Joan's Piano Studio

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170412181341.htm

Music has powerful (and visible) effects on the brain It doesn’t matter if it’s Bach, the Beatles, Brad Paisley or Bruno Mars. Your favorite music likely triggers a similar type of activity in your brain as other people’s favorites do in theirs, new research has found.

http://www.jensenlearning.com/news/the-perfect-music-for-brain-based-learning/brain-based-learning
Playing music in the classroom

The Perfect Music for Brain-Based Learning- Brain Based Learning | Brain Based Teaching | Articles From Jensen Learning Here is how to decide what music to play in your classroom to help with brain-based learning. While you could use an endless number of criteria, these are a good start. I recommend using an iPod with a Bose Sound Dock player. You get the best of all worlds.

http://commonhealth.wbur.org/2014/07/music-language-brain?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20140719

How Playing Music Affects The Developing Brain Researchers in the burgeoning field of music neuroscience discuss the effects of music on brain development.

http://blog.learntoplaymusic.com/music-lessons/piano-keyboard/beginner-piano/

Beginner Piano Lessons & Exercises | Learn To Play Music The first 5 Lessons and ALL video/audio exercise media of the Progressive Beginner Piano book are available for FREE online here on the blog. Click the links in the table of contents below to get started.

http://www.wikihow.com/Play-the-Piano

How to Play the Piano The piano is an iconic instrument known as much for its difficulty as its beautiful sound. Read this guide to give yourself a leg up as you learn how to play the piano. Acquire a piano. Most teachers recommend that you purchase an actual...

Should My Child Learn to Improvise?
By Jesse Hamlin

Improvisation—the spontaneous creation of music—is an ancient art practiced in cultures worldwide. We tend to think of it these days in terms of jazz, where improvisation, the making of melodies in the moment, is an essential element. But there’s a long tradition of spontaneous music making in Baroque and classical music. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven and Chopin were all brilliant improvisers whose compositional themes often came out of their spontaneous keyboard inventions.

Encouraging young music students to experiment with improvisation “nurtures their creativity and confidence,” says Mark Levine, the noted Bay Area jazz pianist and teacher who studied classical piano for many years. “It’s such a big part of music today. Kids growing up now, even those studying classical music, want to know something about improvisation. It’s great for ear training and getting young musicians to think.”

Skilled jazz improvisers, of course, need to know a great deal about harmony and theory; the music doesn’t just come out thin air. It takes years of practice and study to master the art. But for kids just starting out on their instruments, improvising—making stuff up on the spot—can be great fun and inspire them to want to learn more about music.

“With improvisation, there is no right or wrong answer, no judgment, so it makes kids feel good about playing,” says Susan Muscarella, the classically trained jazz pianist who founded and directs the JazzSchool in Berkeley. “That’s important. It makes them feel free, and accesses a different part of their brain. It encourages them to be creative, to be in the moment and listen.”

There’s a lingering notion that too much classical training can inhibit a musician’s ability to improvise. Muscarella and many other musicians and educators don’t buy that. “Not at all,” she says. “As improvisers, we’re coming up with a thought, a musical sentence, and we need to have the technique to articulate that thought. Not only is Western European music beautiful and artful, it helps students develop finesse, technique and musicality. I’m inclined to feel that everybody can improvise to a certain extent. It’s just that people like Keith Jarrett do it better.” (Jarrett was a classical piano prodigy who embraced jazz as a teenager.)

Sometimes older students who come out of classical music freeze up when they try to improvise because, as Levine puts it, “its’ been drilled into them at an early age that you have to be perfect. They don’t realize when it comes to improvising, there is no perfect.” The more exposure a kid gets to different kinds of music and ways of playing, the better. “It all helps,” Muscarella says. “I really feel that a student is best off with both—reading music and improvising. It not either/or."

Jesse Hamlin has written for The San Francisco Chronicle and other publications over the past 30 years on a wide range of music and art, covering jazz musicians and symphonic conductors, sculptors, poets, and architects. He has also written for The New York Times, Art & Auction and Columbia magazines, as well as liner notes for CDs by Stan Getz and Cal Tjader.

The history of the street piano in England.

City Songs: A Brief History of the Street Piano This summer, once again, New York City will play home to a truly Big-Apple-flavored Street Piano installation.

http://www.wqxr.org/ #!/programs/romantic-piano/2013/may/02/?utm_source=/events/thegreenespace/2013/may/30/wqxr-presents-romantic-piano-david-dubal/&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=morelikethis

The Romantic Piano - Frédéric Chopin: The Poet of the Piano By the 1830s, the piano could sigh or shiver, quiver and swoon as no other instrument had ever done. No one had understood the piano's special resources and enchantments more completely than Frederic Chopin, as David Dubal illustrates on this week's episode.

http://www.ehow.com/way_5506392_learning-play-piano.html

Learning to Play Piano Piano is a keyboard instrument that evolved from 17th century instruments such as the clavichord and harpsichord. The piano as we know it today developed in Mozart's time. The piano, with its 88 keys and a range of more than seven octaves, can seem like an overwhelming instrument for beginners. Actu...

http://voices.yahoo.com/why-children-learn-piano-3871336.html

Why Children Should Learn the Piano Learning to play the piano gives children great life lessons. They can learn more than just to play the piano. They can learn lessons that will help them become effective and responsible adults.