If you’re looking for a fun new hobby for yourself or your kids, consider the piano. Whether you’re a seasoned musician or an eager beginner, there’s something special about sitting down at an instrument and discovering the melodies within.
Here are some of the top ways through which playing piano can positively impact your mental health and wellness.
- Reduction in Stress, Depression, and Anxiety
Daily life comes with a lot of stressors that can be difficult to cope with. Chronic stress has negative health outcomes as it can weaken the immune system and increase risks for major diseases.
Playing a musical instrument like a piano can help reduce stress levels. Placing your fingers on the keys and creating melodies with your hands is a meditative activity. It requires focus and presence in the moment.
As per research, people who played the piano felt less stress than people who did art or clay modeling. It was more effective at reducing stress hormone levels and anxiety. Playing or learning to play piano can help reduce symptoms of depression. Even a single session of playing piano was found to improve mood and cognition in a person with depressive symptoms.
- Offsets Cognitive Decline
As people age, they naturally experience losses in functions like hearing, cognition, memory, and movement control. Mood can also be impacted. To help address these issues, non-drug solutions are explored. Learning a musical instrument is one of them. It can help reduce age-related hearing loss.
Your brain is always changing based on what you do. It’s like the popular saying, “Use it or lose it.” Exercising your mind is super important as you get older. Learning something new, like playing an instrument, rewires pathways in your brain. This plasticity allows your brain to keep adapting. Plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change and adapt as a result of experience. The research mentioned earlier also concluded that taking piano lessons for six months improved cognitive processes and memory.
- Provides a Creative Outlet and Improves Memory
Playing the piano gives you an artistic way to express yourself and engage your creativity. Unlike a passive hobby, making music requires experimenting, improvising, and putting your interpretation into pieces.
Practicing an instrument gives your memory a workout. You have to remember a lot at once when playing music; the notes, the rhythm, and the order. The more you train your memory by playing music, the more your general memory may improve.
If your child is interested in exploring music through piano, you may want to consider the lessons offered at South Shore Piano School. South Shore is a reputed school that offers piano lessons to students of all ages.
- Provides a Sense of Accomplishment
Learning piano provides a strong sense of accomplishment. As you practice consistently over time, you will see steady improvements in your abilities. Being able to play new songs or play familiar pieces better are concrete achievements that your brain rewards with feelings of satisfaction. Each small victory gives you a boost of dopamine. This neurotransmitter triggers positive emotions.
Endnote
Whether learning a new sonata or simply improvising a familiar tune, squeezing some piano time into your day may do wonders for enhancing well-being. As your fingers dance across the keys, you’ll leave your worries behind and enter a blissful world of melody.
