What Part Do You Use the Most?

In the last blog post we learned about how many different body parts are actually engaged when we play the piano. We tend to think of our body as a "whole being" rather than different parts that function differently and even independently sometimes, when we play. 

Now let's turn our focus to our brains using that same concept. We tend to think of our brains as a whole "thing" that just...does its thing! But, just like our bodies have unique parts that do individual tasks, our brains also are made up of different parts that are responsible for specific tasks that another part of our brain wasn't designed to accomplish. Just like our bodies, these independent parts work together to do everything that we demand of it each day. 

Here are the different sections of our brain that are engaged and strengthened when we listen to music and play the piano. 

First let's see what is activated when we simply listen to music without playing it. 

• Hearing music activates our brain stem and cerebellum. 
• It then stimulates the auditory areas on both sides of our brain.
• Memory centers that are in the  hippocampus and portions of the frontal lobe are activated. 

Next, let's look at what additional parts of the brain that engages with music when we actually play it instead of just listening to it. 

• Rhythmic actions such as percussion type sounds or even moving our body with the rhythm in a piece activates the frontal lobe as well as the sensory and motor cortex areas. 
• Learning new pieces increases the sizes of the auditory cortex and the motor cortex. 
• Neural pathways become larger, stronger and can carry more information. 
• Our frontal lobe is energized when we put emotion into our piano playing. 

As you can see, all of our brain is essentially involved in one way or another when we listen to and especially when we play the piano or any instrument. When we learn what areas of our brains do what we can think about that when we're playing the piano. We can also use this knowledge to strengthen areas that we are weaker in. 

If we have a hard time with rhythm, we know that working the frontal lobe, and the sensory and motor cortex areas of our brain will help us with that. Dancing is a great way to activate and give these areas of our brain a work out and it will help us at the piano when we're practicing on that specific issue. 

Playing the piano teaches us a lot about ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, socially and even spiritually. Make sure that you try to apply what you learn at your piano to the rest of your life and do the same with the things you are learning in other areas of your life, to your piano playing. 

Stay Tuned to PianoLessonsOnTheWeb.com to learn much more and achieve your dream of playing the piano!