I'm always skeptical about claims such as: "Many studies show..." Nevertheless it's nice to know that a huge company such as Microsoft is promoting our cause.

There have been discussions here before about how piano playing might improve intellectual development. And the scientific community has done (and may be continuing to do) research into the topic.

I wonder what people think about the subject now? - particularly since the mainstream is keeping the topic alive and people are talking about (read the comments in the link) asking their elected officials to provide more support for music education based on the "Many studies that show..."

Here's the link to the MSN promotion:


A Musical Mind

Irving,

Thank you for the link. I may have missed it otherwise.

The article was well done and it was obviously designed to get parents to think, perhaps the first time, about the importance of music in a child's life. For many parents that guide their children to studying piano, the decision has little to do with a child becoming a great pianist.

My 2 cents,

Just imagine what the Piano World Forums would be like if we all didn't have improved minds!

i was a follower of the mozart effect thing when the first studies came out of UC Irvine in the 90s. I was already playing piano at the time so i was partial to it. Now i kind of question whether or not playing piano has greater intellectual benefits (i still like to think so), over other sorts of music such as playing violin, singing, or even taking drama classes. i dont think there has been a single study to date that shows concrete evidence that playing piano significantly improves one's intellect. it makes me wonder how autistic savants can play so marvelously and still not be able to dress themselves or count to 10 (if piano does in fact improve one's intellect). i hate to be blunt about it. but its not on par with something like exercise. Exercise has already been proven to improve ones mental health.

nonetheless, i still play piano, if not for the intellectual aspect but the recreational side of it