Piano Lessons May Improve Your Mental Health
Maybe you just want to take piano lessons because you think it will be fun. You're not wrong. It is incredibly rewarding to hear yourself and entertain your family and friends.
However, playing music can also be incredibly beneficial to your mental health. This isn't just an anecdotal statement. There is solid science behind it and even a whole field of dedicated therapeutic practice.
Music therapy is a clinical discipline that promotes mental and physical health in much the same way that psychological and physical therapy does. According to the AMTA, music therapy combines science and creativity to the healthful benefit of a wide variety of patients.
The Role of the Piano
Music therapists employ a wide variety of instruments in musical therapy treatment. Depending on the treatment, a patient might be asked to play anything from various percussion instruments to guitars and pianos.
The piano is perhaps the most important instrument involved with music therapy. With its huge tonal range and the ability to play both harmony and melody at the same time, the piano's versatility makes it indispensable as a music treatment device.
Music therapists often play in parallel with patients, letting the patient create the melody while the therapist plays a suggested harmony. This approach maximizes the opportunity for patients to express themselves.
The patient expressing their truth is a critical component of conventional talk therapy. It also works similarly with music, especially when that truth may be too painful to say.
Beyond Clinical
Learning the piano can be an incredibly satisfying experience because it's so hard. Playing well means learning to split your focus between up to five different things at once.
You must mind your posture, your left hand, and your right hand, read the music on the page, and possibly listen to the other members of the band. Plus, if you play classical piano, you may have to watch the conductor's cues as well.
Playing well involves so much concentration that it requires you to set everything else aside. And, since almost everyone has problems and issues, the chance to forget all of it for fifteen minutes to an hour every day is incredible.
The experience in and of itself may not technically qualify as therapy. It's not scientific enough. But unburdening yourself of all your other troubles and coupling it with the other rewards of playing is bound to be good for the mind, body, and soul.
For more information on the benefits of piano lessons, contact a professional near you.
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