What an exciting
week at Chrysalis Piano Studio! It’s great to see all the students coming
prepared and even better to hear the beautiful music that they are playing!
But, did you know
that there may be more benefits to playing piano than the amazing music
students make?
Several research
studies confirm that playing a musical instrument has been definitively shown
to improve test scores. Several longitudinal studies support this. Dr. James
Catterall of UCLA led a 10-year study which involved 25,000 students which
showed that music-making students not only performed better on standardized
tests but also in reading proficiency exams. Likewise, high school students
involved in music score higher on both the verbal and math portions of the SAT when compared to their “non-musical” peers
(College Board Test Scores). Music students receive more academic honors and
more A’s and B’s as grades than do their non-musical peers (U.S. Department of
Education).
According to Dr.
Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, a neurologist at Emory University School of Medicine, “learning
to play an instrument requires years of practice and learning” which is
believed to create neurological connections in the brain which help compensate
for the decline in cognition as people age.
Other benefits of learning
to play and understand music include the proportional math involved in music
that is required for higher level math computation. Music has also been shown
to enhance spatial thinking. It goes without saying that the discipline that is
involved to learn to read and play music is beneficial to overall academic
achievement.
WOW! How exciting
for all music students everywhere!
Keep up the
incredible work that you are doing at Chrysalis Piano Studio.
