I'm Cynthia Marie VanLandingham, piano teacher and author of Piano Bears Musical Storybooks. Piano lessons provide a wide range of benefits to young children. Here are my "Top Five."
1. Piano lessons help preserve and develop children’s natural creative abilities.
The best analogy of how children learn through music that I’ve found is from Donald Kroodsma’s book "The Singing Life of Birds." Every songbird can be identified by the unique song it sings, but a baby bird has to be taught by its parents to sing the family song. Baby birds, like humans, just ‘babble’ at first. Mother birds sing the family song over and over to the baby birds as they try to repeat it back. At first, the baby birds are only able to sing back one or two notes, but they gradually learn to sing the whole song. And birds with two voice boxes even learn to sing their own harmony parts! Once baby birds learn the family song, they can start developing their very own songs. Similarly, I encourage students to compose their own music after developing needed skills. In my experience, young children in piano are a lot like baby songbirds!
2. Piano lessons help children perfect their natural learning processes.
Music is a language, and children are programmed to absorb languages. Studies show that kids can most easily learn new languages when they start at a young age. When children begin piano lessons at a young age, they're developing the very same learning processes needed to accomplish language arts skills, like reading. At lessons, students learn to follow directions, scan written materials, think critically, create solutions and translate writing into action. As they play, children look at each note, measure and phrase to interpret the music, so that it makes sense. Many children (including my own sons) have become much better readers after starting piano lessons, as they enjoyed reading the lyrics. Just like the baby songbirds, they wanted to sing the new songs they were learning to play. Further more, playing the piano involves an interplay of both right and left brain activity that stimulates neural development in children.
3. Piano lessons help children learn how to stay focused and achieve goals.
Piano lessons help children stay focused as they work to achieve new learning goals. Each piece of music students are assigned requires a variation of specific skills and playing habits. To achieve their goals, students must stay focused on the music, studying each note, measure and phrase to learn how to play the song from beginning to end. In doing so, they're thinking critically and creatively as they consider how to make the music come to life. This effort aids children in developing effective focusing, thinking, and studying habits that become natural over time. This is important, because practicing good habits that match our goals is a model for bringing dreams life!
4. Piano lessons help children develop courage.
It takes courage to face challenges without letting our anxiety and worries get the best of us. Piano lessons help students become accustomed to accepting challenges such as learning a difficult song or performing in front of teachers, friends, and families at recitals. The challenge of learning to play the piano helps kids understand the importance of keeping a positive perspective despite difficulties. Learning to handle uncertainty and stress in a way that minimizes anxiety and maximizes creativity is a valuable life tool. We all need practice at this!
5. Piano lessons teach children to persevere.
A key part of accomplishing anything difficult is to not give up easily. As children grow, playing piano teaches them to try and then try again if they don’t initially succeed. However, as Yoda explained to Luke Skywalker, the objective isn’t just trying itself, but accomplishing the desired goal -- "Do or do not, there is no try!" Piano lessons teach students how to adjust their expectations if they can’t initially master a tough song or skills, and to tackle these big goals by taking small incremental steps. In the end, just like the baby songbirds that eventually learn to sing, students learn that they can accomplish great things and reach their dreams through careful and consistent effort.
In addition to my top five, here is a Neurological Research Paper showing that piano lessons for young children significantly improves long-term spatial-reasoning skills needed for transforming mental images, as required for higher brain functions such as chess, mathematics and engineering.'
Also, new research by Northwestern University Professor Nina Kraus shows that children who study music for serveral years have improved language skills. (See video on Youtube)
Best wishes,
Cynthia Marie VanLandingham
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