To learn piano: The facts behind the benefits for children
March 16, 2009
By Bryan Smith
Many studies over the years have shown that learning music for children, especially for them to learn piano, bring about great benefits for them across many different areas. In this article, we will discuss the three biggest benefits the children will have when they learn piano from young - That of a better concentration, brain development, and hand eye coordination.
Concentration and comprehension
Children who learn piano develop strong focus and concentration from an early age. Firstly, learning the read the music score initially is as good as learning a foreign language for the children. It takes a significant amount of concentration for the children to grasp the relation between the sound of a note, and how they look like on a score. Not to mention, there are many different types of symbols on a single score, and it cultivates the comprehension skills of a young child in the journey to familiarize these foreign looking objects.
Complete brain development
To learn piano, a child needs to engage both hemisphere of the brain. For a child that is learning music, the brain has to dissect, analyze and store information on a constant basis to make sense of every piano practice, for example. Compare this to a child that is not learning music, to whom a string of melody equates to nothing more than just sound, but to the child learning to play the piano, the melody represents logic in the brain.
In one of the studies done by the publication, Neurological Research, in 1997, a spatial -temporal (logical reasoning of ratios, proportions, thinking in space and time and fractions) test was conducted with a group of preschool children that were taking musical lessons, such as playing the piano, and a second group of children that took computer classes.
The group of musical students scored 34% better than the others. This represents that, as a result of their early exposure to music, the children has become significantly more advanced than their peers in proportional reasoning.
Hand-Eye Coordination
When it comes to playing the piano, the left hand operates independently from the right, because while one may be playing a set of quick melody, the other one would be required to keep a steady tempo with the chords. On top of which, every finger has different tasks from each other to complete the performance of a piano piece, with the eyes kept sharp and focus to receive information from the music score.
There are few activities out there that offer such intensive training of coordination suitable for children, and yet it is certainly not a surprise to know that a child that plays the piano would be highly coordinated as a result of his or her musical training.
For children to learn piano, they would be exposing their brain to a complete training regime that compliments their eventual development in school. It is, therefore, only logical for us to encourage children to begin their learning process with the piano.
Concentration and comprehension
Children who learn piano develop strong focus and concentration from an early age. Firstly, learning the read the music score initially is as good as learning a foreign language for the children. It takes a significant amount of concentration for the children to grasp the relation between the sound of a note, and how they look like on a score. Not to mention, there are many different types of symbols on a single score, and it cultivates the comprehension skills of a young child in the journey to familiarize these foreign looking objects.
Complete brain development
To learn piano, a child needs to engage both hemisphere of the brain. For a child that is learning music, the brain has to dissect, analyze and store information on a constant basis to make sense of every piano practice, for example. Compare this to a child that is not learning music, to whom a string of melody equates to nothing more than just sound, but to the child learning to play the piano, the melody represents logic in the brain.
In one of the studies done by the publication, Neurological Research, in 1997, a spatial -temporal (logical reasoning of ratios, proportions, thinking in space and time and fractions) test was conducted with a group of preschool children that were taking musical lessons, such as playing the piano, and a second group of children that took computer classes.
The group of musical students scored 34% better than the others. This represents that, as a result of their early exposure to music, the children has become significantly more advanced than their peers in proportional reasoning.
Hand-Eye Coordination
When it comes to playing the piano, the left hand operates independently from the right, because while one may be playing a set of quick melody, the other one would be required to keep a steady tempo with the chords. On top of which, every finger has different tasks from each other to complete the performance of a piano piece, with the eyes kept sharp and focus to receive information from the music score.
There are few activities out there that offer such intensive training of coordination suitable for children, and yet it is certainly not a surprise to know that a child that plays the piano would be highly coordinated as a result of his or her musical training.
For children to learn piano, they would be exposing their brain to a complete training regime that compliments their eventual development in school. It is, therefore, only logical for us to encourage children to begin their learning process with the piano.
About the Author:
My name is Bryan Smith and I have been playing the piano for over ten years to learn how play the piano visit http://lifesmusic.com. Click here to submit article.
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