Friday, April 24, 2009

Accordions and brain development

Parents! Want smarter kids? Sign them up for accordion lessons!

As with many artistic pursuits, learning to play an instrument has beneficial effects on mental and character development. The accordion or other keyboard instruments are additionally helpful because they help develop multiple coordination.

The accordion is especially helpful in coordination devleopment because it combines three distinct mental/physical tasks -
  • first the body coordination of physically playing the instrument: diatonic accordions are especially physical instruments because each note is a push or a pull
  • next the coordination between the left and right hands - right hand playing the melody on the treble keys, left hand accompanying on the basses - this could count as two isolated tasks -
  • throw in singing or dancing and WOW! you have a lot going on!

So when thinking about instruments for your child, consider the accordion and the benefits of the mental/physical coordination the accordion teaches.

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