No one likes “busy work”. And nothing seems more like busy work than copying. When I was in grade school corporal punishment – or spanking – was still administered occasionally by a building principal, but more often a wayward student was sentenced to copy a corrective phrase over and over, sometimes into the hundreds of times. More recently, teachers have been encouraged to avoid busy work and find more constructive ways to train their students.

But is it possible that a mundane chore like copying could hold unseen benefits for the music student? Let me share a few reasons I believe the answer is YES.