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There
is a strong correlation between music education and development of skills
that children need in order to become successful in life. Self-discipline,
patience, sensitivity, coordination, concentration and ability to memorize are
all enhanced in the study of music. These skills will
follow children for their entire life. Parents have
the chance to introduce a formative influence that may be second only
to the love they give to children. If you're looking for a way to provide
children with a source of life-long joy, satisfaction, and
accomplishment, then childhood music education is an excellent first step.
Piano is an excellent first instrument. No other single
instrument matches the piano for its broad application of musical
concepts. Even if later children choose to play another instrument,
the melody, rhythm and sense of harmony acquired with piano education will
pay off handsomely. Piano
instruction is thought to enhance the brain's "hard-wiring" for
spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to visualize and transform
objects in space and time. Music involves ratios, fractions,
proportions, and thinking in space and time. Children who took piano
lessons performed better on tests of
fractions and proportional math than children who do not take the lessons. University
of California at Irvine researchers discovered, in a study beginning in 1993,
that students who took piano lessons scored an average of 34 percent higher on
tests of spatial-temporal ability, which educators consider a vital skill for
understanding math and science. After only six months of playing the piano,
three- to five-year-olds showed dramatic improvement in spatial reasoning tests.
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