If you are here on this page, you already know that piano lessons will benefit your student. Listed below are some concrete reasons why piano lessons are a solid investment. Each one of these benefits will be explored in greater depth in future articles.
1. Piano Students will develop Fine Motor Skills and Reflexes.1 Why is this important? Developing fine motor skills at a young age is closely linked with cognitive benefits, resulting higher academic achievements.2 Playing the piano will also equip children with a good "head-start" in their cognitive development. Learning to play an instrument also helps students to develop proprioception (spatial awareness).
2. Piano Students will Cultivate Creative Reasoning. Creative reasoning is another skill that a piano student will sharpen by learning to play an instrument. Creative reasoning is the ability to implement innovative solutions to problems using creativity along with logical thinking. The related article attached to this point dives further in-depth regarding how developing creativity through learning to make music can give students a creative "edge" in the age of AI.3
3. Piano Students will Learn to be Disciplined. Playing the piano requires more self-discipline than sports, since it is mostly a solo endeavor (mostly in the beginning stages of learning an instrument) that is guided once weekly by a teacher and ideally supervised by a parent. This means that there is more of a responsibility on the student to learn the skill, and the student must learn to practice efficiently and budget their time to achieve their goals. In sports, there is an element of social collaboration and pressure to achieve a common goal, but in music a student must learn to achieve their pieces for the sake of personal accomplishment.
Speaking freely and from my own observations, this generation of students are growing up in a fast and technological world, where instant gratification is becoming an expectation. Learning a skill like playing the piano gives them an opportunity to learn discipline, and to learn to be patient, and to cultivate a skill over a long period of time.
4. Piano Students will be Equipped with an Effective Therapeutic Tool. Music has been shown to be an incredible tool for managing anxiety, stress, depression, physical healing, and many other things.4 Equipping students with the ability to express themselves creatively through music can give them a tool to help manage these ailments when they arise.
5. Piano Students will Face Cognitive Challenges. “Engaging with music is one of the most cognitively demanding tasks a human being can undergo."5 The article linked to this point explores the action of listening to music, however, in learning to perform and make music, even more parts of the brain are activated. I tell my students in class, if you get frustrated with your math homework, go practice piano! Playing the piano activates so many areas of the brain; it anecdotally feels like you are rebooting it.
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