When you are playing piano or any musical instrument, it is not just about hitting the tunes of your favorite music and flexing your fingers.  It is also exercising your brain and feeding your mind with stimulus which will not turn you into a musical genius but will certainly have your memory working.  Just as your body muscles need exercise so does your brain.  Exercising your brain will keep your mentality sharp even as you age.

How does your memory benefit from playing an instrument?  What benefits do you think you derive as you continue honing and developing finger and brain skills?  The human brain receives, actually, an excellent workout when playing an instrument.  We have normally a high regard for accomplished musicians and consider them to have a high intellect because they have been labeled “musically-skilled individuals.”

Most of these performers are known to have natural talent and can detect different pitches and notes.  They have the special ability to memorize the music by simply listening and then playing its notes.  This is a myth because, chances are, they have studied music for many years.  Therefore, playing an instrument employs your learned and practiced skills through the application of detecting, memorizing, and applying the notes, pitches and rhythm you hear. Your brain is constantly working and benefiting as you play any instrument.

Your mind is also busy doing the computations as you tickle those ivories or strings.  Why computations, you might be wondering?  It is because playing music takes mathematical skills in theory.  All music is written in mathematical terms so your brain must process the mathematical signals of the notes and rhythm of the written music as you play a specific piece of music.

The left part of the human brain is said to be the processor of the mathematical elements. From the notes that you are working on when you are pressing those ivories or strings with your fingers, you are also trying to solve a mathematical problem.

Therefore, in the same manner that your body needs nutritious foods and physical workouts to be in excellent condition, you also need the intellectual workouts for your brain.  Playing a musical instrument is just one of the ways to exercise your brain.

Another benefit of playing a musical instrument is that you develop motor coordination.  Hand and eye coordination tend to develop to ultimate levels and the brain develops the signals to allow the coordination.  The brain signals include which keys or strings to play and allows your ears to determine if the chord sounded by the hands is pleasurable to hear.  The brain sends signals to all of your fingers in this process.

Playing music can lessen, or eliminate, the stress you may have as a result of just living. As you attempt to play and hear the music, you have entered into another dimension whose world is nothing but peaceful and serene. You won’t care about anything around you except focusing and allowing consummation of the sounds you are creating.  Playing an instrument has a calming effect for both, the listening audience and performer. The performer also develops self discipline which will affect other areas of their life.

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Filed under: Classical Music

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