Okay, I have to get this off my chest. For years now, we’ve all been reading about how piano lessons benefit children. There are plenty of lists that describe the benefits of music study, and MENC even has a database to help music teachers convince their administrators to give them the resources they need to do their jobs. Music teachers have used The Mozart Effect to convince parents to enroll their children in music lessons, and studies continue to make the news on a fairly regular basis.
What bothers me is that none of these studies mention the real benefit of piano study. The real benefit of piano study, and by far the best reason to take piano lessons is that you get to learn how to actually play the piano. That’s right, I’m actually suggesting that the best reason to take music lessons is to learn how to actually make music!
At the piano, you can do stuff like this and this and this and this. No matter who you are, you can find an outlet for self expression through music. Whether you devote yourself to the classical tradition or build your own piano to match your bubble dress and quirky personality, the piano can help, and it’s AWESOME.
So yes, the study of music has a lot of benefits, but let’s not forget the most important one – playing the piano.
Hi Jason,
You make an excellent point here. The best benefit of a music education is that you get to participate in the process of music making for the rest of your life! Shannon Keeler had a great article in the April 09 AMT about this called “Music for Music’s Sake.” You might enjoy reading that. You are certainly not alone in your thoughts! –Wendy
Thanks for mentioning this oddly neglected aspect. I don’t know about you, but I learned to play the piano, myself, in order to play the piano. That was it. It’s the funnest thing going, ya know?!
So true. But I think the problem is that people don’t see learning to play the instrument as enough benefit to warrant providing funds for it. So, everybody has to present the other benefits, the ones they think people care more about. Honestly, I’m not sure any of those presented arguments work. There are still schools fighting for music education programs because when the money is tight music is the first thing on the chopping block. Let that be sports being the first thing to go and there would be a riot in the parking lot.