Your little one won’t become the next prodigy or maestro, but is sure to find it easier learning mathematics and science than his or her peers. Plus, expect him/her to be more well-mannered and patient. And, your child will definitely be able to gel well with people and be a team player. All this and more – all courtesy to piano education.
Helps Hone Academic Skills
Aptitudes for music and mathematics are highly inter-related. By understanding and learning about rhythms, beats, and scales, children learn about pattern, organization, grouping, and fractions. As they progress in their piano lessons, they will first learn short and easy compositions and move on to more advanced and complex ones. This will help build both their short term and long term memory prowess.
Research also shows that piano lessons stimulate areas of the brain utilized while learning math and science, thus helping little pianists pick up those subjects faster than their peers. Handling musical instruments will also give your child insights into basic physics. They will learn how a variety of pressures on a piano key can produce different sounds and how a microphone picks up sound depending on the distance from the musical instrument.
Improves Concentration
Playing the piano requires a child to pay attention to multiple things at once. They have to observe their finger movements, read the sheet music, and also hear the notes and scales they are expected to play. When you child does so many things at once, her or his concentration and ability to focus improves.
While playing the piano, your kid uses both hands at the same time, thus forcing his brain to use both halves simultaneously. The right part of the brain controls the left side of the body and vice-versa.
Also, the left brain corresponds to logical thinking abilities and the right brain to artistic and creative capabilities. So when you are utilizing both sides of your body at the same time, you are stimulating your entire brain and focusing more closely on the task at hand.
In fact, in research dating back to 1994, conducted by Rauscher, documented how pre-school going children demonstrated a 46% increase in their spatial IQ (which is closely linked with effective performance in advanced mathematics) after eight months of attending keyboard classes.
Improves Social and Communication Skills
Group classes make children interact with each other and motivate them to adjust to other people. When playing the piano in a group or in accompaniment with other instruments, your child will have to learn to pace his or her speed of playing with that of the others.
They will not be at liberty to go as fast or as slow as they like, thus learning to accommodate other people’s skills and speeds. They will learn to see themselves as a part of a larger whole and be able to take pride in what they create as a team.
Refines Patience and Discipline
Learning an instrument like the piano is all about delayed gratification. It takes days, weeks, and sometimes even months to be able to play a note perfectly. Learning to play the piano and progressing at it requires countless hours of practice. All these necessary steps put together, your child is sure to learn the virtues of waiting for the right time for things to happen and the benefits of disciplined practice to reach a higher goal.
When children learn to play the piano in a large group, they have to wait for their turn to play the instrument. Meanwhile, they have to be quietly seated while others take their time and get in their practice. This teaches them to respect other people, compels them to be disciplined, and to be a fair individual.
Introduces Children to Other Cultures
While learning to play the piano, your child is sure to learn about music from different part of the world and appreciate how music plays a poignant role in shaping cultures across countries. A piano has a lot of playing styles and each style has its unique history which in turn will expose your kid to a greater worldview.
Learning to play the piano has many more advantages – the best of them being the fact that your child acquires a coveted talent for life. So go ahead and sign up for those lessons. You will not regret it.
Featured Image: Image Credit
@Legere @FCNewYork Great work, guys! As a former music educator in public schools, I know the importance of your work, Phoebe! https://t.co/tcYufjpXri
— Desmond Ebbtide (@DesmondEbbtide) November 17, 2016
.@torikelly encourages fans to enter the Music In Our Schools Tour contest. More info at https://t.co/OQM0it0qJI #MusicInspires @giveanote pic.twitter.com/F3UvN0NLiZ
— RADIO DISNEY (@radiodisney) November 9, 2016
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There is a positive relationship between learning music and academic achievement, although doubts remain regarding the mechanisms underlying this association. This research analyses the academic performance of music and non-music students from seventh to ninth grade. The study controls for socioeconomic status, intelligence, motivation and prior academic achievement. Data were collected from 110 adolescents at two time points, once when the students were between 11 and 14 years old in the seventh grade, and again 3 years later.
