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Beginning through Advanced Students, Children and Adults! .
As Professor of Piano at the Music and Arts Institute of San Francisco, I taught students seeking a degree in applied music. I also developed a special program for children ages 4 to 6 for the junior department. As a private instructor, I had the privelage to teach many fine students, helping to prepare many of them for numerous competitions and concerts around the US, many of them winning thousands of dollars in scholarship monies.
All students receive instruction in:
- Musicianship
- Theory
- Performance
Why Study Piano?
In a study released in 2000, second graders from a low income school in Los Angeles were given eight months of 'piano keyboard' These students, taking the Stanford 9 Math Test, went from scoring in the 30th to the 65th percentile. An interesting finding given the TIMMS results of 1998.
(Neurological Research, March 15, 1999; Gordon Shaw, Ph.D, University Of California, Irvine)
A related study by University of Wisconsin Professor, Dr. Frances Rauscher published in 1997 in the Scientific Journal Neurological Research showed that children involved with keyboard instruction at an early age showed significantly enhanced abstract reasoning abilities, critical to success in science and complex math.
After learning about this research, the Wisconsin School District of Kettle Moraine wanted to see how this concept would work in the real world. They implemented a program that replicated the Rauscher study, using kindergarten students and group piano
At the end of the school year, students in classes that had received 'piano keyboard' instruction outscored those who received no keyboard instruction by 46 percent! The program has since expanded to K through 6 students across the entire district.
Here is what a recent study shows:
Forbes - Sorry, Kids, Piano Lessons Make You Smarter
CAN
MUSIC REALLY MAKE YOU SMARTER?
Ten-Year
Study Shows Music Improves Test Scores
Regardless of socioeconomic background,
music-making students get higher marks in standardized tests. UCLA
professor, Dr. James Catterall, led an analysis of a U.S. Department
of Education database. Called NELLs88, the database was used to track
more than 25,000 students over a period of ten years. The study showed
that students involved in music generally tested higher than those
who had no music involvement. The test scores studied were not only
standardized tests, such as the SAT, but also in reading proficiency
exams. The study also noted that the musicians scored higher, no matter
what socioeconomic group was being studied.
- Dr. James Catterall, UCLA,
1997
Music Students
Score Higher SATs®
College-bound seniors with school music
experience scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of their
SATs and 41 points higher in math (98 points combined) than those
without arts instruction.
- Profiles of SAT and Achievement Test
Takers, The College Board, 2001
Music Makes the
Brain Grow
Childhood music lessons actually enlarge portions of the brain. German
researchers found that the brain area used to analyze musical pitch
is an average of 25% larger in musicians. The younger the musical
training begins, the larger the area.
- Nature, April 23, 1998
Second Graders
do Sixth Grade Math
Second-grade students who were given four months of piano keyboard
training, as well as time using math puzzle software, scored 27% higher
on proportional math and fractions tests than children who received
no special instruction. They were also able to solve proportional
math problems at a sixth grade level.
- Keeping Mozart in Mind, Academic
Press
Music Students
Enjoy Greater College Success
Music majors are better readers and more successful
med school applicants. A study of 7,500 university students revealed
that music majors scored the highest reading scores among all majors
including English, biology, chemistry and math. Physician and biologist
Lewis Thomas studied the undergraduate majors of medical school applicants.
He found that 66% of music majors who applied to med school were admitted,
the highest percentage of any group. Forty-four percent (44%) of biochemistry
majors were admitted.
- The Comparative Academic Abilities of Students
in Education and in Other Areas of a Multi-focus University, Peter
H. Wood, ERIC Document No. ED327480. The Case for Music in the Schools,
Phi Delta Kappan, February, 1994
Rhythm Students
Learn Fractions Better
After learning eighth, quarter, half and whole notes, second and third
graders scored 100% higher than their peers who were taught fractions
using traditional methods.
- Neurological Research, March 15,
1999
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