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My daughter "quit" piano just before she started high school. Her teacher left, the studio did not have an appropriate replacement and then life just got busy. A lot of times, I have thought lessons without long-term commitment were a waste of money (I was really disappointed when she was no longer taking lessons) but...piano lessons have a long lasting effect.

Over the past 2 years she has said:
Learning how to read music makes it easy to play something I'm unfamiliar with, I can transpose notes to chords on a ukulele, I understand and appreciate different types of music - not just what my friends listen to, learning music helps with dance or skating - you have more musicality than people who do not learn music and the most recent - at practice for her sport the coach asked them to jump rope. She said people who know music, know how to keep time and jump much better than those who don't know music because they don't have any sort of internal rhythm.

I just thought I'd share her observations - they aren't the classic piano benefit list I'm used to seeing.

So neat MaggieGirl. Great to hear from you again! I've found so many "hidden benefits" of having my kids participate in music lessons too. It's really a lifelong gift that we are offering our children.

It is so true. It was a blessing for my son to take piano all those years.

Welcome back MaggieGirl!

Love to hear from you but I don't think the internal rhythm is something you learn. Music lessons can bring it out and make it stronger that I agree, but if you don't have it, you don't have it, and your music lesson can only go so far. Once I told my son that he should keep playing basketball as it would help him to grow taller, he looked at me, said: "playing basketball doesn't help you to get taller, taller people play basketball".

Having said that, the capability is not binary, most people are in between somewhere poor and excellent, they are just normal, and music lesson can help, to some extent.

In addition, the gross motor coordination needed for jumping rope is totally different from the ability to create musical rhythm. (How do I know this? )

You can say that about anything.

I have a student who can't count half notes.

Those are good points MaggieGirl. As for what the Monkey says, you can do exercises to create a strong core pulse in children. You can have them mimic what you sing, you can have them march around the room as you play a simple 2/4 song, you can teach them to conduct a 2/4 pattern, you can correct their rhythm. I suppose if you did all these things and they still had no rhythm, you might be right.

It's a rare thing in my opinion.

I am skeptical about all the wonderful benefits of music lessons, other than learning the music itself. Yes, there is a strong correlation between musical achievement and academic achievement, I believe that. But I am not sure there is a causation.

But piano lessons does help the learning other instruments, a lot I would say.

I attended my son's handbell choir concert and I was amazed by the 45 minutes of sophisticated music they delivered, with just 4 months of practice, one 2 hour rehearsal each week. Every kid in the choir plays at least one instrument, mostly piano, to a fairly high level. I just don't think they could have made it without the higher level understanding of music.

He also plays saxophone at school band, he just leaves the saxophone at the locker, almost never takes it home to practice, just the 2-3 hours a week at school, and he is one of the better players at his junior band. It seems that all the kids that do well in the band take private music lessons of other instruments.

I believe learning to play piano has many life benefits for my son such as:

- Accepting constructive criticism.
- Feeling comfortable on a stage
- Improved coordination (left/right hand pedal)
- Improved memory (by exercising it) for memorizes pieces.
- Time management.
- The belief that you can accomplish things that seem impossible if you put in the work
-Self- confidence
- Paying attention to detail

Now I don’t think the above works for a kid that hates piano and I believe life is too short to force your child into music if that’s not where his/ her interest lie.

Adult beginner here, maybe I should just throw in the towel My teacher literally gave up on me during dance classes as a kid, I could not clap along to save my life, and the game Dance Dance Revolution was a totally incomprehensible to me, even when played with a controller. I hated "music/rhythm games" as a genre.

...although funny enough I rediscovered rhythm games as an adult and playing them multiple times inspired me to get back to piano. I figured I was wasting all this time playing making virtual music in a virtual game, might as well use the time to create REAL music instead!

But you might have it some day. Sometimes all it takes is time.

I remember a time that I couldn't sing on pitch. I'd gone to a one-room country school (yes, I'm dating myself now) through the end of third grade, and we never had any music instruction or singing or anything of the sort, that I recall.

When I attended a church school from fourth through ninth grades, where we sang hymns and other songs regularly, somewhere along the line, without anyone telling me, I could hear that I was singing out of tune with the class.

I don't remember how much time elapsed after that discovery, but eventually I became able to sing on pitch.

Time can change things. If you don't have a certain ability now, I believe there is always hope that it could be acquired in the future.

My voice teacher used to say this too--that a lot of people are told they are "tone deaf" but that actually singing on pitch is a learned skill. She said anyone can be taught to sing on pitch, given basic ability to hear and speak. Don't know how much this has been studied, either for pitch or for rhythm.

Unless you teach music, and you have tried more than one approach with students, and with enough students, and for long enough, I don't think you can know this. Are you basing yourself on anything with this statement? We have a mother whose daughter told her some positive things that came out of her lessons, undoubtedly making her (mother) feel good, which is a nice message she wanted to pass on to teachers here - and it felt to me like you were throwing a wet blanket saying it's not so.

Specifically you wrote about acquiring inner pulse from teaching, and suggesting it can't be taught. As a student, there was a point where I was made aware of it, and I sought out inner pulse specifically. It took a few years, some trial and error and some wise teaching, and I think to a great degree I got it. That alone suggests that it can be taught, and so the young lady's observations may have been correct.

You used the comparison of height and basketball. Height is a physical attribute. My first music teacher had a beard. I did not expect to become male and grow a beard by having lessons. But I did expect to acquire skills. The basketball playing students will acquire skills if they have a good coach: perhaps learn teamwork, dexterity and coordination, timing, and maybe even some skills they can use in music.

If you can't see colors, at all, nothing is going to improve your relationship to colors.

But you are looking at difficulty with rhythm as an absolute.

I was talking yesterday with a classmate of mine from 50 years ago. He had problems with both rhythm and sight-singing. But his life has been about not only playing but teaching.

So I think you are making very wrong assumptions.

Were you talking about a college classmate in a music major?



I did not, and my do everyone exclude the last passage of my post in their quote?

You excluded my entire post.

Are you referring to that passage above (^) -- from May 24 -- when you ask why everyone excludes the last passage of your post? Or something from your May 29 post?

Please clarify which passage you mean, and what you're saying about it. I'm not sure of your point.

I have not got time to respond to your post.....

Yes, the passage you quoted. My whole point was to keep the forum alive, it was too quiet.
To all the adult learners, if you are keen enough to come to this corner of the world, you are musical inside and music lesson from a good teacher will definitely help.

The Monkeys - Can you please respond to my last post addressed to you, and the points in it? Whatever precedes the quoted section supports the last paragraph, or the last paragraph is a kind of conclusion to it, so discussing those things also go to the last paragraph.