It is a well-established fact that music can provide physical, cognitive, and emotional health benefits to anyone, especially kids. Unfortunately, parents often find themselves at a loss as to which among the many musical instruments their kids should first learn.
Experts have spoken that the piano is the single most important musical instrument for any child. Here are ten reasons why many consider the piano as a kid’s best first music instrument.
1. Helps Build More Neurons and Stronger Neural Connections
All music instruments can improve brain development. However, no other musical instrument can come close to the piano’s effectiveness in improving brain plasticity.
Neuroplasticity allows the brain to form and reorganize its neuronal connections. It improves the way the brain processes information, allowing your child to make use of his or her innate talents.
Scientists do not fully understand how piano music differs from music created by other instruments. However, studies show more active brain activity in children when they play the piano as opposed to those who play other instruments.
2. Improves Your Kids’ Cognitive Development
The improvement in brain plasticity translates to more efficient cognitive processes. They can assimilate and process more information, allowing them to excel in school.
Playing the piano also improves your child’s memory skills. Kids can retain more information for longer periods than children not playing the piano. It paves the way for the expansion of their knowledge.
Kids playing the piano also have better logical reasoning. It allows them to make inductive conclusions and accurate deductions, which can form the basis of their early decision-making skills.
3. Enhances Your Children’s Spatial Skills
Did you know that playing music can also improve your child’s spatial skills? It is their ability to understand and remember the relationship of objects in space.
Your kid can visualize and mentally manipulate patterns, allowing him to excel in mathematics and other academic subjects.
Children can make more accurate reasoning about distances, angles, and shapes. It helps them understand the unique attributes of any object in the world. Such a skill should be advantageous in your child’s pursuit of engineering, science, and technology careers.
4. Strengthens Hand-Eye Coordination and Fine Motor Skills
Playing the piano requires coordination between what your child sees and what he plays on the keyboard. It requires a complex neural framework whereby the brain simultaneously processes signals from the hands and the eyes.
Hand-eye coordination helps your child to read better. He can follow the words with his eyes while promoting basic understanding.
Piano-playing in kids also improves their fine motor skills. It allows them to pick and hold small objects with precision, strengthening their finger muscles in the process.
5. Sharpens Focus and Concentration
One of the most important reasons why you should give your child a piano as his first musical instrument is it sharpens attention, concentration, and focus.
Studies show that piano-playing improves children’s attention skills, allowing them to read and understand written materials faster.
Processing multiple sensory inputs from the hands, eyes, ears, and feet allows the brain to sharpen its split concentration. Your child’s brain focuses on four different activities to produce a single outcome – wonderful piano music. It is a great way to develop your child’s multi-tasking abilities.
Also Read: Private Piano Tutoring vs. Piano Academies: Which is Better?
6. Improves their Physical Health
Aside from improving your child’s hand-eye coordination, playing the piano can also improve his physical health.
Hitting the right keys to produce the correct sound entails more than finger movements. It also requires good arm and finger strength. Your kid’s muscles contract with each movement, allowing them to develop and build strength.
Your child’s legs and feet also get their workout, mostly if you have a piano with pedals.
Piano-playing can make your child’s arm, hand, and leg muscles stronger than those of children who play other musical instruments.
7. Improves Your Child’s Aural Awareness
Developing your child’s aural awareness is not a benefit exclusive only to piano-playing. However, it is one of the best musical instruments to use because of its wide range of tonal qualities, chords, pitches, and intervals.
You might not think of aural awareness as something important. However, it can help your child understand the unique sound patterns of other languages.
Improving a child’s aural awareness allows him to fight early dyslexia. It provides him with the ability to communicate with other children more effectively.
8. Increases Human Growth Hormone Levels
Is your child shorter than other kids of his or her age? While short stature in children can have a genetic root, it can also be due to insufficient levels of human growth hormone.
This hormone is essential in ensuring children’s normal growth and development. It is also important in the regulation of body fluids, bone and muscle growth, and overall body composition.
You no longer need to bring your kid to the doctor for his human growth hormone. You can increase your kid’s HGH levels by letting him learn how to play the piano. Numerous studies indicate that playing the piano can stimulate your child’s brain and improve HGH levels.
9. Prepares Children to Play Other Keyboard Instruments
The piano is a wonderful musical instrument for children. Not only is it easy to play. It also serves as a stepping stone for playing other musical instruments.
Many instruments have the same keyboard layout as the piano. Letting your child play the piano prepares him for playing the accordion, harpsichord, clavichord, synthesizer, and more.
The only difference in the playing of these instruments is a slight variation in their techniques.
10. Helps Fight Stress in Kids
In general, music has a relaxing and soothing effect that is perfect for fighting stress. The improvement in your child’s neural connections helps him feel more relaxed and calm.
Your child will feel less anxious. He will have more positive self-esteem. If your kid happens to be a teenager, positive self-esteem can translate to a more positive self-image.
Even young kids can benefit. They are less irritable and more sociable. They get to make friends easily because of their ability to focus on the good things that piano-playing brings. Not on their negative thoughts.
The piano is the best first musical instrument for children because of its benefits to the child’s brain development. It is also important in ensuring physical and emotional health while preparing your child to accomplish greater things in life.
A private piano tutor can transform your child’s learning journey and help them master the necessary skills and techniques early on. If you’re wondering how to find the right piano tutor for your child, check out our guide on finding the right piano tutor for your kid.
Looking for private piano lessons to get your child a headstart in learning to play the piano? Get a free trial class with piano tutors here.
About the Author
Charles is a musician, and author of TheGuitarJunky.com, a site that helps aspiring musicians become real musicians. He gives free in-depth reviews and guides on musical instruments such as acoustic guitars, digital piano, drums, and more.