7 Ways Piano Lessons Can Benefit Your Child

Piano lessons for children aren’t just about musical education. At Sage Music, we strongly believe that the benefits of learning how to play the piano are many, and go far beyond simply learning how to carry a tune.

Enrolling in a music school to gain prowess in piano can play an important role in helping you raise a well-rounded child. Here, we’ll discuss some of the ways piano lessons can benefit your child, from musical skills and way beyond!

While piano lessons ultimately go beyond just music, it’s important to acknowledge this most basic benefit. Taking piano lessons helps children understand music. Even as they’re learning scales and basic melodies at music school, kids are also picking up invaluable information about how to read music, now notes flow together, and gaining an understanding about how music “works”. This can help foster an interest in music from an early age, and may lead to more creative pursuits later in life.

Music involves aspects of math and reading, so it seems logical that it could boost academic skills, right? Turns out, it’s scientifically proven. According to a study in Journal of Educational Psychology (Vol. 98, No. 2), music lessons can indeed boost a child’s IQ and school performance.

Part of the study involved children aged 6 to 11 years old. As the study showed, for each month of music lessons, the children experienced a ⅙-point increase in IQ. This means that if a child had 6 years of lessons, he or she could stand to experience an IQ increase of 7.5 points, as opposed to children who did not have lessons. This significant increase in IQ is a strong motivation to encourage children to take piano lessons!

Sports, ballet, and other group pursuits seem to get all the attention as teamwork building activities. However, even one on one or small group piano lessons can offer children powerful lessons in how to work as a team.

When a student starts with piano lessons, he or she will work closely with a private music teacher. This intimate collaboration will teach them a lot about interacting with a mentor and how to conduct themselves socially with adults or superiors. As the student begins to expand in his or her repertoire, they may begin to play music with other instruments acting as accompaniment. The ability to work with others, such as in adjusting their playing speed and volume to accommodate others, can act as a powerful way to build teamwork skills.

Learning how to play a musical instrument can help children develop and improve coordination and motor skills. Playing the piano requires movement in the hands, the arms, and the feet. At first, it can be hard to get the hang of all of these movements; in some ways, it’s almost like the surprisingly tricky childhood game of rubbing one’s belly while simultaneously patting one’s head.

However, with time and practice, the child will become more agile in their movements and they will become second nature. This absolutely helps strengthen hand-eye coordination; however, the benefits can be greater and even more far-reaching than that. This increased dexterity and agility can serve children well in other pursuits, including creating art or playing sports.

They say that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Likewise, few children become piano prodigies overnight. Rather, learning the piano is the culmination of continued study and practice. The process can sometimes be humbling and challenging. What starts with proper hand position and single notes will progress slowly into chords, melodies, and more and more beautiful musical sounds.

Learning the piano allows children to have an activity which teaches them to aim for specific goals and to improve slowly, over time. This requires a lot of discipline and regular practice. While at times the practice can seem difficult, many children will be motivated as they see the results of their hard work. Establishing a regular practice routine instills fantastic discipline in the children which will carry over to all sorts of other activities and as a positive lifelong trait.

When taking piano lessons, a child will be engaging actively in self improvement. At times, there may be constructive criticism from the teacher. Ultimately, these are important lessons for children to learn. The ability to hear and process feedback like this and use it as a vehicle to make productive and positive change will help the child build self confidence.

Interestingly, realizing that they are not perfect and have room to improve can help the child to actively seek self betterment. When a child works hard to improve themselves and sees the results of their hard work, it can have a profound effect on their self confidence. In this way, piano lessons can teach them to believe in and respect their own abilities.

Perhaps one of the most transformative benefits of piano lessons for your child is that they will expose him or her to a variety of different cultures. Music from different time periods and cultures will expand their horizons. Different musical styles will expose them to many different cultures. This expanded word view will serve children well in life, as they will likely be more open to experiencing different cultures and ways of life as they move forward into adulthood.

You’ve just read 7 great reasons to study the piano. But we didn’t yet talk about the top reason to study music: Music is a good on its own that doesn't need any justification - even before all the added benefits we just discussed.

At Sage Music, we are committed to providing quality music lessons to our students.

Our proprietary music teacher training program enables our teachers to help students make the fastest progress possible. We hope that having discovered the many benefits of piano lessons for children, you’ll consider our program!