Is Your Child Struggling in School? Get Him (Or Her) Music Lessons

This is counterintuitive, I know. Our natural response to seeing our child struggle is to find a way to help, not to add to the burden. If a child is struggling, why should we risk setting them up for failure in music lessons?

The answer is simple. Playing music has been discovered to have a direct and almost immediate effect on the brain of the student. That's right. Music lessons have been shown in a German study to have a significant impact on the way the brain functions after as little as five weeks!

What they found, when comparing a group of students taking music lessons with a control group that was not, was that students who had taken as few as ten music lessons over a five week period exhibited a significant ear to hand link.

So? What's the big deal? Life doesn't make much use of ear to hand connections unless you want to play an instrument by ear (I've always thought that provoked a strange mental picture ? imagine the ears you'd have to have to play the trombone!). The significance is two fold. First, it means that music lessons lead to brain development which ultimately means that music lessons have the effect of giving the individual that is taking the lessons improved brain function from which to draw in the rest of his or her life. Second, (and I saved the best for last) the ear to hand brain connection from music lessons is significant because researchers in Hong Kong took the study one step further and tested a group of students with music lessons and a group without music lessons for verbal memory and found that the group that was taking music lessons outscored their nonmusical peers by a significant margin.

It gets better still. The same groups of students were tested a year later, even after some of them had discontinued their music lessons, and found that they still outscored their nonmusical peers in verbal tests!

The moral to that story is get your child (or even yourself) into music lessons if you want your child to have every advantage possible in life, because these are only two benefits that we know of, but there are bound to be far more yet to be discovered.

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD's, CD's, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled "Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions" with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com

---

MP3 Music Subscription Services. A Good Deal?

There's a reason Apple Computer dominates the legal 99-cents-a-download digital... Read More

ADIRONDACK versus SITKA SPRUCE

Both of these timbers make great soundboards on flat top... Read More

How Many Songs Are In Your Pocket?

The portable MP3 player continues to be the hot item... Read More

Musicians: What Chords Do You Absolutely, Positively Have To Know?

As you probably know, there are thousands and thousands of... Read More

Wal-Mart Music Downloads, Napster and Other Legal Digital Music Download Sites

Digital Music Download. Ever since file-sharing programs entered the hard... Read More

Facts about Betty Kresin, Eminems grandmother

Betty Kresin, Eminem's grandmother from the maternal side... Read More

The Art of Music

Music is the art of arranging sounds in periodic time... Read More

Review: The Dissociatives - Self Titled

In 1994 Daniel Johns and his group Silverchair were catapulted... Read More

The Strange Days (mostly nights) of Guns N? Roses

Kenny "Axil" Rose (Lead vocals), D.J. "Slash (Lead guitar), Joshua... Read More

How to Buy an Electric Guitar Online

With the increased proliferation of online guitar and musical equipment... Read More

Top 50 Music Quotations

Discover the phenomenonal complexity of music and reflect on the... Read More

Piano Playing and Performance Anxiety

I'll never forget the first time I played the piano... Read More

Why Learning How to Improvise is So Important

Imagine asking a beginning writer to write a short story... Read More

SOUNDS GOOD TO ME - Eliminate Throat Tension

As a vocal coach, I hear it all the time.... Read More

Patriotic Music: Surprising Secrets About Those Flag-Waving Sounds

Whether played by a marching band, an orchestra, or a... Read More

Benatar and Geraldo - Still Rockin on a High Note

Most people look forward to the summer months because they... Read More

Six Reasons to Play New Age Piano

Here are six very good reasons to learn how to... Read More

Piano Playing Your Way: How To Have More Fun Playing The Piano Than You Ever Have Before

Piano playing doesn't have to be boring. There's no law... Read More

Make Money with Your Music ? the Top 5 Ways

Songwriters dream of making their living by writing, and sometimes... Read More

Five Secrets to Playing in the New Age Style

1. Learn how to ImproviseLearning how to improvise is the... Read More

How to Construct Chords and Improvise

How To Construct Basic Chords on the PianoThe easiest way... Read More

Try Some New Music!

Stuck in a music rut?It happens. After listening to your... Read More

New Age Piano Playing and the Sustain Pedal

There are 3 pedals on most pianos. The one on... Read More

The First Step and Most Important Thing in Learning Guitar

Most of the guitar lovers playing guitar for few years... Read More

George Winston and New Age Piano Playing

The first time I heard George Winston play back in... Read More

The British Invasion

The Kasabian concert at the Kool Haus seemed like a... Read More

The Need To Perform

I can't believe how much of the year has gone... Read More

Music: Uniting Nations, Dividing Generations

Cultures around the world since the beginning of time have... Read More

Good News for the Musically Untalented

Have you ever been told that you were good at... Read More

The Case Against Traditional Piano Lessons

How would you like to spend 4 years in a... Read More

Improvisation and Musical Form

Do you ramble on endlessly with your improvisations? If so,... Read More

How To Overcome The Lyric Writing Hurdles That Are Keeping You Behind

The lyric writing side of songwriting is known to create... Read More

How to Become a Filthy Rich Record Label Mogul

Let me guess, you love music and would do anything... Read More