Piano

Our 4-year-old son is now five months into the ten month Yamaha Music Canada School piano program at the Tom Lee Music Learning Centre in downtown Vancouver. We’ve had a chance to follow his progress from day one and we are also learning about the benefits of taking piano lessons at such a young age. Some of the main benefits include:

  • Piano Lessons Help Raise Self Esteem and Patience

Learning to play a new instrument takes a lot of dedication, many hours of practice and lots of patience.  I have seen how our son has faced challenges and has kept a positive outlook while working hard to practice and master new skills.

He has also been learning about patience and taking the time to work towards an ultimate goal.

  • Piano Lessons Help Increase Coordination

Playing the piano requires both hands to work independently of each other and it helps develop eye-hand coordination. I have noticed my son’s coordination has improved greatly since the beginning of his piano lessons, and improving his fine motor skills will help his overall dexterity and coordination.

  • Piano Lessons Help Children Learn to Concentrate Better

This is a skill  that we are still working on and it is critical when learning to play the piano. Sitting for long periods of time and working on reading and playing music requires concentration.

Younger children usually have more difficulty with concentration, but persevering and working with them to concentrate for short practice sessions and piano lessons is a great way to help them develop this skill.  I started scheduling very short sessions and I noticed his concentration and attention span have increased dramatically over the last few months, as a result we can now do longer practice sessions.

  • Piano Lessons Help Boost Academic Skills

Music and math are highly intertwined. By understanding and learning about beat, rhythm, and scales, children are learning how to divide, work with fractions, and recognize patterns. Many studies available show children who play an instrument, score higher on both standard and spatial cognitive development tests alike. There are also findings that show kids who play piano, in particular, scored higher in math, especially on problems dealing with ratios and creating fractions. It seems that music wires a child’s brain to help him better understand other areas of math.

Stay tuned for our next update in March as our son continues his piano lessons!

And don’t forget about the Yamaha Education Growth Initiative (available until Feb 28th!)

The Yamaha Education Growth Initiative (EGI) is a rebate that works as a credit towards music lessons with the Yamaha Music Education System When you purchase a new Yamaha product from now until February 28, 2015, you qualify for a lesson tuition credit towards the Yamaha Music Education System group lessons. For example, if you were to buy a brand new Yamaha Grand Piano, you would get $500 to put towards group lessons with the Yamaha Music Education System.

There are a variety of instruments that apply, including drums, guitars, brass and wodwinds, each with their own level of rebate. I love how they are helping make lessons attainable for more families! Find more details and their full brochure HERE.

Disclosure – I am participating in the Yamaha Music Canada Brand Ambassador program on behalf with Mom Central Canada. I received compensation as a thank you for participating and for sharing my honest opinion. The opinions on this blog are my own.