In recent years, an increasing number of studies on music education have been released and the conclusion is quickly becoming clear: there’s a strong, provable link between learning an instrument as a child and future academic success. And we’re not talking about decades of piano lessons before benefits are seen, either.
The Short Term Effects of Piano Lessons
One of the more striking findings came from a 2011 study lead by Dr. Sylvain Moreno – 20 days of musical training was all it took to see a significant improvement in intelligence across 90% of the children taking part.
Of the findings, Moreno writes: “It was really astonishing to see how quickly the brain changed in response to musical training. We started with one simple question: “Is musical training beneficial?” and the answer that we got was a resounding “YES.”
Dr. Moreno also found that the children in the study showed an improved neurological ability to process items that required a controlled response or better attention span.
Again, this is astonishing given that the benefits came after only 20 days of picking up an instrument.
An earlier Canadian study came to a similar conclusion, finding that young children experienced a big improvement in their vocabulary after only four weeks of musical training.
Moreover, the improvements were more pronounced when learning music than for other kinds of arts training:
Needless to say, strong verbal skills have crossover benefits to just about every other subject area in school.
Mid-Term Benefits of Piano Lessons
Want your child to become more engaged with their studies? Taking piano lessons in London could be the way to go.
In an American study that took place over the course of a decade, children were found to be four times more likely to win awards for academic success and three times more likely to win an award for school attendance.
A lot of this comes down to a boost in IQ (which is a common, overarching finding of virtually all studies conducted into the link between music lessons and intelligence.) But in addition to this, studies have also shown that those who take up piano lessons in London and further afield also see an improved working memory – the type of memory that works in the background when we’re doing other things, which is an essential component of literacy and mathematical comprehension.
Greater Social Skills
The benefits of your child learning piano in London also extend to greater empathy and social awareness, and the importance of this cannot be understated.
Tied back to the proven improvement in verbal intelligence, learning an instrument gives children a greater ability to pick up on the subtle nuances of speech. This is a crucial social skill that helps with empathy and emotional intelligence; once again this link is becoming increasingly clear through numerous studies, but is hardly surprising given that music is inherently emotional.
Long-Term Benefits of Taking Piano Lessons
As well as the myriad of great reasons to encourage your child to learn piano in London – from the mental to the social – there is also a strong argument for the physical benefits of taking piano lessons, many of which extend to later adult life.
Findings so far have included:
- A delay to the onset of dementia
- A greater ability to pick out sounds in noisy environments, effectively compensating for hearing loss
- Improvement in hand-eye coordination
- Enhanced motor control
- Prevention of joint-related ailments such as arthritis
- A possible preventative measure against Parkinson’s
All in all, taking piano lessons in London can have “profound and lasting impact on the brain, creating additional neural connections in childhood that can last a lifetime and thus help compensate for cognitive declines later in life.” (neuropsychologist Hanna-Pladdy Brenda of Emory University, Atlanta.)
Proponents of Music Lessons
“The theory of relativity occurred to me by intuition, and music is the driving force behind this intuition… my new discovery is the result of musical perception.” Albert Einstein
“Music study made me disciplined, and it’s helped me to understand that you don’t need to feel brilliant or inspired all the time to know that you’re moving forward.” Annabel Lyon, Author
“I think of my life as a series of increases in personal discipline… music has shaped my life from an early age, and it started with piano lessons.” – Jeremiah Brown, Olympic rower
The Quality of Your Piano Lessons Makes a Difference
While piano lessons in London are proven to hold more potential crossover benefits than other kinds of art education, it’s important to note that researchers have found that the quality of said piano lessons plays a part; those who take up high quality lessons are shown to outperform those relying on standard secondary school classes by as much as 20% in standardized English and math tests.
Want to unlock your full potential? Get in touch with Piano Lessons London today for an unparalleled level of music tuition for yourself or your child.