Brain Training: How Piano Lessons Boost Academic Results
Can learning to play the piano actually make you better at mathematics and abstract reasoning? While the link between music and academic success has been studied for decades, the specific way a student is taught plays a crucial role in unlocking these cognitive benefits.
Have you ever heard that there's a connection between music and medicine? Anecdotally, people who study music, especially piano, often tend to go on to become doctors or high academic achievers in other fields. There is a scientific reason for this. Taking beginner piano lessons for kids is widely known to have a profound effect on our general learning abilities.
Research-Backed Results: The Scientific Link Between Music And Math
Some years ago, a Swiss study divided 1,200 primary school children into two groups. One group was given more music classes and fewer mathematics classes. At the end of the study, the children who received extra music were actually better at math than the group that focused primarily on mathematics.
Another two-year study split preschoolers into groups receiving either private computer lessons or private singing and piano lessons. The results were startling: the musical group performed 34% better in abstract reasoning skills required for math, science, and engineering. It appears that learning piano serves as "brain training" that enhances spatial awareness, reasoning, and memory.
The 34% Advantage: Why Most Schools Miss This Opportunity
Half an hour, once a week (that's 2% of a school week). spent taking piano lessons in exchange for a 34% improvement in academic performance is time exceptionally well spent. Sadly, this logical reasoning is often missing among school administrators. Consequently, very few schools truly prioritize music education, and students miss out on these vital cognitive benefits as a result.
While schools search for new ways to improve academic results, the solution has been available for decades. By ignoring the cognitive power of the piano, the traditional education system is inadvertently leaving massive student potential on the table.
How Musiah Specifically Maximizes Cognitive Development
While the academic benefits of learning piano are a given, there is a very significant aspect to learning piano with Musiah: the Musiah syllabus was specifically designed to maximize these cognitive gains. This development comes from the refinement of eye-mind-hand coordination and systematically training students to think about, be aware of, and do several things at once.
The Strategy Of The Fixed Hand Position
Instead of moving students' hands around to different positions on the piano in the early stages (which most piano courses do), Musiah keeps their hands in one position (the C position) for quite some time. This allows students to become intimately familiar with the range of notes covered by each hand (C through G) before adding the complexity of lateral movement.
Developing Advanced Coordination Skills
And because they become so familiar with this note range, Musiah can challenge their coordination (within this note range) to a much greater extent than is normal in traditional piano courses. Examples of coordination skills Musiah students acquire within their first few songs include:
- Playing two hands together immediately
- Ensemble playing
- Moving the thumb to play different notes while keeping hand in same position
- Dotted rhythms
- Pairs of quavers
- Playing in thirds (pairs of notes within one hand)
- Other complex coordination and syncopation challenges
This is clearly not normal so early in other piano courses, but when you learn piano with Musiah, it is not only possible, it is in fact normal — and has been for many years.
The Result: Effortless Mastery Of The Entire Keyboard
Musiah piano lessons, of course, also cover all notes on the keyboard, but by waiting until students have first mastered
- Reading music while playing (without looking at their hands)
- Listening to their teacher and also
- Listening to other students playing ensemble parts
- The advanced coordination skills referred to above
moving to new positions becomes trivial. They have already developed the mental "mapping" required for success.
So now you have yet another reason to experience Musiah — the world's first AI piano teacher. It is a powerful form of brain training that maximizes the academic benefits you'll receive from your piano lessons. And it is a great way to start learning piano, no matter your age or academic goals.
Til next time,
Brendan Hogan L.Mus.A, A.Mus.A.
Piano Teacher & Musiah Inventor
