Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Pianist Corner Am I the only one that finds it irritating that...

... when i tell people my one year old has been at the piano with me since a few months old and now be bangs away at the keys every chance she gets and the only response I've heard is...

"Yeah thats great... piano helps with math... fractions and stuff."

OMG... While that may be true is everyone missing the point of playing music is to play music??? Jeez is there no creative capacity left?

P.S. BTW my tech is the only one that said, "Wow wouldnt it be funny if she turns out to be a virtuoso?"

Gotta give credit where credit is due.

It is great in so many ways to let your child play away (or bang) i don't have kids of my own but whenever I have babies or children over I let them play, or hold them at the piano, even though what sounds to us like banging, sounds good to them. I am all about encouraging creativity and I think that it helps them develop who they are. I am sure that it does help with math, but I think it also gives them the freedom of expression without words, helps to expand their minds, gives them something to be proud of. When a child learns any musical intrument or any art atall then when they get older they will have something that is theirs and that they can go to and express themselves when they feel like nobody else will listen, anyways I could go on and on with benefits that you obviously already know but just wanted to let you know that I understand.

That's one of the problems with all these publicized studies about the benefits of studying music: it has nothing to do with the benefits of music itself, and more with how it helps other non-musical things. What's wrong with music for music's sake?

My one-year-old also loves playing on the keyboard any chance he gets, which is unfortunately sometimes right in the middle of a full run-through of my pieces. Oh well. Such is life. If I can keep focused while a toddler is smashing away at some keys then a recital shouldn't be a problem, right?

I remember reading in "Wonderous Strange" that as a toddler, Glenn Gould would play a single note on the piano and then listen to it until it faded.

Encourage your little one!

It's good for babies in general to have something react to their action. I think the piano is one of the action-consequence toys around!

Now that I've got more time to wax long about my kid, he definitely understands that what he does affects the way the piano sounds. He experiments with dynamics, with range, sometimes with tone. It's kind of unbelievable - my teacher (who is childless) doesn't believe it at all - but I know his little brain is working and taking it all in. So before you even get to the whole music and math thing you can see that the piano is a wonderful learning tool for any baby.

The smile that lights up his face any time he gets placed in front of the piano is also well worth it.

yeah thats great... my little girl claps instead, then plays with both hands for a while and then claps again for herself... its a riot.

at 1o months she copied me and ascended up the keys one at a time... and of course clapped again and then attempted back down.

pretty cool.

Mine won't clap. We know he can. He just has never clapped and doesn't show any interest in it. This is the same child who can walk great but can't stand up by himself. Weird. I will just have to be patient and let him do things in his own time.

Teach her solfege!

my girl did the same thing... she's always in such a hurry to do things she started walking before she could get up on her own too, she always used the couch or chair or something to get her self to stand up almost as soon as she could crawl... so impatient.

"Am I the only one that finds it irritating that..."

No you aren't the only one.

And what about this :

Hey, next time somebody brags about how good their kid is at math, tell them

"Yeah thats great... math helps with music... piano and tubas and stuff."

+1 to keystring!

I think it's some silly marketing ploy that music helps math or the other way around. It's all about the work you put into whatever you're doing.

I agree completely about it being the work you put in that matters most come bottom line, but music is FULL of math and while there's no need to completely understand trig in order to play the WTC, math and music are intertwined much more than meets the eye.