Why Your Child Should Study Music
Every day it seems as though there are more and more articles about the benefits of learning music, especially piano – and it is true! From developing cognitive skills to establishing self-esteem – by enrolling your child in music lessons, you are providing an amazing foundation of skills that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives.
There are even more benefits when your child learns in a small, group setting. These children learn from the very beginning how to interact with others and develop their social skills in a caring and safe environment. They learn how to work together in group situations and set goals, as a group; but they also are able to develop their ability to work independently and set individual goals.
Since the ability to read and play music is considered a language, when a child engages in learning piano, the brain is actively using not only the creative area, but the languages area as well. By these two areas being engaged at the same time, the level of growth and development is higher in the brain. Children who take piano lessons are able to solve complex math problems earlier and faster, they learn other languages with more ease and confidence, and their ability to “think through” problems, situations and different environments (and adapt), are that much stronger. Students who study piano are also stronger athletes as their eye-hand and eye-foot coordination is more highly developed and, they are able to visualize the next move and strategize the structure of a play faster and better.
Brain Cooperation in Composition
The moment that children in MYC® realize that they can have “control” of their music through writing their own compositions, they immediately feel empowered and engaged. Their self-esteem grows and their self-worth is strengthened and solidified.
Composition in MYC allows children to explore their foundation in music education creativity – while being give a foundation of knowledge of compositional techniques on which to build and expand that creativity.
Our students first learn all composition techniques and concepts through art and imagery – to ensure that each child has the opportunity to completely understand and apply the concept before they have to “worry” about using that concept within their music writing. Once our MYC students understand and are able to apply that concept visually, they are gradually transitioned from the art to the actually writing of music – either through our fun MYC Critters in the younger levels, or on the staff with the older children.
Through all of this, our MYC student’s brain cooperation is enhanced and significantly improved. With composition alone, our student’s brains have engaged their creatively, analysis, listening skills, deductive reasoning, self-worth and confidence and solidified their ability to manipulate learned concepts for different environments and situations.