Playing the piano enhances multi-tasking and split concentration
We ask a lot of ourselves when we play the piano: using two hands and all ten fingers independently of each other whilst navigating 88 identical little black and white keys; reading music on two staves (that’s the dots on the lines – treble and bass clef); using three pedals with two feet; using one pair of eyes to watch both the music and hands; using one pair of ears to listen to all the different melodies, dynamics, timing and phrasing that is going on. Our brains have to be taught do to all this and, ultimately, are working in overdrive to achieve it. The brain’s logical, creative, visual and emotional functions are therefore given a massive workout and are developed and fine-tuned.
Great for playing the piano, but how does all this benefit us away from piano playing? Well, all that split concentration stimulates and exercises various parts of the brain, (check out the image below from www.pianu.com), most significantly the prefrontal cortex which plays a major role in decision-making, problem-solving and social behaviour. It also means that piano players are seriously good multitask-ers. Our brains can concentrate on several things at once, we can deal with distractions and interruptions, it enables us to cope when there is chaos going on around us.
Learning to play the piano can turn brains into better functioning machines.
sources:
https://www.mic.com/articles/91329/science-shows-how-piano-players-brains-are-actually-different-from-everybody-elses
