Come to think of it, the ancient Greeks were wise to have put one god, Apollo, in charge of both music and healing. After all, even recent medical-related studies confirm what the Greeks would have thought by this. Studies have shown that music can slow the heart rate. It can reduce your stress hormone levels and lower your blood pressure.
Stroke victims and those undergoing surgery have also been seen to find some relief from their stroke and heart attacks from music. Further studies have shown that music promotes your brain’s ability to generate new connections. Wondering how this is possible?
This piece examines how music brings about these magical effects and focuses on the role of piano playing as a peace-finding activity.
Musical Rhythms are Magical
Part of why you should learn to play piano is that your singing can have some rhythms. First, understand that human beings are very rhythmic. The human breathing, brain waves, and heartbeat are all rhythmic. This being the case, the human brain is still wired to differentiate noise from music.
Have you ever wondered why noise in traffic can give you a headache, but you peacefully listen to louder music in a bar or music concert? It’s because your mind can tell music from noise, as music is repetitive and has a certain rhythm. Your brain can thus distinguish varying tunes and tones.
Piano Playing Helps One Find Themselves
Harmony entails being in charge—knowing oneself, appreciating oneself, and allowing what you love and enjoy to put you at peace with everything else around you. This is exactly what piano playing does. As you play piano, you feel like you’re pouring all your emotions and feelings into the music in the background.
There is no better way to connect with your inner peace, considering all human beings are emotional. Besides, piano playing doesn’t limit or restrict you. Instead, it gives you an atmosphere where you can express yourself whichever way you want.
You can close your eyes and enter a moment of meditation, or you can shed some tears and let go of some pressure you’re harboring. As you connect with the piece of music, you tend to lose yourself in a world unknown, and everyone needs that once in a while. With piano playing, you can express feelings you wouldn’t verbally express.
It’s an opportunity to release those feelings that you have kept within you for so long. As a result, you’ll realize you’re happier when you play piano, and the more you make it a routine, the less sad you’ll ever be. Piano playing lets you burst that isolated bubble. It helps you feel free at last—there’s no greater feeling!
Piano for Self-Care
Since COVID-19 struck the globe, stress has become part of daily life. And stress is impacting people’s lives in varying ways, with depression cases being on the rise. But guess what—piano playing can help you care for your mental health. Sitting at the keyboard, you don’t have time to think about your problems. You strive to fully concentrate as you tune your keys to the rhythm of the song you’re playing.
Focus helps you leave all your cares behind and focus on the movement of your fingers and the music. The more you become good at playing piano, the more your self-esteem improves. Your confidence and high self-value give you a positive outlook on life. Besides, playing piano allows you to be who you want to be whenever you’re on the keyboard. As you emulate different people, you realize how valuable and creative you are.
Improved Concentration
If you’ve had brain fog, you can correct it by playing piano. Everyone understands that the world is adjusting at a neck-breaking speed, yet you still need to do everything possible to keep up. Amidst this, piano playing comes in handy–playing piano regulates your concentration. It divides your concentration to ensure you read the music, interpret each note, and move your fingers in moves that rhyme with the music.
The foot tap also has to go in harmony with all these. With this serious task ongoing, you can’t be thinking about anything else—you’ll have to push other things aside first. Such is what concentration is all about–focusing on what’s more important now.
Final Thoughts
Piano lovers and hobbyists have a better way to manage stress. In addition to improving their concentration and self-value, playing piano helps one be a good communicator. A good communicator is a good listener and a good interpreter. Piano teaches you to listen, interpret, and develop a rhyming pitch and voice. And the effect doesn’t end here. It transfers to giving you a good memory and improving your linguistic skills.
Piano players are quick at learning new languages, fast learners, and more intellectual. Their hand-eye coordination is incomparable. So let the harmony that you find through playing piano continue throughout your life in all aspects.
