Nguyen I Mimi Nguyen English IV Honors Ms. Weatherly ...

Mimi Nguyen
English IV Honors
Ms. Weatherly
23 September 2010
The Classical Piano
The piano is an instrument that just about everyone is familiar with. Not only is it a
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harmonious tool of melody, but it is also a sort of training ground for both the mind and body.
Being an instrument, it is very appealing to the sense of hearing as gentle yet fierce hands prance
about the monochromatic levels to produce the stream of notes. While this is appeasing to the
user, it also has other hidden benefits behind the mask of sweet love songs and soulful
indignation. Playing the piano is a beneficial tool to people of all ages.
The origin of the piano can be traced back in time quite a bit. Some of the first
forerunners to the creation of the modern piano include the dulcimer, clavichord, and
harpsichord. The dulcimer was developed in the Middle East, dating all the way back to ancient
times. This instrument consisted of a box with wires tied across it. The player would then use
mallets to strike these wires (somewhat like the modern xylophone in a sense) which, in turn,
created a sound. Both the clavichord and harpsichord were created in Europe dwing the
Medieval Age. What was unique about these two instruments was that they were the frst to have
a keyboard as a means of being used to play it ("Piano2").
While these were the forerunners to the modern piano, there is one model of the piano,
in particular, that would be considered its 'odirect" forerunner. In 1709, Italian Bartolommeo
Christofori, a craftsman of musical instruments, invented an instrument that could be seen as a

the piano, or any instrument for that matter, helps strengthen neurons and build new neural
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pathways in the brain ("Music Keeps Your Brain in Tune") as music itself can reach some parts
of the brain that other stimulation cannot (Croucher).
One of the most well-known and most heard benefits of playing piano is the improvement
of grades in school. Many experiments have been conducted of this, and they do indeed verifu
this to be true. An example would be one that involved Dr. Frances Rausher (psychologist) and
Gorden Shaw (physicist). They observed a population of preschoolers who had had piano
instructions versus another population of preschoolers who had not. Comparing the results
between the two, the preschoolers who had had piano lessons scored higher than their
counterparts by as much as thirty-four percent ("Five Ways Piano Lessons Benefit Children")!
In another study performed by E" Glenn Schellenberg, six-year old children were taken
and specifically assigned to one of four grcups. Of the four groups, two of them consisted of
music instruction, keyboard and voice (chorus), while the other two were of the control group for
comparison, drama and no lessons. The IQs of the participants were taken before and after the
experiment. Music lessons were taken at the Royal Conservatory of Music located in Toronto
Canada over the course of nine months (36 weeks). Once the data was gathered from the experi-
ment, the result can be seen, as illustrated, in the chart on the next page. On average, the IQs of
the children that took either keyboard or voice lessons increased. Also shown, the IQs belonging
to the children in the drama division also increased compared to those that had no lessons, but it
did so only by slightly (Schellenberg).

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Not only do young people derive benefits from playing the piano, but elderly people can
do so too. It helps rid stress, helps stimulate the mind, promotes a sense of overall well being,
and, like children, helps in hand-eye coordination as well ( "The Imporcance of Learning to Play
the Piano").
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By playing the piano, elders are staying mentally active. This activity can help in
preventing some diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease ("The Importance of Leaming to Play the
Piano"); a brain disorder where brain cells are being destroyed. As a result, memory loss and
issues in thought process and behavior occur ("What is Alzheimer's?"). For those who already
have this disease though, the piano can be used in reminiscence therapy to help in relaxing and
recovering some of the patient's memories, as Jason Soudah, a twenty-seven year old Japanese
piano player, has done for many. He was asked to provide piano music to accompany videos
which would, hopefully, have a greater chance of triggering some of the patients memories
versus the video alone; again, music reaches some parts of the brain that other things cannot.