| You've seen the ads that tout "Research shows kids | | | | combinations of fingers and the look of the keyboard. |
| math scores rise when they play piano." | | | | A thousand and one thoughts are necessary to play |
| There's always a children's piano method for sale at | | | | even the simplest of piano pieces. |
| the other end of that sentence. | | | | In addition, playing any piece requires a predictive ability, |
| I should know, because I'm one of the guys who | | | | that is, the ability to DO one thing while one thinks |
| created a piano method for kids and owns one of | | | | ANOTHER. Think of baseball: if you have to catch a |
| those websites you're searching right now. | | | | fly ball, you have to run, and at the same time |
| There is one piece of piano research everyone refers | | | | anticipate catching the ball. |
| to, and I mean everyone from the famed Forbes | | | | Piano is so full of basic mental gymnastics (up, down, |
| Magazine article (Sorry Kids, Piano Lessons Make You | | | | left, right, black, white, fast, slow, loud, soft, long, short) |
| Smarter) to every well intentioned website I've seen | | | | that it can be exhausting to a child if not presented |
| that offers some expertise in how to get your child to | | | | slowly and correctly. |
| play piano. I won't mention any names because that's | | | | In fact, playing a piano piece becomes rather like a |
| not our point today. | | | | mental juggling act, wherein a series of dazzlingly |
| Everyone cites the 1997 Gordon Shaw study, a piece | | | | difficult mental and physical moves are pulled off, one |
| of research my own experience bears out as fully | | | | after the other. |
| correct. | | | | To demonstrate this to a child I play a game I call the |
| Shaw cites many arcane statistics about the brain, | | | | Attack Tunnel. |
| ganglia and neurons. There's no doubt that music and | | | | In this game, I take a soft object like a large rubber |
| piano lessons specifically have an effect on kids. | | | | eraser and tell the child I am going to throw it to them, |
| But I'm here to ask, what does all that mean to the | | | | slowly. I then do so, following the child's eyes so I can |
| child in practical terms? | | | | throw it directly to them. |
| Exactly what does a child learn from taking piano | | | | If they miss, laugh and try until the catch it. But throw |
| lessons? | | | | very slowly, making a point of how s-l-o-w-l-y you are |
| I want to cite finite, real-world terms, not terms that | | | | throwing. |
| only a scientist can use. | | | | After they catch it, a slow one or two, tell them that |
| We'll go in order of what is learned, imagining the | | | | now you will throw it quickly, and then do so. |
| youngest of children so that our hypothetical journey | | | | They will instantly see that they have to be on guard, |
| can encompass all the steps taken. | | | | even more so when the eraser comes faster. Make a |
| First, piano teaches left and right. It's an issue, like | | | | game of it. Do it until they keep their eyes on the |
| shoelaces, that kids are wrestling with at this point in | | | | eraser. |
| their lives. The piano keyboard is perhaps an ideal | | | | Now throw several objects (erasers) in a row, first |
| venue for learning this skill. | | | | slowly, then faster. |
| Next, piano teaches the child that up and down, | | | | On the faster run, they will start dropping the objects |
| formerly up to the sky and down to the ground, are | | | | and laugh. I explain that this is what the piano is like: |
| now up (right) and down (left.) The point of this is the | | | | problems thrown at you one after the other, and you |
| element of abstraction has been introduced. Left and | | | | have to be ready. |
| right and up and down can mean several different | | | | Go slowly at first so you learn what will be coming at |
| things, and for the first time they are asked to make | | | | you. They understand readily because of the |
| these distinctions. Hard stuff at five or six in front of a | | | | demonstration. |
| big piano. | | | | I believe these are only a few of the skills that learning |
| Soon, the piano teaches the child that they have five | | | | the rudiments of piano teaches a child. |
| distinct fingers, which must be named, numbered, and | | | | And once again, all this is without reading a note of |
| used like a basketball team. Like any team, they will | | | | music, which requires yet more difficult-to-acquire skills. |
| make mistakes, and will be forgiven. There is no other | | | | The piano is like an immense blender of abstract |
| activity at this age that asks that of a child. | | | | physical and mental skills, all of which can be taught in |
| Next, a child must memorize certain motions and | | | | a way that interests and delights children. |
| observations, even if they are not taught as such: | | | | |