Perks of playing piano (trust me, there are plenty!)

Let's face it. If you've clicked on our website and scrolled to this post, you're interested in piano lessons.

And when you're thinking about trying out piano lessons, whether it be for yourself or your child, one of the questions which has probably popped up in your mind is "what are the benefits of learning the piano?"

I've listed below 3 wonderful benefits from learning the piano.

1. Playing the Piano Reduces Stress

Learning the piano offers a creative outlet for stress and negative emotions.

I can definitely vouch for this. When I feel stressed, unhappy or anxious, I will play on the piano for a while and realise how much better I feel from the moment I start playing.

On a scientific note, studies done on playing the piano and piano lessons report induced positive mood states, more efficient management of stress, reduced anxiety and depression levels and improved mental health.

2. Playing the Piano Improves Transferable Skills

Learning to play the piano teaches students to be:

Disciplined: Students will need to develop a regular practice routine if they are to continually learn and grow in their musical journey.

Having a practice routine in place (e.g every morning before school or before dinner time) and carrying out such a routine will help forge disciplined students.

Patience: Learning and playing the piano can be easy at times, but not always. Students will learn that they need to persevere to overcome the challenging parts of learning the piano.

Humility: Students will have to learn to accept constructive feedback from their teachers and realise that there are ways to improve their method and approach to playing the piano from the feedback.

Confidence: When students persevere and successfully overcome tricky sections of their pieces, this will boost their sense of achievement which leads to more confidence.

3. Playing the Piano Improves Even More Skills!

Further to the transferable skills mentioned above, playing the piano has been shown to improve mathematical, linguistic, reading, memory and motor skills (that's alot of skills!)

Learning the piano:

Improves mathematical skills as it incorporates math, e.g counting and rhythmising beats and understanding fractions (time signatures, dotted notes, etc.).

Improves linguistic skills. Research shows that learning to distinguish different pitches (which students will be exposed to in piano lessons) is fundamental in learning to speak and vocalise words when reading.

Improves reading, memory and motor skills as it requires students to read and remember notation and co-ordinate the use of their hands and eyes when they read and play their pieces simultaneously.

Overall, piano lessons are a well-rounded activity which benefit students physically, mentally and emotionally.

It would seem that the current question of concern is not so much what the benefits are from learning the piano. Rather, the question should be whether there are any reasons not to learn the piano given the benefits which piano lessons can bring to our overall wellbeing.