Listen to the full episode here
Today, the Piano Parent Podcast is celebrating it’s 100th episode!
The Piano Parent Podcast has been downloaded 28,821 times from people all around the world. Thank you for listening and thank you for sharing the podcast with you piano parent friends.
While this is a podcast milestone, it is also our 10th “10 musical somethings” episode. So today, I would like to give you 10 non-musical benefits of studying music!
Over the years I’ve spoken to lots of teachers; some would argue that music is worthwhile simply for the beauty of music. I don’t disagree with them. When teachers at the schools where I teach approach me about using music to enhance their subjects, I get territorial. I encourage them to use music in their classroom for memorizing multiplication tables or historical facts but I cannot take up my limit music time with the students for those things: there is already too much music-related information I want to share with the children – just for the sake of music.
Within that, however, and as they’re learning beautiful music, I love that all these other benefits come into play in a music lesson.
10 Non-Musical Benefits of Learning Music
- Listening – Learning to listen to their teacher and the instructions they are giving, as well as to listen to the music they’re making. Are they playing the correct rhythms and melodies? Can they identify the different parts of the music like the bass line, melody and harmony? Learning music gives your child an extra opportunity to practice their listening skills.
- Problem Solving – Each week, your piano child is faced with different challenges within their lesson. Whether it is sight-reading, identifying new musical symbols, breaking down a difficult passage, or just getting their fingers to do what they want them to, your student is learning new ways to problem solve and overcome the challenges they face.
- Self Correction – As your student works with a new piece of music, in order to learn it well, they must learn how to self correct. Does the music they’re playing match the music on the page? Are they making those connections themselves or are they completely reliant on others to point out their mistakes? Music gives students the opportunity to practice self correction, and to remap their brains to avoid the same mistakes in the future.
- Interpretation/Discernment – Learning music is like learning a new language. They are taking black dots and lines on a page and creating beautiful music from it. Instead of just mechanically interpreting what they see, your piano kid learns to read between the lines and interpret the meaning and purpose of the music they are creating.
- Patience – In a world focused on instant gratification, the effort it takes to learn music is a great way for your child to practice patience. Mastering a new piece of music takes lots of time and patience and trial and error. It is so good for our children to face something challenging, to practice patience and solve problems independently.
- Abstract Thinking – The ability to think about ideas, objects and principles that are not physically present. There is nothing more abstract than music. We take concrete symbols on a page, interpret them, and with abstract thinking turn it into something incredible. We want our children to be able to think beyond the concrete and move towards things that are more abstract.
- Pattern Recognition and Memory – Sorting and categorizing are mainstays in music. Recognizing the differences between measures, and finding the patterns makes it easier for the brain to remember and predict what will happen next. Recognizing patterns strengthens the memory.
- Coordination – The ability to use the eyes to direct the hands, the feet, or the combination of hands and feet to accomplish a given task. When you first begin to learn a new task, your eyes are hyper focused on you hand movements, making sure you are doing it correctly. However, as you become more accomplished and comfortable with the movements, your eyes are able to wander, and you can multitask without much difficulty. Learning and practicing the piano stretches and strengthens your students fine motor skills, which benefits your brain, your judgement, and even your cross-referencing and analogical skills are enhanced by fine motor coordination.
- Concentration – To me this ties back into patience and problem solving. Concentration is the ability to edit unnecessary information and focus on a certain thing. Our ears NEVER turn off, and in an unfamiliar setting, can cause problems with concentration. Learning to filter and to focus their concentration is an incredible skill for your piano kid to learn, and will benefit them throughout their lives.
- Confidence – Beth Hughes, a piano mom interviewed in episode 42 said it best, “I always try to remind them that they have persevered. They worked through something that was difficult! they now have something to show for their hard work”. When your child perform on the piano, they are completely independent. There is nothing more that we as parents can do to help them, we can encourage them and help them practice, but performing is totally independent. We want our children to be able to conquer challenges confidently, to have self-confidence, to know, within themselves that they are able. They do not need to rely on someone else’s approval.
Conclusion
As I said at the top of the show, studying music for music’s sake is certainly enough. I believe music is such a gift that listeners and performers both enjoy so much more because of it.
What benefits would you add to the list? How has music helped your child?
Review: Bonus Benefit – quirky humor!
This podcast is airing on my husband and my 30th wedding anniversary! We were married on July 9, 1988. Duane is such an incredible support and I am so grateful to share life with him.
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