Piano Training Is Brain Training
- 2 hours ago
- 4 min read
In this recent post from the philosophy section on Songpreneurs' founder website is found a great summary of why we are so excited to work with clients of all ages on their songwriting and music business entrepreneurship goals.
Goals lead to actions and actions lead to results, sometimes in the most unexpected and beneficial ways.
Piano training is one of these pathways to excellence in more ways than just musically, because piano training is brain training.
Here's an excerpt from the post: "Piano Is Taming the Beast" by Amanda Colleen Williams
Piano is taming the beast - said this to my long time client earlier today.
"Huh?" he asked, startled, unsure of what I had said.
I repeated, "Piano is taming your beast. Good for you."
He chuckled in his, I've-come-through-a-bout-of-defensiveness-and-am-learning-to-have-a-sense-of-humor-about-it voice I have come to recognize and cherish after our decade plus of adventures in songwriter land.
He had successfully navigated his right and left hands, counted time, and read the notes on the grand staff and focused his obstinately belligerent fingers into the correct space in time. Eureka! A break through just after breakfast.
This man represents the tip of the iceberg in this remarkable field of study I have been undertaking over the span of a lifetime.
When I was a kid, eagerly soaking up as a sponge all available gleans of wisdom from my hillbilly philosopher turned hit songwriter Daddy...
...It was from my mother, however, that I received my greatest musical gift in my life - the desire to play the piano.
Mom had a beautiful wooden upright Kimball in the front parlor of our woodsy home, and I loved nothing so much as to sit in her lap while she played Big Note Classics, humming and playing and holding me all at the same time.
It was glorious.
The notes and my mother resonated with music of "Beautiful Dreamer" and "The Entertainer" and all was right with the world.
It didn't matter that the couch in the parlor had a sneaky way of catching little toes on its peg-leg hidden by carpet-dusting, 70s high fashion upholstery.
That piano became my salvation in the tumultuous childhood that went along with being part of the Williams clan.
Alone in the woods - with parents home, of course, I sat for hours on that green velvet cushioned stool stretching my fingers forward onto the equally spaced black and white keys....
...The piano, specifically, the reading of sheet music and playing the piano on a regular basis is known to improve spatial-temporal lQ by 43% in young students.
When Dad and I were just starting out learning about the mind-brain connection, we encountered scientific literature that said human adults only had so many neurons and no more could be generated. It was thought to be like an arm or leg - you didn't just grow a new one.
But as I have conducted these experiments with students over the past decade and a half, I have seen proof positive that neurons can indeed and do regenerate, at least as a way to explain the dramatic and drastic differences in behavior, demeanor and healthy, positive personality traits that have been cultivated by this course of duty.
The science has, of course, confirmed this...
... From having conducted systematic piano lessons with clients over the past 5 years, I have noticed marked improvement in several areas as a correlated result.
1) Greater awareness - of what is and what is perceived
This tendency of the piano to provide consistency in notation, location and frequency vibration helps coordinate the eye - brain - hand connection and encourages accurate, timely response.
2) Self correction - emotionally, physically and mentally
The piano is ruthless. It is a principle. The note on the page is specifically one note and one note only - it vibrates at a certain frequency Hertz - trying to read sheet music is the same as learning a foreign language spoken by everyone in the world. It's hard. You have to practice. It can be frustrating. People don't know how to deal with frustration so well. Piano helps practice that skill.
3) Diagnosis and treatment - reveals dyslexia, blind spots and aversions and working on piano helps to remedy same.
When a person is working on right and left hand, it reveals information about coordination and first principles of the human organism individual to that person. Each person responds differently to systematic training, and there are frequent commonalities among hand dominance and other factors.
Once the diagnostician has assessed the situation, a recommended course of correction can be undertaken that strengthens the entire mechanism.
These are just a few of the benefits of working along these lines toward personal and professional achievement.
Want to do some piano training?
We use the Bastien method, and you can get your books here:
Accepting applications to Songpreneurs 2027 Continuing Education / Development Courses in the fields of Songwriting, Professional & Personal Development, Music Business Career Coaching.
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