Effects of Playing Piano

Effects of Piano

Talia Bar Yaacov

    Did you know that studies have shown that the links between music and intelligence are more than just theoretical? Different tests abd surveys have increasingly shown that playing piano can inrease skill levels in everything from memory and pattern recongnition to hand eye coordination.

   

Memory

    Piano playing can help in many ways, including increasing your memory. Adults who recieved music training before the age of twelve have better memory for spoken words than those who did not. Having good memory is very helpful and important, and it is a great skill to have.

Hand Eye Coordination

    Piano helps with motor skills and dexterity, which can be very helpful in life. Piano also helps with depth perception, which can help in, among other things, sports. These are very important physical skills, and can help in other endeavors.

Stress Relief

    Finally, playing piano promotes brain health. It is shown that piano is a great way to relieve stress, and musicians describe a “high” that is felt while playing their instrument. Stress has been proven to lead to health problems later in life, so relieving it is not such a bad idea.

Piano

    Playing piano is very beneficial, and can help you lead a better, more healthy, life. It can help memory, improve hand eye coordination, and relieves stress. The most important thing, however, is that it is fun. Millions of people across the globe play it, and there must be a reason for that.

Feature Article

Teens are Reading Less and Less

    Did you know that less than one percent of thirteen-year-olds are daily readers? That’s a fourteen percent decline from twenty years ago. This sad statistic comes from a study performed by the National Endowment for the Arts. Instead of reading, teens are watching televisions an average two hours a day, or checking Facebook. Another study shows that twenty eight percent of teens count using Facebook as reading. The young adults of today are reading less and and less, which is worrisome, to say the least.

Decline in Reading Affects Grades

    This decline in pleasure reading also seems to be affecting reading skills The National Endowment for the Arts study also showed that “reading scores for twelfth graders fell significantly from 1992 to 1005, with the sharpest decline in low-leveled readers.” It says that almost forty percent consider high school graduates “deficient” in reading comprehension. In reading scores for thirty-one industrialized nations, American fifteen-year-olds ranked only fifteenth, trailing behind Poland, France, Korea, and Canada, among others. Reading is one of the most important skills a person can have today, and this decline in America’s reading skills is extremely troublesome.

Reading Helps Developement

    Reading teaches people things, every time they read it. It teaches teens how to deal with real world problems, and how to appreciate what they have. “In their pleasure reading, teens gain significant insights into mature relationships, personal values, cultural identity, physical safety and security, aesthetic preferences, and understanding of the physical world, all of which aid teen readers in the transition from childhood to adulthood,” says Vivian Howard, who conducted a study on the matter. When you take away pleasure reading, it leaves teens defenseless. There are school books, of course, but being that they are school books, teens automatically rebel against them. Also, many books on the school curriculum are out-of-date. There are the classics, of course, but when the school try to assign a book that the students will relate to, the books are old. For example, on the eighth grade curriculum at Maplewood Middle School , the it is mandatory to read one book written in 1962, and then the students get offered a choice between five books, all written in the seventies. It may even be discouraging students from taking the initiative and reading the book themselves. If they want to encourage teens to read, they should try to offer books that many people like in this millennium. The course is called Teens In Turmoil, most likely so that the students will relate to it, but there are many newer books out there that feature “teens in turmoil” that the students will like much better, and that have reached the bestseller list.

What Teens Are Doing Instead

    Instead of reading, teens are watching television and going on the Internet. On average, Americans aged fifteen to twenty-four spend two hours a day watching TV and seven minutes a day reading for pleasure. “TV is sometimes used to tune-out others or escape from the real world. This can cause you to miss out on real world experiences,” says one doctor. “Most American children will have spent, by the time they graduate school, 20,000 hours in front of the television set compared to 15,000 in the classroom,” says Sheila H. Troppe, a junior high school teacher.

Get Reading Back Up

    Pleasure reading is a very important thing, as most people believe, and this drop in the amount of teens that are reading is frustrating and scary. As Americans, we need to get the amount of reading back up again.

                                             

Blibliography

Troppe, Sheila H. "84.05.03: Television and Teens." Yale University. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1984/5/84.05.03.x.html>.

Howard, Vivian. "The Importance of Pleasure Reading in the Lives of Young Teens: Self-identification, Self-construction and Self-awareness." Journal of Librarianship and Information Science. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://lis.sagepub.com/content/43/1/46.short>.

"National Endowment for the Arts Announces New Reading Study." National Endowment for the Arts Home Page. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.nea.gov/news/news07/TRNR.html>.

George, Donna St. "Teens Are Still Reading for Fun, Say Media Specialists." The Washington Post: National, World & D.C. Area News and Headlines - The Washington Post. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/10/31/AR2010103103673.html>.

Goodnow, Cecelia. "Teens Buying Books at Fastest Rate in Decades - Seattlepi.com."Seattle News, Sports, Events, Entertainment | Seattlepi.com - Seattlepi.com. Web. 18 Oct. 2011. <http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/books/article/Teens-buying-books-at-fastest-rate-in-decades-1230449.php>.