What role does piano play in the lives and education of your children or students? Plenty of research suggests that music education should not be viewed as just an optional, sidelined hobby. There is a direct impact listening to and learning how to play music has on intellectual and emotional health and music actually plays a vital role in a child’s development. At Dickerson’s Tri-City Pianos, we are all about encouraging the next generation to be their best and find the tools they need for a lifetime of success. Here are our five top reasons why buying a piano for your home can set up your student to excel in school and beyond.
1. Make Your School Work Easier by Improving Learning Skills
Did you know that music lessons significantly impact the success of a student’s progress in school? When playing an instrument, the left and right sides of the brain work together and strengthen the pathways that connect the various regions of the brain. The more you practice and strengthen this coordination with music, the better your brain can function in other areas of life as well.
If you think about it, quite a lot is involved in the process of pressing keys on a keyboard to create a song. First, it requires significant fine motor skills for the brain to tell the arm, hand, and fingers the intricate movements, not to mention the expertise it takes to synchronize two hands together in varying patterns along with feet controlling the pedals below.
Piano playing also exercises both the auditory system to listen to the music as you play and the memory to recall the following notes of the song. Additionally, playing an instrument improves spatial reasoning skills, which are vital in the fields of math, science, and engineering.
With so many ways that music activates and strengthens the brain as a whole, it is no wonder why students who learn music tend to do better in other academic subjects. The ability to learn, listen well, memorize well, and respond well are all skills that can be translated from piano lessons into the classroom and other learning environments. Improved habits of focus, perseverance, and creativity are just a few benefits associated with learning to play an instrument. That is why we at Dickerson’s Tri-City Pianos believe that success in school starts with a piano!
2. Relaxes Your Mind
Music has long been connected with higher rates of happiness and reduced levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness. The only other activity that stimulates such a large amount of the brain’s networks at once is social interaction. Even the parts of the brain interacting with emotion are activated and synchronized when you create or listen to music.
Just like a good story or any fun hobby, playing piano can be an emotional outlet that helps a person to work through the stresses and challenges of life in a healthy way. Learning how to handle big emotions is an important skill for all children to acquire, and piano can be a fantastic and healthy place to focus their energy and help them progress in their emotional maturity. Like many instruments, pianos have a unique power to calm the mind and stabilize emotional well-being.
3. Piano is a great starting point to learn other instruments
Although not everyone agrees that the piano is the greatest instrument of all time, we can agree that there are several significant advantages that make learning piano a great place to start! As a highly flexible and complex instrument, the piano has the advantages of all other instruments combined into one. Wood, metal, string, percussion – the piano is an orchestra all in itself!
Not only can pianos cover (and often surpass) the range, style, and rhythmic options of other instruments, but they can also accommodate a song in any key and do not limit the musician on how many notes can be played at once. Piano-playing can be as complex or as simple as the pianist desires.
Because of the versatility that this instrument offers, piano is actually one of the easiest instruments to start when first learning about music. The tangible keys help young students easily visualize music theory and chord structure.
Piano provides a great foundation for learning the basic elements of music, and this information can then be easily transferred to other instruments as well. Many famous musicians have found their start in the music world through piano.
4. Piano keeps your student focused on positive activities & making new friends
In our modern western culture, there are so many options that pull our attention in different directions and force us to prioritize how we fill our time with work, fun, and self-improvement from day to day. The great thing about piano is that it provides a healthy alternative to the many negative influences prevalent in our society. Plus, music has a positive influence on both musicians and listeners alike, and it can become a bridge to bringing people together!
Piano is one of the few instruments that allows for multiple players – any jam session can easily turn into a fun group activity! It can also be an avenue to connect with people in a special way, whether by creating music together or providing an enjoyable listening experience for a fellow music-enthusiast.
At Dickerson’s Tri-City Pianos, one of our favorite advantages of piano is the ability it has to build community and brighten the lives of the people around us.
5. Life is more fun when you know how to play
One of the key priorities here at Dickerson’s Tri-City Pianos is to have fun while playing the piano! In the worlds of music education, language-learning, and other academic activities, the latest research has found that people learn the best and have the best recall when stress levels are low and as many senses as possible are involved in the learning process.
This means that connecting the learning experience with having fun is a key ingredient to learning well! And piano can be a great source of fun, as well as an activity that heavily utilizes auditory, tactile, and visual senses. This is exactly why our favorite motto in the store is Life’s more fun when you know how to play!
Whether or not your child has shaped any major dreams or goals at this point in their life yet, we here at Dickerson’s Tri-City Pianos want to be a positive influence in their process of discovery and growth and help provide them with the tools they need for success!
Our piano showroom is filled with tons of options designed to meet a wide variety of needs. Come visit us in the Richland Uptown and let us help you find the perfect piano for your home and family! You can contact us by phone 509-713-7288 or email info@dickersonstricitypianos.com at any time, we are happy to answer any questions you have, and help you find your dream piano!