A Tribute to Clement D’Avella
1931 – 2014

Today we celebrate the life of Clem D’Avella, a man who had a great
impact on so many of us in the music industry.

Clem was born in Italy but spent most of his years in the Washington
DC area. He lived in Washington DC, in Sliver Spring and eventually
settled in Potomac, Maryland.

In 1956, Clem began his life-long career in the music industry at the
original Arthur Jordan Piano Company store on 13th and G Streets in NW
Washington DC. He was assigned to the piano department and quickly
became a store manager, moving to the Silver Spring, MD store. Moving
steadily up the ranks he eventually became Executive Vice President
and ultimately, in 1988, President of Jordan Kitt’s Music.

Clem remained in that position until his “retirement” in 1991. Even
after retirement, however, Clem’s dedication to the company and it’s
employees remained as he was called back in 1993 to again lead the
sales organization. Even after his second retirement Clem was senior
advisor to Jordan Kitt’s until owner Bill McCormick’s passing in 2007.

Clem was instrumental in so many ways to the company, including the
period of expansion into the Baltimore and Richmond markets. He was a
key figure in the acquisitions of Wells Music (Denver market) in 1981,
Wilmington Piano Company (Philadelphia market) in 1988, and Temple of
Music (Virginia Beach market) also in 1988.

Clem quickly became Mr. McCormick’s right hand man, both in motivating
the Jordan Kitt’s sales force and during his vendor trips to Italy
with Mr. McCormick’s company, Georgetown Leather Design.

Giving back to the community and the industry was also a big part of
Clem’s life through his years of service on the NAMM board. But his
true contribution was his huge impact on so many lives within and
outside of the industry. He worked very hard to ensure that his mother
and father were well taken care of, participating in their care
together with his sister. He was devoted to his family, including his
wife Mary, both admiring what she accomplished in her career and
cherishing their many years together, and his children, Mike and Frank.

According to friend and former Jordan Kitt’s executive Dennis
Houlihan, Clem was “a man with a huge heart – filled with love and
compassion.”

Clem. You were a truly great man. I will never forget the influence
you had on my life and your unwavering guidance in my career. Thank
you for the person you were and your invaluable contribution to this
world.

Chris Syllaba
President & CEO

Are you in a rut and want to try something new? Or maybe you want to get your kids involved in a new activity- one that doesn’t involve game controllers or remotes.

You want something challenging and creative, but what? Have you ever thought about taking piano lessons? Not only do you or your kids learn a skill, but it also stimulates the brain and encourages creativity.

For one thing, piano lessons improve concentration. Think about it- you are employing your fingers, your eyes, your ears and even your feet when you play. That requires great coordination as well as focus. Your brain is controlling a variety of areas at once and, as a result, your mental acuity is sharpened. This enhanced focus follows you in other aspects of your life. Your kids will get more out of school and their grades may even improve.

Your mind doesn’t feel sluggish and your attention to detail is improved. Creativity is also unlocked through piano lessons. If you or your children have an aptitude for music, it could lead to composing and improvisation. It may lead to creativity in other areas as well.

Writing, painting or drawing may be drawn out through the music. Play fun stuff, colorful pieces that excite you and make you want to learn more. Piano lessons don’t have to be boring and stuffy.

It is best to start kids out early in life to get the most benefits. Their brains are still developing and by stimulating it through learning how to play an instrument, it improves their ability to learn and absorb information.

It is also a great way for mentally impaired children to communicate and express themselves, especially if they can’t do it verbally. For older adults, piano lessons are a great way to wake up parts of the brain that may have been stagnant.

Ultimately, it can help with memory and concentration making them more self-sufficient. And of course, it’s never too late for grown-ups to learn something new. This skill will open up a new world of fun and creativity.

To get the most out of your piano lessons, choose the right teacher. If it’s for your kids, find one that can address their specific learning style and one that can keep their attention.

If you are interested in learning, find someone who has experience teaching adults. There are several methods and techniques used to teach this skill and it is important to find the one that works for you, otherwise you or your kids will lose interest.

Above all else, learning to play is fun and satisfying and if you’re having fun, you are more receptive to learning. It’s also fun to experiment. Even if you aren’t very good, sit down at the keys and just play something. Let your creativity fly and see what your hands and your brain come up with. It may sound like noise, but then again, you may unlock the Billy Joel in you. Learn a new skill, have fun and exercise your brain- take some piano lessons.

Hall Piano Company, Metairie, is Louisiana’s premier establishment for piano sales and service. They offer piano lessons designed with all levels of students in mind, from the absolute beginner to advanced player. Visit them at http://www.hallpiano.com to download a free piano buying guide.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Andrew_Stratton

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2007031

Children can benefit from beginner piano lessons. So before you dismiss this as an alternative activity to sports, read this article.
The fact that simply listening to Mozart at a young age can dramatically enhance a young child’s intellectual capabilities is still in debate. But there is no question that learning to play Mozart on the piano can be exceptionally beneficial to young children. Many parents today look to sports as positive influences on their children’s motor and concentration skills, as well as their value of teamwork. But some children are not sports oriented, and good piano lessons provide many of those same benefits, if not more.
Learning to play piano will improve upon a young child’s coordination skills. Unlike many other instruments, the piano requires both hands to independently maneuver the keys. While the right hand may be playing a lilting melody, the left hand may be required to keep a slow steady beat. Not only do the hands work independent of each other, but so to do the fingers. The fingers on each hand must grab for the lower white keys, or the upper black keys to produce the proper harmony. At times, certain fingers will not press any keys at all. Good lessons will include many exercise books for the beginning student. Major and minor scales will teach the student to move each and every finger up and down the keyboard with precision.

Much like karate or tennis, playing the piano also requires concentration. If the child has never played a musical instrument, learning to properly read sheet music will be incorporated into the lesson. The black dots and lines representing notes and bars are like a foreign language. The child must learn to interpret the sheet music, then vocalize that translation through the keyboard. Piano teachers that are excellent with young children might approach the new music as a code the child must de-crypt using the piano keys. Most teachers will also set up a practice schedule with the student of perhaps fifteen to twenty minutes a day. With a new mission to de-code the piano music, many students might have no problem keeping to their fifteen minute a day regimen. Others might need reinforcement from their parents, but the benefits of requiring a child to stick to a piano study schedule are no different than requiring that a child attend basketball practice as promised

Do music lessons make kids smarter? Maybe. Studies report that musical kids perform better on tests of math skills, verbal ability, and even IQ. They may also have more grey matter in the brain. And a now a new study suggests that childhood music training helps people stay sharp as they get older.

So is it too late if you haven’t been sending your toddler to piano lessons? I don’t think so. The latest study hints at long-term benefits for kids who begin training around the age of ten.

Here’s a quick guide to the latest discoveries.

Musicians are smarter than mere listeners

The Mozart effect has been effectively debunked. Merely listening to music might make you feel a bit more creative, but it doesn’t seem to make you any smarter.

By contrast, there is mounting evidence that learning to play a musical instrument may shape the brain and boost your intelligence.

Studies of young children suggest that 4-6 year olds who play instruments perform better on tests of working memory. And older kids who play instruments have performed better on tests of general intelligence.

Are these correlations deceptive? Could it be that kids who are more intelligent are also more likely to get enrolled in music lessons? Maybe, but as I note in my Parenting Science review of the effects of music training, we have reason to think that music training makes kids smarter.

For example, one study administered IQ tests to 6-year-olds and then randomly assigned each child to receive one of four treatments:

• Keyboard lessons
• Singing lessons
• Drama lessons
• No lessons

At the end of the school year, the kids were tested again. Only the children who had received music lessons showed improvements.

As I note in the Parenting Science article, other research indicates that musicians have more grey matter in the brain.

And now a new study suggests that music training may help your kids stay sharp and cognitively flexible as they age.

When Brenda Hanna-Pladdy and Alicia McKay tested 70 older adults (aged 60-85), the researchers discovered a link between cognitive function and childhood music lessons.

The adults who’d had the most musical training—ten years or more—performed better than non-musicians on some cognitive tests. They had an easier time naming objects. In addition, they showed evidence of superior visual (nonverbal) memory and cognitive flexibility, or the ability to switch from one set of rules to another when the situation demands it.

There were also differences between non-musicians and people who’d studied music for less than 10 years. These differences weren’t as marked, and might be attributable to chance. But overall, there was a positive relationship between activity and cognitive performance:

The more years a person had spent playing an instrument, the better she did on the cognitive tests. And the musicians maintained their cognitive advantage even if they no longer played a musical instrument. This was true even though the musicians and non-musicians had achieved similar levels of education.

The results aren’t conclusive. Maybe the musicians socialized more, and the social stimulation is what kept them sharp. Or perhaps musicians are more physically active. As I’ve noted in an earlier post, physical exercise may benefit the brain too.

But this study is the first to examine the possibility of lifelong effects of musical training, and it will doubtless inspire more research.

Meanwhile, we should focus on this encouraging point: You don’t have to start music training very early in life to reap important benefits.

The musicians in this study weren’t professionals, and they weren’t child prodigies either. On average, they didn’t learn to play an instrument until they were about 10 years old.

Perhaps future studies will show that the cognitive benefits of music training are greatest for kids who begin earlier. But for now it appears that training can benefit kids who start in middle childhood. If your child didn’t start playing the violin in preschool, it’s not too late.

And besides, music is about much more than gaining a few points in IQ or preserving your mental agility. Learning to play an instrument is intrinsically rewarding. And new skills are valuable at any age.

children.

Seven Advantages of Adult Piano Lessons
1. Adults learn of their own volition. Children very often have to be persuaded to practice and attend piano lessons. Adults, on the other hand, don’t need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, to their piano teachers. (Admittedly, I do know some teachers whose lessons I’d be kicking and screaming to avoid.) Adult piano lessons are thus almost invariably a pleasure for both student and teacher.

2. Adults have highly developed logical and critical thinking skills. It is often thought that playing music is a purely creative, right-brained act, but this is by no means the case. As the most emotional of the arts, music indeed favors the Dionysian right brain compared to the Apollonian left. Yet so much of interpreting music is a matter of basic analysis, of understanding music’s harmonic vocabulary and what the composer is doing with the musical material. Playing music without understanding these essentials would be like learning to pronounce syllables in a foreign language but having little or no idea what the words mean.

3. Adults can learn complex concepts much more easily and understand technical explanations. This makes it possible for adults to learn music theory and analysis far more easily than do children. The importance of being able to analyze and understand a piece of music from the beginning of study cannot be overstated. Nothing is more common than students who attain skill on an instrument but who have only a rudimentary understanding of the music, which severely limits their playing in ways they cannot imagine. I believe much of this state of affairs arises from children who learn notes before they are able to comprehend them, and their knowledge of harmony and theory never catches up to their finger skill. Adults, by contrast, are able to grasp the elements of music and musical structures quite readily, like a scientist who understands how the world works.

4. Adults have developed attention spans. Children’s attention spans, by contrast, are often limited to only a few minutes at a time. It takes careful concentration to learn the piano, and adults have a considerable advantage in this regard. Progress on a musical instrument is a matter of accumulating many hours of concentrated, careful practice. (Practicing without concentration is not only unproductive, it is outright destructive to your playing.)

5. Adults are emotionally developed. Music, after all, is the most directly emotional of the arts, and its wide spectrum of emotions can only be expressed and comprehended by those who have experienced those emotions themselves. Emotion in music has very much to do with musical vocabulary (harmony, or how tones combine) and how they extend in time and create musical forms. The former is music’s vertical dimension (notes in relation to one another at any given moment), the latter its horizontal (how notes relate to one another in the listener’s aural memory).

6. Adults are able to read fluently. By contrast, very young children can’t yet read letters or numbers, which necessitates more basic teaching methods. Note names, musical instructions and fingering numbers are not the only things that require the ability to read letters and numbers: the fascinating areas of music history and theory, so critical to playing music competently, do as well.

7. By definition, adults are fully grown, whereas children have as-yet undeveloped muscles. While the hands themselves can and should gain flexibility and strength from practicing piano (and the hand span can even increase), the fingers and palms of adults are fully grown. This simple advantage should not be overlooked in music education. Children who play string instruments, for instance, are forced to adapt to instruments of different sizes as they grow. The violin, for instance, comes in fully eight different sizes! The piano keyboard, by contrast, is only available in one size. (Steinway, however, once made a special piano for the diminutive Josef Hofmann, one with slightly narrower keys.) While only a very few composers (Alkan among them) consistently required large hands, fully grown hands make more music accessible to players.

Remember, it is never too late to learn music! If you’re an adult wishing to commence or resume piano playing, I encourage you to discover your true musicality. Adult piano lessons may be your path to musical fulfillment

The Boston piano features a duplex scale, adapted from the famous Steinway & Sons design, which adds a harmonic richness that simply can’t be duplicated by other instruments in a similar price range.

In comparison to other pianos, the Boston has less string tension. This reduced string tension allows for a larger, tapered soundboard, creating longer sustain, and more singing quality in the tone (as well as longer piano life). A wealth of other engineering enhancements, including optimal placement of ribs, braces, and bridges, also contribute to the Boston’s superior tone and greater stability.

The Boston grand piano offers a larger soundboard in comparison to other pianos of the same length, due to its innovative “wide tail” design. This wider construction of the case means that a 5’ 10” Boston grand has the same soundboard area as a typical 6’ 2” grand piano, creating the power, richness, and feel of playing a much larger piano.

Each Boston piano soundboard is crafted of Sitka spruce, long proven to be the most resonant material available. Boston soundboards are also precisely tapered, which allows them to vibrate more freely. In conjunction with a number of special technologies — unique patents of Steinway & Sons — the result is a powerful, sustained tone.

Fine veneers underlie the elegance of the Boston pianos — available in walnut and mahogany satin or polished finishes, as an alternative to the classic ebonized — all designed to delight the eye and enhance the player’s experience.

Traditional pianos are playing the blues
Unless you have a Steinway, your grandmother’s much-loved black-and-white ivory keys are destined to join many others in the landfill.
By Bruce Kennedy Mon 6:58 AM
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Here’s some news you don’t hear often in our disposable society. It involves a U.S. company started 160 years ago that’s still crafting world-class products today that are much in demand. However, another part of this story is all too familiar.

Steinway Musical Instruments (LVB -0.20%), maker of perhaps the most renowned pianos in the world, is soon to go private after being purchased by private equity firm Kohlberg & Co. for $438 million.

Like other companies, Steinway struggled through the recession, reporting a 20% annual decline in its high-end grand piano sales between 2005 and 2008.

And while those numbers have come back with the economic recovery, they’re still being tempered by exports from China, Asia’s largest piano maker.

As Al Lewis recently blogged over at MarketWatch, one way of looking at Steinway is as its own biggest rival. How’s that?

“Because Steinway pianos are built to last for generations, a relatively large market exists for used Steinways,” said the company’s annual report. “It is difficult to estimate the significance of used piano sales because most are conducted in the private aftermarket. However, we believe that used Steinway pianos provide the most significant competition in the high-end piano market.”

According to Lewis, a good Steinway appreciates at a steady annually rate of about 4%, “better than some stocks, bonds and mutual funds — because the company raises its prices every year to maintain its renowned level of quality.”

Sadly, however, the steadily rising value of a used Steinway can’t be said about everyday, household pianos. Indeed, Steinway is one of the few companies anywhere bucking the trend of our current throwaway society. Once a staple piece of furniture in middle-class American homes, more pianos are ending up in trash dumps to be broken up and recycled for their wood and metal.

A number of factors are behind the decline of the traditional piano. Along with the required maintenance to keep them in tune, many are being replaced by lightweight and portable electronic keyboards or by less expensive wooden pianos from overseas.

So what do you do with a heavy, unloved and not particularly valuable piano — especially since the instrument’s lifespan is about 80 years and so many of them still out there are reaching the end of their time?

You dump them, of course — which has been a boon for piano movers and disposal businesses in recent years.

There’s at least one alternative. The owner of a New Hampshire piano-moving company has created PianoAdoption.com, a site whose mission is to find “a new home for all serviceable pianos before they end up in the local landfill.” Unless, of course, your piano happens to be a Steinwa

http://www.steinway.com/news/articles/piano-for-body-mind-and-soul/

Setting the Record Straight about Steinway & Sons Pianos

After surfing the Internet, hearing directly from confused customers, future Steinway piano buyers, music educators and piano technicians, I want to take this opportunity to address false accusations by non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders. They take it upon themselves to post false, undocumented information to the public via Internet web sites or verbal communication about the Steinway piano.

I am John Simon, owner of Steinway Piano Gallery Tucson. I have been an authorized Steinway dealer for over 28 years. Our family owned business was started in 1932 by my father, the late Edward Simon. I was awarded the Steinway dealership in 1983. I am knowledgeable in the history of the Steinway piano and how it is designed and built. Consequently, I know all 12,116 parts that it takes to make a Steinway including how the Steinway piano has evolved since the first Steinway in 1853.

I qualify as an expert in Steinway product because of the extensive training that Steinway and Sons has provided me over the years. With over 50 visits to the factory I have personally witnessed the building of a Steinway piano from the beginning process to the end. This qualifies me to write this article in support of Steinway & Sons, a company that has produced the finest pianos in the world since 1853 and is featured every year in the magazine The Best of the Best.

Since I cannot address every negative comment about Steinway, I will address the most misleading articles about the Steinway piano. In addition I am able to support my comments with written articles or quotes by the people who build the Steinway and design the Steinway including the head concert technician. These false claims produced by non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders are normally supported by the verbage “experts say” or “experts agree”. But the important question is, who are these “experts” and do they have the credentials to support their testimony about Steinway pianos? We certainly know they are not Steinway piano people.

False information:
1. The older Steinways were the best Steinway pianos built. This statement
implies that the new, or today’s Steinway is not as good as the older Steinways.
2. The Steinway piano went downhill after the family sold the business to CBS
Broadcasting Company.
3. A claim that their rebuilt Steinway piano uses genuine Steinway parts.
4. Accusations that Steinway is now contracting with Kawai in Japan and
Pearl River in China to build Steinway pianos.
5. The Hamburg Steinway is better than the New York built Steinway.

Response to #1.
Today 95% of the performing artists choose – of their own volition – to perform on Steinway pianos. Steinway has never paid a performing artist to play their piano. This is by choice.

A quote from Franz Mohr, “As you know I was the Chief-Concert Technician at Steinway for over 30 years and let me tell you that as a musician and technician I have a real love affair with the Steinway piano. It is the best piano ever conceived in the human mind. In all of my travels and personal relationships with the artists, I do not know of one artist today that would prefer an older Steinway over today’s Steinway”.

The famed Steinway Concert piano room in the basement of Steinway Hall, where the artist can try out and pick the Steinway they want to perform on, has no Steinway older than 15 years. There are 50 Steinways in that basement.

Today there are 125 “All Steinway Schools”. Not one of these schools has purchased the older Steinways. All 125 schools purchased the current model Steinway for their institution.

This quote comes from Steinway’s literature called Fable and Fact. Fable has it that “the Steinway piano of today is not as good as that of the olden days.”

Fact is that the Steinway of today is so much better there is no room for comparison at any point. The Steinway piano of the present is at the apex of its greatness. In power, purity and the beauty of tone it far excels the models of previous years. An important development of tone volume or tone power has been achieved within recent years. The action of the instrument is proportionately quicker and more responsive. The repeating quality is nearly electric in effect. Never before was the mechanical work so fine. The materials used were gathered from the four corners of the earth whatever they may cost in endeavor or money. Every part of a Steinway is a known quantity. Every Steinway is made in the Steinway factory. There zealous of family traditions and universal reputation assures a continuous improvement of their product rather than deterioration. Yesterday’s artists demanded yesterday’s Steinways. Today artists demand today’s Steinways.

Response to #2.
In 1972 with an aging ownership and no heirs to the business Henry and John Steinway (I knew both personally) decided in the best interests of the business that it was time to sell. The company was sold to an owner that would guarantee the continued success and financial support of the business.

Unknown to many is that when the agreement was made it included a clause that said, “no matter who owns Steinway & Sons, now or in the future, the owners will never have a say in the process of building the piano.”

This clause was inserted to protect the Steinway product from becoming the normal mass produced “production piano”. It assures that every Steinway piano would be designed and built by Steinway people only, no exceptions. The process of building the piano would continue as usual.

Response to #3.
Non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders often claim that they use genuine Steinway parts. A minority of these dealers and rebuilders use only genuine Steinway parts. A majority use generic parts. If the soundboard has been replaced and the piano was not sent to Steinway to be replaced then the soundboard is not a Steinway soundboard. Steinway will not sell their soundboards to anyone.

Most rebuilt pianos on the west coast market have been sent to Mexico where the labor is cheap and generic parts are being used.

If you purchase a rebuilt Steinway ask the dealer to provide you an itemized list of what was done to the piano and a Certificate of Authenticity. All reputable dealers should offer you one without your asking. This will guarantee 100% refund of your investment if a generic part is found in the piano. A Steinway that has generic parts is not a Steinway!

Please read my Steinway approved article about “Piano Buyer Beware” under instruments on our web site. www.spgtucson.com

Response to #4
In some of these articles it is claimed that the current owners of Steinway have contracted with Kawai (Japan) and Pearl River (China) to build their pianos. This would make one believe that the Steinway piano is being built in other countries. The Steinway & Sons piano is only built in two countries, in the USA since 1853 and in Germany since 1873. They have never been built anywhere else.

Response to #5
The claims that Hamburg Steinways are better than New York Steinways tells me one thing, that these non- Steinway dealers have not been well informed.

To set the record straight the New York Steinway has always been, and is today, the overwhelming choice of artists performing in America. This fact is verified by Steinway Hall on West 57th Street in New York City. There the legendary basement houses over 50 Steinway concert grands including both the New York and the Hamburg Steinways. Artists throughout the world visit this basement on a daily basis to select the Steinway they perform on for upcoming performances. Records prove that the New York Steinway is the overwhelming choice. In fact, approximately 95% of the artists that perform in the United States choose to perform on the New York Steinway. This data was confirmed by the Concert and Artist Department located at Steinway Hall New York.

Michael Mohr, Director Manufacturing/Assembly for Steinway & Sons in New York states, “the choice between the American built Steinway and the German built Steinway is more of a territorial one.” Mr. Mohr says the Hamburg Steinways are more often tuned between the range of A-442 to A-444 to appeal to the European taste for a bright sound. The combination of harder hammers and the tuning pitch create a brighter sounding piano. This is what most Europeans are comfortable and familiar with. The New York Steinway has always used softer hammers and been tuned at A-440 giving it a fuller sound and creating more depth in color, that American audiences and many performing artists prefer. This difference in sound is really the main difference between the pianos, as both are constructed from the same materials using the same patents and techniques that have been handed down and implemented on every Steinway-whether built in Hamburg or New York-for generations.

The statement that one piano is better than the other is false. It comes down to a matter of sound preference.

If you would prefer to purchase the German Steinway today you would have to pay $40,000.00 more to cover the import duties. This is the one reason these non- Steinway piano dealers tell you the German Steinway is better. It is to inflate the Steinway price to a range that they know you will not want to spend, making their mass-produced pianos, by comparison, more reasonable.

There are certainly many non-Steinway dealers and rebuilders that are honest and will present the correct facts. They will also have in writing materials that support what they tell you. Be sure to ask them.

My point is… does a non-Steinway dealer know more about the Steinway piano and its history than a Steinway trained, informed and authorized Steinway dealer? And I guess if they are willing to go that far they are willing to tell you anything.

Please contact me if you have any questions about this response and feel free to ask to view any of the support materials referenced in writing this article.

This article has been approved by Steinway & Sons for accuracy

The Rewards of Music Education

New Research Proves the Value of Childhood Music Education Piano Training In Early Childhood Has Lasting Rewards
There is an undeniably strong correlation between music education and the development of skills that children need to become successful in life. Self-discipline, patience, sensitivity, coordination, and the ability to memorize and concentrate are all enhanced in the study of music. These skills will follow your child on whatever path he or she chooses in life. You have the chance now to introduce a formative influence that may be second only to the love you give your child. If you’re looking for a way to provide your child with a source of life-long joy, satisfaction, and accomplishment, childhood music education is an excellent first step.

And the piano is an excellent first instrument. No other single instrument matches the piano for its broad application of musical concepts. Even if later your child chooses to play another instrument, the melody, rhythm and sense of harmony acquired with piano education will pay off handsomely.

Better Sooner Than Later
New evidence exists that there are actual physiological benefits to early childhood music education. A study released in February, 1997 presents findings that music education — specifically, piano instruction in pre schoolers produces changes in the brain which enhance children’s abstract reasoning skills. These skills are necessary for learning math and science, to play chess, and to master many concepts of engineering.

Dr. Frances Rauscher of the University of Wisconsin and Dr. Gordon Shaw of the University of California had previously linked piano/keyboard and singing lessons to enhanced spacial-temporal ability in pre schoolers. The new study documents that early piano training also has a direct effect on the development of the brain’s neural circuitry, actually improving intellectual development. In other words, this research points out that early piano training helps to create and maintain certain “connections” in children’s brains that may not otherwise form.

It has long been known that musically educated children develop skills they carry into adulthood Now it appears that piano training can actually make children more intelligent. Can you think of any more precious gift to give the children in your life?

Here’s How The Study Was Conducted
Thirty four children received private piano keyboard instruction, 20 children were given private computer lessons, and 24 children provided other controls. Four standard, age-calibrated spatial reasoning tests were given before and after training. One tested spatial temporal reasoning; three tested spatial recognition. Significant improvement on the spatial temporal test was found for the keyboard group only. None of the groups improved significantly on the spatial recognition tests. This led the researchers to conclude that music training produces long-term modifications in underlying neural circuitry in regions of the brain not primarily concerned with music. The magnitude of the improvement suggests that learning of standard curricula is also enhanced.

Other important developmental benefits to childhood music education
Researchers at the University of Konstanz in Germany found that exposure to music rewires neural circuits. For instance, they used magnetic resonance imaging to examine the brains of nine string players. They found that the amount of somato-sensory cortex dedicated to the fingering hand was far larger than in non-players. Additionally, the earlier the player took up the instrument, the more cortex was devoted to playing it. Most concert-level performers begin playing earlier than ten years of age.

Scientists at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston found that the brains of 30 musicians with perfect pitch — the ability to identify isolated musical notes they hear — had greatly enlarged structures on the left side of their brains. All the musicians with perfect pitch said they were exposed to music prior to age seven. The likelihood of developing perfect pitch is extremely low if exposure comes after age ten.

Another German study, at Heinrich Heine University in Dusseldorf, reported that exposure to music activates and enhances cognitive processes involved in language and reasoning.

Other studies show that all children are born with musical ability. For example, two month old infants can match the pitch, intensity, and melodies for songs their mothers sing, and at four months infants can match rhythm as well. But the older children get without exercising their musical aptitude, the more will be lost and never regained. The reason is neurological — by approximately age 11, the neuron circuits that permit all kinds of perceptual and sensory discrimination, such as identifying pitch and rhythm, become closed off.

Finally, students with coursework and experience in musical performance scored 51 points higher on the verbal portion of the SAT and 39 points higher on the SAT math portion than students with no coursework or experience with music — from data compiled by the Music Educators National Conference from The College Board.

One gift that really does keep giving
As your child’s musical education continues and extends to playing in groups, in recitals, or in competitions, one reward is the special camaraderie that often blooms between young musicians. This can often lead to friendships that last for years to come. The piano can also be a source of stability in the turbulent teenage years. And as an adult, the poise and self-assurance developed by playing and performing at the piano has very tangible value in social and business worlds. There is also the chance that your child has an exceptional musical talent, in which case a whole world of possibilities — both personal and professional — can be recognized and nurtured.

With such clear evidence of the benefits of childhood piano education, the choice as to which piano to purchase still remains. It is highly advisable to buy the best piano you can afford. It stands to reason that the higher the quality of the piano, the better it will sound. And that’s certainly encouragement to get your budding young pianist to play, play more often, and play longer!