Many may remember the old television commercial where the narrator would hold up an egg and say, "This is your brain." He would then crack the egg into a sizzling, hot frying pan and say, "This is your brain on drugs." He would then ask, "Any questions?" It was an extremely effective commercial which is why so many remember it even years later.

Playing the piano (or any instrument for that matter) is fun, but it has also been proven how incredible the brain functions and develops while learning to play the piano. "This is your brain on piano."

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​Classical FM, an independent radio station in the UK, posted this information on Facebook recently. There have been several articles written about brain development while learning how to play the piano, but I especially liked the example shared by Classical FM as it relates to the different lobes of the brain. Here are just a few examples:

• Sight-reading on the piano involves reading two lines of music, each in a different clef. This activates the visual cortex located in the occipital lobe. 
  
  65% of us are visual learners. (http://www.vistacollege.edu/blog/featured/the-7-best-careers-for-visual-thinkers/) Typical skills possessed by visual thinkers are strategic planning, attention to details, spatial reasoning and artistic abilities / hands on skills. Career options for those who are strong visual thinkers could be photography, business consulting, graphic design, and construction technology, as well as today's hot career - robotics.

 

• Both hands often play intricate rhythms independently from each other. This activity stimulates the primary motor cortex located in the frontal lobe of the brain.
  
  People with good hand-eye coordination handily use their visual senses to assess a situation, then use their hands to execute the given task. (http://work.chron.com/careers-those-good-handtoeye-coordination-12465.html) Some careers would include physicians and surgeons as well as commercial airline pilots and all creating and building occupations.

 

• Pianists listen to notes being played and adjust their playing accordingly. Listening involves the auditory cortex of the temporal lobe.
  
  According to Tech News, the breakdown of learning styles varies, but a typical K-12 classroom contains 25 percent auditory learners. Possible careers for those with strong auditory skills are judges, postsecondary foreign language teachers, broadcast and sound engineers, interpreters, speech pathologists, and counselors.
  
  
• Pianists know where all the notes are without having to look at the piano keyboard. This shows strong spatial skills which are developed in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
  
  The development of the prefrontal cortex plays a significant role in maturation. The brain develops in a back to front pattern, and the prefrontal cortex is the last portion of the brain to fully develop. This does not mean that children do not have functional prefrontex cortices. Rather, they do not develop the complex decision-making and planning skills adults have until later in their development. Experience can play a role in the development of the prefrontal cortex, and children exposed to a variety of stimuli and challenges may develop more quickly. (www.goodtherapy.org/blog/psychpedia/prefrontal-cortex)​
  
  The prefrontal cortex is involved in a wide variety of functions, including:
  
  
• Coordinating and adjusting complex behavior
• Impulse control and control and organization of emotional reactions
• Personality
• Focusing and organizing attention
• Complex planning
• Considering and prioritizing competing and simultaneous information; the ability to ignore external distractions is partially influenced by the prefrontal cortex

One can see the distinct advantages to developing and strengthening the prefrontal cortex of the brain. Careers in science, design, visual arts and manufacturing are optimal for those with strong spatial abilities.

Eyes, ears, hands - these are only a few areas where those who learn piano can excel and accelerate brain development. Also to be taken into consideration are the use of 10 fingers, two feet, keeping time, touch, and artistic interpretation, all using different parts of the brain.




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I was so moved by this inspiring article in my college alumni magazine, that I want to share it with you. Part of the motto of the university I attended is "Enter to learn, go forth to serve." We musicians are given many opportunities to serve but sometimes we get so caught up in teaching, performing and earning a living, that we forget we have the abilities to brighten someone's day and lighten someone's load. Here is the article, written about alumni Karen Merrill Larsen from Elkhorn, Nebraska.

A Dance for the Mind

The ballerina winces as the nurse inserts an IV into the pale crook of her arm, releasing a cocktail of drugs into her body. The middle-aged patient leans back in her chair and closes her eyes. But before she falls asleep, a chorus of "oohs" and "aahs" erupts from the 30 other patients in the cancer-treatment center. She opens her eyes to see a maplewood harp entering through the door, wheeled in by a smiling Karen Larsen. Larsen moves her harp to an empty space in the room, next to the woman's chair.

Larsen's fingers begin to strum, pluck, and dance across the strings, and conversations quiet as "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" fills the room.

Larsen says she is amazed at music's power to lift the spirit. In her own experiences coping with death and illness, music gave her strength to carry on. Helping others receive the same comfort "is a great privilege," says Larsen.

An hour and a half later, Larsen stands to leave. "Thank you," the dancer tells her. "I stayed awake the whole time, dancing in my mind."

Lesson 100 in my book Six-Word Lesson for Exceptional Music Lessons is "Teachers, fill your glass full first." The chapter addresses getting enough rest and not skipping meals or routine exercising so to be the "best for your students." Many studies have been done, with astounding and positive results, on how general happiness and "feeling good" can be a direct result from being kind and serving others.

In a study, published in the Journal of Social Psychology, researchers created and administered a survey which measured life satisfaction. After the survey was completed, one group of participants were instructed to perform an act of kindness, on a daily basis, for 10 days. Another group received no such instructions. After 10 days were up, the life satisfaction survey was administered again to all participants.

The group that practiced kindness showed a significant boost in happiness; the other group didn't express any different level of happiness from when they took the first survey. "The findings suggest that good deeds do in fact make people feel good - even when performed over as little as 10 days . . . " (Acts of Kindness and Acts of Novelty Affect Life Satisfaction Kathryn E. Buchanan & Anat Bardi Journal of Social Psychology Vol. 150 , Iss. 3,2010)

Teachers and musicians, let's remember to fill our glasses first by providing kind service and compassion to others using the talents with which we have been blessed.