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The scientific benefits of music and playing piano

When monitoring the activity of a person listening to music, they realised that several areas of the brain were lighting up at once as the person processed the sounds, taking apart for example melody and rhythm or the different instruments and their role.

And then, in a split second, putting all those elements together into a unifying musical experience. But when scientists turned their attention from music listeners to musicians playing piano, they realised that while listening to music engages the brain in some pretty interesting activities, playing music is the brain’s equivalent of a full body workout.

Multiple areas of the brain participate and interact with each other simultaneously, processing different information in intertwined, intricate and interrelated sequences. They came to the conclusion that playing a musical instrument engages practically every area of the brain at once.

It is a practice that engages particularly the visual, auditory and motor cortex of the brain and it re-enforces the qualities such as discipline and concentration. These abilities can then be used for other activities, such as other learning disciplines or intricate games such as chess.

The main difference between listening to music and playing music is fine motor skills.

Say you are learning how to play the piano and therefore you are learning how to read music and play your instrument using both hands which are addressing two different parts at once, in order to complete these tasks your brain will use both hemispheres at an even rate as well as the bridge that connects them, what is called the Corpus Callosum.

The practice of playing and reading music creates different routes and connections between the two hemispheres. The result is the ability to solve problems more efficiently and creatively in academic and social settings.

Your attention to detail is boosted, as well as planning and strategizing, and your capacity to retain and recall memories is enhanced by assigning your memories different tags, such as an emotional, conceptual or sonic tag.

Scientist have also found that the practice of leaning music, taking a music course or weekly lessons, as well as your routinely practice are activities that affect your brain differently from any other art or discipline, and the results of these activities are the same regardless of the abilities of the person before engaging in this discipline and these activities.

Learning music in Palmerston North

Palmerston North is the birthplace of a great number of musicians, artists and bands in a great number of styles. In the world of Classical Music, the names of Nigel Keay - composer -, Anna Leese - operatic soprano -, Alan Loveday - violinist -, Gary Brain - conductor - and Michael Houstoun - pianist - are great exponents of famous successful artist that had their beginnings in Palmerston North.

In Rock and Alternative Music there are a great number of bands and solo artists who have also come out of Palmerston North: Billy TK, Alan Gregg and the Band The Mutton Birds, Oscar Severinsen and the Band The Sound Lemon are musicians and bands who have made their mark not just in Palmerston North, but everywhere. 

Solo artists such as Benny Tipene, Matt Penman and Rob Thorne have reached a great audience in New Zealand and in the world.

Palmerston North has been the place for the beginning of musicians and bands and the number of exponents that have come out of the city is just extraordinary. If you are an aspiring pianist, Palmerston North is the place for you.

The benefits of learning how to read music

Music is a language, and just like any other language signs and symbols are used as the primary elements for communication.

Therefore, by learning how to read music you will open the door to a grand catalog of music that has been established for the last four hundred years, just as if you had learned how to read in a certain language and now you have the ability to crack open any book written in that language.

But music notation and the practice of music reading will not just allow you to read music written for your instruments, it will allow you to read music written for any instrument.

Because our music notation system has been established in a general sense, the skills of reading music sheets will allow you to read jazz standards, symphonies, classical pieces, song books of your favourite bands, musical show song books, etc.

And if you are learning piano, because of the nature of this instrument, you might be at an advantage in comparison to other instruments. This is primarily the reason why the piano is the king of instruments.