When you have gotten to the point of being able to sit down at your keyboard or piano and finally play a tune you know and love, you experience no better feeling. However, what you may be unaware of is that not only have you accomplished the immense task of learning to play and enjoy a song, but you have also made your brain stronger and healthier!

In this article, I’ll dive into 5 mental health benefits you get by playing the piano, and why your brain will forever thank you for doing it!

For those who practice piano, they are able to reshape their central sulcus, which is the part of the brain that determines one’s left or right handedness. By overcoming this natural tendency, you have “a demonstrably more symmetrical central sulcus than everyone else — though [you are] born right or left-handed, [your] brain barely registers it.” Through practice, you are literally reshaping your brain for the better – how cool is that!

As we grow older, the ability for us to retain memories becomes harder and harder. However, for those who “tickle the ivories,” you can actually help avoid losing neural connections in your brain, which improves ones memory and keeps the region of our brain that manages memories happy and healthy!

By making practicing the piano a small part of your day, you can successfully help fight off stress and anxiety. I know after particularly hard days, playing a tune, even for just a few minutes, allows me to take a couple mental “deep breathes.” An article published by the National Library of Medicine actually found that piano practice has been proven to help treat depression and alleviate stress in elderly adults!

Through the use of divergent thinking – using both sides of your brain for a particular activity – piano players are naturally increasing their creativity. Constant stimulation of both sides of the brain keeps it from becoming sluggish, and instead, allows it to be more imaginative in everything it does!

Speaking of creativity, In some of the later Piano In A Flash courses, I teach you how to improvise on the piano and truly make music in your own unique way. It turns out, when you develop the ability to improvise, you are actually developing your own form of “communicating.” According to Mic.com, “When pianists improvise, the language portion of their brain remains active — like any musician, playing music is fundamentally an act of communication. But the big difference for pianists is that their communication is about syntax, not words…when pianists solo, their brains respond as if they were responding in a conversation, but they pay attention to phrasing and ‘grammatical’ structure instead of specific words and phrases.” Who knew you could become bilingual by playing the piano? Ha!

Happy playing!

Scott

Sources:

Mic.com

lindebladpiano.com

psychologytoday.com