MUSICAL SKILLS
Music students have the opportunity to develop skills that are directly related to music, but also have obvious benefits in other areas:
o Listening: Good musicians are, by necessity, good listeners. They have been trained to listen purposefully, intently and carefully for differences between every note and every chord they play. They listen to discern harmony versus dissonance. They listen to distinguish when a note is sharp, flat or just plain off-key. They have developed their sense of hearing and their ability to focus and pay attention to sound.
o Rhythm: Through the study of music, students become able to recognize and create rhythm. Music is a fun and entertaining way to learn about rhythm and patterns.
o Memory: In order to learn how to play students learn the names and placement of notes on the staff and the corresponding key to strike in order to play a piece of music correctly. Pieces of music are eventually committed to memory over time with enough practice. Memorization skills are strengthened with regular use.
LIFE SKILLS
An education in music also teaches important and enduring life lessons that are readily transferable:
o Craftsmanship: Students of music understand how musical details come together to produce good, rather than mediocre, sounds. These exacting standards in the craft of music demand a level of excellence that, when applied to other endeavors, require students to push their own limits.
o Perserverance: Music making requires focused and sustained effort in routine practice. Professional musicians rehearse regularly to stay on top of their repertoire. It is only through a great investment of time and effort that a successful performance is possible. There are no shortcuts. Through the study of music, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve concrete results.
o How to perform: Music making focuses on "doing" rather than observing and teaches students, quite literally, how to perform in front of an audience.
o Poise and Self-Confidence: Perfoming music in public whether formally or informally generates at least a little fear in most people. Becoming used to this anxiety early in life makes it less intimidating later on and develops a sense of poise and self-confidence to help face future stressful situations.
CREATIVITY
Music is a wonderful means of self-expression that can convey anything from the deepest sorrow to the greatest joy and everything in between.
Students derive a unique sense of satisfaction in active music-making as opposed to passive music consumption.
PERSONAL REASONS
Adult students come to Primo Piano for lessons because they:
HEALTH AND QUALITY OF LIFE
Music can also play a positive role in improving your health and quality of life:
o Playing and appreciating music makes you smarter: It doesn't have to be classical music. Any music you enjoy sparks neurons in the brain that improves memory and mental powers. If you have children, expose them to music. They'll do better in reading and math.
o Slow music calms nerves and lowers blood pressure: Thirty minutes a day of breathing along to the beat of slow, soothing music (more like Norah Jones or Frank Sinatra, not so much Lady Gaga or Katy Perry) can significantly lower your risk of heart disease and high blood pressure.
o Music keeps your hearing sharp: Older musicians generally do not experience typical aging in the part of the brain (the auditory cortex) that often leads to hearing troubles. But you don't have to be a highly trained virtuoso to benefit. It's never too late to start taking piano lessons and preventing these age-related changes.
o Music melts away stress: Recent medical studies show that listening to soothing music calmed heart rates by as much as 5 beats per minute in critically ill hospital patients hooked up to breathing machines. That was enough to significantly ease anxiety and help them heal.