Amazing Little-Known Benefits of Piano Playing: Part 1

December 28, 2020 Leslie Young

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What do I mean by “amazing little-known benefits of piano playing”? The end result of this attempt at one blog turned out to be a series . . . and here’s how it went.

As I sat down to write, I decided to leave the subject path I had recently started and explore another – but wasn’t definite on what it should be. To get focused, I Google-searched for the most popular blog topics in general during 2020 – and found a mere 1,520,000,000 results in less than a second.

Here is one listing by topic:

101 profitable blog niche ideas to start a blog about in 2020

Travel (1-5)
Health (6-15)
Fitness and sports (16-25)
Hobbies (26-45)
Food (46-56)
Entertainment (57-62)
Gaming (63-67)
Finance (68-72)

In my opinion, I think music (specifically playing the piano) can be in the categories of Hobbies, Fitness, Health, Finance, and Entertainment. What I learned really amazed me, even though I already knew many of the benefits of piano playing. Here’s why:

Hobby

Being a hobby pursuit is probably how the piano is used in most homes. Not having the stress of public performance, with or without playing by memory, transforms the work behind practicing into playing enjoyment. Even if you live alone, an amazing benefit of piano playing – choosing the music you love – helps to banish loneliness and gives a solid feeling of accomplishment. Playing for pleasure need not be perfect playing. So what if a number of mistakes were made – they’ll likely not be mistakes tomorrow, or at least fewer of them. Congratulations are due for exercising the brain and improving!

Setting aside time to play increases the tenacity, persistence, and discipline which are skills needed in other areas of life to be successful. Sometimes I use piano time as a bribe or reward to myself for a specific work task that needs to be finished but which I don’t want to do. That really works!

Since tackling a new piece of music probably will not have perfect results at the first playing, the process of improving with each day’s practice time increases patience. It’s like what happens with school children (or actually anyone of any age) who work daily on a painting or other piece of artwork. There is little or no immediate gratification since the piece cannot be finished in one session, but there is great satisfaction in seeing the piece evolve, take shape, and have a glorious completion.

Patience, tenacity, long-term planning, and goal-realization are all part of the process – and the positive effects carry over to future work, even in different subjects. Performance and coordination in sports, planning out the writing of an essay, and satisfaction that comes with the success of accomplished little steps within the big process – all are developed as well during the time focused on piano.

The amazing benefits of piano playing are a means to achieving personal satisfaction, self-improvement, creative expression, and enjoyment. You most likely won’t be playing football or skiing in your 80s, but you certainly may continue to (or start) having joy with the piano!

Fitness

I always thought that even just 30 minutes of piano playing was a workout! Of course, it depends on what it being played, but all music performance improves fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. http://www.pianolessonspretoria.co.za/Benefits-of-Playing-Piano/

Did you know that playing piano can reverse stress at the molecular level? Check out the studies by Loma Linda University School of Medicine and Applied Biosystems. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Playing+a+musical+instrument+found+to+reverse+stress.-a0133411660

It can also lower heart rate and blood pressure, reduce the feeling of job burnout, and improve mood. The most surprising thing I found was that playing music increases HgH (human growth hormone)! So keeping up with piano playing will make you feel young forever? I don’t know about that, but I do know that there is a point in a lengthy playing session where a feeling of euphoria is achievable – no drugs needed! That certainly is a little-known benefit of the multi-facets of piano!

https://www.nammfoundation.org/articles/2014-06-01/benefits-learning-and-playinG-music-adults#:~:text=Playing%20a%20musical%20instrument%20can,published%20in%20Medical%20Science%20Monitor).

Health

Another of the amazing benefits of piano playing is in the category of Health. According to this amazing study, Musical Experience and the Aging Auditory System: Implications for Cognitive Abilities and Hearing Speech in Noise, musicians do not suffer the loss of hearing like nonmusicians do. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092743/

Life-long training and instrument performance apparently creates a significant degree of protection for sound acuity – the processing and understanding of sounds – not only with music but with speech as well. Auditory memory and cognitive (thinking) abilities are also substantially protected. It pays big-time to be a musician!

Will playing piano make you healthier and smarter? Sure sounds like it! Another amazing benefit of piano playing is that the effort makes changes in the brain. With piano playing, up to eight keys at a time could be read, located, and played on the keyboard. Other instruments, except the organ, usually are played one note at a time. The pianist is making many new neural connections in order to play multiple notes at the same time, plus the rhythm that is involved – which is sometimes very complex. This conditions the brain to better succeed in other areas, like speech, memory, and attention span. Read how test scores are positively affected in students at school.

The benefits of piano playing encompass self-improvement, creative expression, enjoyment, as well as being health-promoting! My next post will examine the areas of Finance and Entertainment.

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