Piano Lessons: Why Should Your Child Start?
In my last post, I talked about when your child should start piano lessons. Now let’s talk about why.
Music education may seem like an expensive undertaking. The lessons, the music, the various accessories — metronomes and so forth. And for piano in particular — the instrument. No matter what kind of instrument your child takes up, from piccolo to tuba, the best models cost a lot. But you can usually pick up a decent student model for much less. A good acoustic piano, however, even if purchased used, can cost a couple thousand dollars right from the start.
Why should you go to this much expense? Because you’re really making an investment in your child. You’re helping her to build skills and abilities — even introducing her to a whole new way to enjoy life. And who can put a price tag on that?
Piano lessons will help your child…
(1) Gain confidence.
In meeting and mastering the challenges of piano lessons, your child will experience feelings of accomplishment in ways both large and small. From accurately copying a simple rhythm to learning a scale to performing for an audience, your child will learn that he can do it. He can overcome a challenge that seems hard at first. He is capable. He can learn and improve. He will take this sense of confidence with him wherever he goes in life. And it will serve him well.
(2) Gain a skill she can share.
When your child can play the piano, she can perform in things like a school talent show, a relative’s wedding, or a local nursing home. She can share the beauty of music with others. And this is a gift she can give to her family and associates for the rest of her life — because you gave her the gift of piano lessons when she was a child.
(3) Learn to accept guidance from a mentor.
For your child to succeed in any career, he will have to assess his own performance, realize he’s not perfect, seek expert guidance to improve — and actually put that guidance into practice. Dental school, law school, or skilled trades — it really doesn’t matter what your child ends up doing as an adult; the ability to take constructive feedback and learn from someone who has gone before him is crucial to success in any field. Piano lessons, and his piano teacher, will give him practice in this key life skill.
(4) Learn to break down a challenge into smaller parts.
During her piano lessons, your child will learn that success does not come overnight. Instead, it comes from overcoming countless small challenges over a period of years. As she moves from Book 1 to Book 2 and beyond, your child will realize that her new skills build on what she mastered earlier, and she can look forward to gaining even more skills in the years to come. This alternative to instant gratification will help her break down other life challenges into manageable parts, and will teach her persistence.
(5) Grow his brain in new ways.
Studies have shown that piano lessons help children learn analytical and memory skills — better than other types of lessons. Researchers believe that piano lessons encourage new connections to form in the child’s growing brain — and these new connections benefit the child in ways far beyond his piano skills alone.
Children who take piano lessons enhance their abilities to recognize patterns, to see how the parts relate to the whole, and to understand sequencing, or the order in which events take place. These are important foundational skills for math and other analytical subjects. And, studies have shown that children who take piano lessons tend to perform better on standardized tests.
So if your child wants piano lessons, encourage her. And when he needs to practice, remind him. The ability to make music is one of the most long-lasting gifts you can give your child.
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