and that factor alone may trump all the others, whether or not you can admit it!
