Here is one of many articles that The Creativity
Institute has reviewed and reprinted on nurturing creativity in
children and on educational toys. Infants, toddlers, preschoolers
and school age children can all benefit from the right educational
toys and musical opportunities, even on the toy piano.
How Piano Lessons Benefit Young
Children
By Cynthia VanLandingham
Piano lessons provide a wide range
of benefits to young children. Here are my "Top Five."
1. Piano lessons help preserve
and develop children's natural creative abilities. The best analogy
of how children learn through music that I've found is from Donald
Kroodsma's book "The Singing Life of Birds." Every songbird
can be identified by the unique song it sings, but a baby bird
has to be taught by its parents to sing the family song. Baby
birds, like humans, just 'babble' at first. Mother birds sing
the family song over and over to the baby birds as they try to
repeat it back. At first, the baby birds are only able to sing
back one or two notes, but they gradually learn to sing the whole
song. And birds with two voice boxes even learn to sing their
own harmony parts! Once baby birds learn the family song, they
can start developing their very own songs. Similarly, I encourage
students to compose their own music after developing needed skills.
In my experience, young children in piano are a lot like baby
songbirds!
2. Piano lessons help children
perfect their natural learning processes. Music is a language,
and children are programmed to absorb languages. Studies have
shown that kids can most easily learn new languages when they
start at a young age. Piano lessons help children develop the
very same skills needed to accomplish language arts, like reading.
In piano, students learn how to follow directions, scan written
materials, think critically, create solutions and translate writing
into action. For example, students must look at each note, measure
and phrase and decide how to play each note to make the music
come to life. Many children (including my own sons) have become
much better readers after starting piano lessons. Further, piano
lessons involves an interplay of both right and left brain activity
that stimulates neural development.
3. Piano lessons help children
learn how to stay focused and achieve goals. Piano lessons help
children set specific goals and then work towards reaching these
goals. Each new piece of music a student learns requires a specific
set of skills and playing habits. To achieve these goals students
must learn to stay focused and study each note, measure and phrase
to understand how to play the song. In doing this students learn
to think critically and creatively as they decide how to make
the music come to life. Staying focused over time develops good
study habits that become natural. This is important because learning
to practice good habits that match their goals shows children
how to make their dreams come to life!
4. Piano lessons help children
develop courage. It takes courage to face challenges without letting
our anxiety and worries get the best of us. Piano lessons help
students learn to accept challenges such as learning a difficult
song, as well as to perform pieces in front of teachers, friends,
and families at recitals. Lessons also help kids learn the importance
of keeping a positive perspective despite difficulties. Learning
to handle uncertainty and stress in a way that minimizes anxiety
and maximizes creativity is a valuable life tool. We all need
practice at this!
5. Piano lessons teach children
to persevere. A key part of accomplishing anything difficult is
not to give up easily. As children grow, piano lessons teach kids
to try and then try again if they don't initially succeed. However,
as Yoda explained to Luke Skywalker, the objective isn't just
trying itself, but accomplishing the desired goal -- "Do
or do not, there is no try!" Piano lessons teach students
how to adjust their expectations if they can't initially master
a tough song or skills, and to tackle these big goals by taking
small incremental steps. In the end, just like the baby songbirds
that eventually learn to sing, students learn that they can accomplish
great things and reach their dreams through careful and consistent
effort.
Copyright 2005, Cynthia Marie
VanLandingham
Cynthia VanLandingham is the
owner of TallyPiano & Keyboard Studio in Tallahassee, Florida
where she has been teaching piano for 20 years. She is a member
of the American College of Musicians, the National Guild of Piano
Teachers, a graduate of the Florida State University College of
Education, and President of TallyPiano Enterprises, LLC. You can
visit her website and download her original compositions free
at http://www.tallypiano.com
Cynthia is also an author of
a series of exciting books for children, with the mission of Using
Music, Art, Science and Literature to Help Children Achieve their
Dreams. Her illustrated series for piano students is called, Little
Bear's Piano Adventures!TM These stories take young piano students
on a Musical Adventure to find out what piano lessons are all
about in a fun way that children can easily understand.
For more information about
these wonderful books E-mail Cynthia at cindy@tallypiano.com,
where you can also subscribe to her free internet newsletter,
Piano Matters!
TallyPiano Studio: (850) 386-2425
Hotline: (850) 264-7232
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
MORE ON CHILD CREATIVITY
Make
your child
more creative for life.
Every child has creative
ability just waiting to be tapped. Even infants have budding creative
potential. The right educational toys can bring it out. and let
children enjoy the benefits of creative pursuits at many levels.
Infants,
toddlers,
preschoolers,
early
school age and older
school age children all delight in opportunities for creative
expression through colors, shapes and sounds.
At The Creativity Institute, we handpick each infant educational
toy, every creative plaything, each piece of furniture and every
toy musical instrument based on its potential for developing vital
creative resources in your child.
Toy
pianos, oversized
foam building blocks, puppet
theaters and puppet stages and people
and animal hand puppets, art
supplies and children's
easels, play
tents and more. The scale and durability of many of these
toys make them perfect for classrooms, homeschool,
day care centers and waiting rooms, too. The benefits of nurturing
creativity can be profound, offering children tools for success
in all endeavors athletic, artistic or academic. Let your baby
begin now.