5 Reasons Why You Should Invest In Piano Lessons For Your Children
For most parents, there’s often a conflict between wanting their children to have the opportunity to develop interests outside of school, and the fear of becoming a ‘pushy parent’
After all is football, art camp, dance classes and then piano lessons a bit too much? It can so often become the activity that gets bumped down your priority list.
So when it comes to prioritising after-school activities, it’s important to think about how each activity enriches their lives and helps them to develop skills which will become useful throughout life.
Learning to play the piano can increase your child’s confidence and their ability to concentrate and maintain focus. It allows them to practice exercising patience and discipline. Plus, studies have indicated that learning to play the piano can have a positive impact on a child’s mental health.
Read on to learn more about these benefits...
The benefits of piano lessons for children
Here are 5 reasons to find a piano tutor today!
1. Learning the piano increases concentration, focus, discipline and patience!
Talk to any pianist and they’ll tell you that learning the piano takes real patience, determination and perseverance - but also that the reward absolutely outweighs the commitment they’ve put in.
Children will need to focus on the instructions given by their piano tutor, and this learning process teaches them fundamental skills that help them listen, comprehend and react to information.
Effectively, your children will be listening in one language and translating those instructions into action in another language, which is pretty amazing!
It’s no small feat, but being able to concentrate for longer periods of time and having an understanding of the benefits of practice and commitment means increased resilience to problems they face - not to mention the academic and social benefits.
It’s a no-brainer really!
Check out our handy beginner's guide to learning the piano to find some awesome resources that you can use to help your child with their piano lessons and practice.
2. It has a positive impact on your child’s mental health
Helping your children foster good mental health can often be about as clear as mud for parents! Am I doing the right thing? Are my children happy? Do they know how to cope when they feel sad?
It’s a countrywide issue and schools are starting to do their part in helping to establish good mental health, and indeed help to tackle children experiencing poor mental health.
Journalling, children’s yoga and mindfulness sessions are slowly making their way into the classroom as ways of tackling increasingly poor mental health in children.
For parents, it can be difficult to know what to do for the best - but don’t worry there are lots of things you can do at home, and encouraging them to learn an instrument is one.
Playing a musical instrument like the piano is thought to improve self-esteem, relieve stress and reduce anxious feelings. Other studies (although mostly conducted on adults) found playing the piano to be a beneficial treatment for depression and stress.
By getting your children piano lessons, you’re setting them up with a creative outlet that will help them now - while they continue to develop - but also throughout their whole adult life!
3. It is a powerful confidence booster
Learning the piano can have a huge impact on a child’s confidence.
It’s not just the sense of achievement they feel when they’ve mastered a new note, tricky chord or mastered their favourite song. It’s also the confidence it takes to perform in front of others. We’re not talking about debuting at the O2 Academy, we’re talking about standing in front of your family, your friends, the people who love you, ready to display your newfound skills.
Learning the piano gives children tools to flourish in public speaking or performance, to be comfortable knowing that they might make a mistake, and the confidence to carry on when they do. It’s a skill most adults haven’t mastered.
There is science behind it! In a 2004 study, children in Montreal who had piano lessons over 3 years had higher self-esteem than those who didn’t.
4. Practical Skills Which Come In Handy
It comes as no surprise that playing the piano is a great way to improve your hand-eye coordination, as well as the skill of independent coordination between your two hands.
A study by Cardiff University found that playing the piano had the effect of changing cortical mapping in the brain, in order to increase finger movement speed across the keys.
Hand-eye coordination comes in handy in almost everything we do, from writing to typing, to driving, to almost every sport ever invented.
5. There are so many opportunities within music!
Be honest, who hasn’t dreamed of being a professional musician?
Starting an instrument at an early age opens the door to this being a real possibility. And why not?
Even if you don’t reach the heights of Ed Sheeran, Arianna Grande or the Foo Fighters... There are a wealth of lucrative careers to choose from behind the scenes within music.
Songwriting, recording, producing, music education, among others are all great options!
It may not seem as glamorous as the lifestyles of the big stars, but playing smaller venues and for occasions like weddings can be a great and fulfilling career path and one that is not open to everyone.
There are also growing industries such as music therapy, a truly worthwhile career that will allow you to help other people through music.
Piano lessons are a fantastic investment for your children, from improving confidence to possible opening the door to an incredible career. Piano lessons can be the gift that keeps on giving for children, and one they will surely thank you for in the future!
If you want to know more, you can find our comprehensive guide to starting piano lessons and our curated list of fantastic piano resources here.
We have thousands of great tutors here on Tutorful that are all ready to help get your child started along their musical journey. Click here to get started now
