That Eric Alper

You don’t have to be raising the next Beethoven to want your child to learn piano. Whether your little one turns out to be a musical prodigy, the experience of learning to play an instrument offers a lot of benefits for kids.

Studies show that children who learn to play an instrument have improved brain development and stronger educational performance later in life. They’ll be learning a lifelong skill to break out in front of friends and family!

When it comes to the top tier of instrument-learning, piano really is king. Here are just eight of the many reasons your child should learn piano with affordable kids piano classes online.

1. Problem-Solving Skills

Learning to play piano at an early age is primarily a lesson in problem-solving. In addition to working through the technical challenges of reading music and playing chords, kids are also learning broader techniques on how to approach difficult tasks through problem-solving and memory recall.

2. Improved Concentration

In a screen-dominated world where children’s attention spans seem to be shrinking by the minute, piano is a task that requires a child’s true, undivided attention. Successfully learning to play their favorite song will show your child the rewards that concentration and practice bring!

3. Motor Skills

Learning to play the piano is also a serious builder of hand-eye coordination. Not only will your child learn what keys to press with their fingers based on the notes that are on a page, but they’ll also learn how to do this with both hands playing different notes at the same time! Setting your kiddo up with piano lessons is setting them up for success in all future fine motor skills.

4. Better Performance in School

As you may have guessed from all the benefits to problem-solving and concentration, children who learn to play the piano at an early age tend to perform better in school! They’ll be more practiced at working on skills independently, as well as knowing when to ask for help.

5. Creative Outlet

While the influence on your child’s brain functioning has a positive impact on their intellectual success, studies show that playing an instrument reduces stress and anxiety while also improving creativity. Playing piano is rewarding hobby that your child will carry with them through life as a way to relax.

6. Earlier is Better

Just as with language-learning, younger is better when it comes to learning the piano. Children are better at absorbing large amounts of new information, as compared to adults, meaning they can likely learn faster. And establishing the motor skills specific needed for piano at a younger age makes for stronger playing later in life!

7. Higher Self Esteem

All of these improved motor skills, concentration, problem-solving, stress relief, and higher educational performance combine to create kids with higher self-esteem. Children who have successfully worked through challenging tasks at early ages grow up to have more self-confidence, which will carry them through the rest of their lives.

8. Musicality

This one sounds simple, but it’s important to note: learning to play the piano makes your child more musical. And whether your child has professional aspirations when it comes to music, or not, it is undeniable that music is an essential part of culture in every part of the world. It is something that transcends language and country. A love and knowledge of music is valuable in life, no matter where your child ends up!

Bottom Line

Whether it’s on a baby grand or an electric keyboard, your child should start learning all that piano has to offer asap! If you need help finding a teacher, there are some amazing organizations that offer affordable kids piano classes in a classroom, online, or right to your home! Your child could be accompanying the next family sing along in no time.

This month marks the 25th anniversary of the release of the second album by Manchester’s finest, Oasis, an album that was offered to the public slap, bang in the middle of the height of Britpop and arguably still hits the right notes.

Let’s rewind to the early 1990s and consider just how groundbreaking Oasis, and their fellow Britpop acts, were to the not just the music scene, but also across all manner of style, fashion and even political lines.

Oasis set the trend with the brand of ‘in your face’ balladeering, their swagger on stage was matched by a fashion sense that was soon replicated across the UK and beyond. 

Liam Gallagher found himself the darling of the press and fronted just about fashion mag doing the rounds, from GQ to Esquire, with every ‘lad’s’ mag in between. He was of course usually pictured alongside an attractive girlfriend, or wife, or two.  

Hell, even in 2019 the former Oasis frontman found himself the subject of a lengthy Q+A with Vogue magazine. The cultural impact of the band is undeniable, men of a certain age wanted to be them and certainly did their best to dress and act like them too. Be that while wearing chunky sunglasses, which thankfully you can now consider the option to try on glasses online, or a Fred Perry shirt and stylish Doc Marten boots.

A lot has changed since then.

2020 finds the Gallagher brothers working hard to make the most of their respective solo careers; Noel’s act The High Flying Birds, have released three critically acclaimed albums before going on something of a hiatus since their last major tour in 2019. 

Liam put Beady Eye, his previous band, to bed in 2014 and has elected to release his efforts in a more pared down manner, with his last effort, Why Me? Why Not, proving a major success in the UK, but the painful truth is that the pair are never as good as when they are working alongside other members of Oasis.

Listening to What’s the Story Morning Glory, WTSMG, 25 years on still brings goosebumps to those who grew up during the peak of the Britpop era, and the quality of the record lives beyond the sheer nostalgia.

It would have been easy for Oasis to ‘phone it in’ after the unmitigated success of their first album, Definitely Maybe in 1994, but what Liam, Noel, “Bonehead”, “Guigsy”, Alan, and to a lesser extent, Tony, created over the course of three months in a studio south Wales can certainly be considered a modern masterpiece.

Whereas Definitely Maybe benefited from a somewhat rough ambience, a lack of strong production, which gave their debut album the feel of an act looking to burst onto the scene, WTSMG is a more polished effort.

Producer Owen Morris layers the audio superbly, especially on anthemic closer Champagne Supernova, while also allowing show-stoppers such as Roll With It and Some Might Say to truly rock the listener. 

The album really comes to life due to the rapid maturity shown by chief songwriter Noel, with classics such as Don’t Look Back in Anger and Wonderwall, that have not only stood the test of time,  but have in fact developed an extended appeal all these years later.

The success of the album saw Oasis solidify their base and the supporting live shows were immense in scale. Famously two concerts at Knebworth saw the band perform to over 250,000 people, a show that astoundingly saw 2.5m people apply for tickets.

What’s the Story Morning Glory has gone on to sell in excess of 22 million and saw Oasis do what arch Britpop rivals Blur couldn’t, as they blew a massive hole in the American market. Any cursory glance across all manner of social networks shows that the album is still very much loved, with countless posts celebrating this 25th anniversary milestone effusively.

In 2020 there is a general consensus that Oasis have become something of a marmite act, either you love them or you loathe them. There are some who feel that their overall musical offering is one-note or lacking substance, but such a characterization is unfounded. 

Others feel the need to deride the band, electing for some reason to instead laud the likes of Blur or Radiohead, as if there was a need to eradicate the existence of one band in order to praise another. There doesn’t, of course, need to be a mutual exclusivity to the argument. 

There was, and still is, plenty of room for all these bands to muster your affection.

It’s sometimes difficult to think of our favourite music stars as being in any way similar to the rest of us. Aside from the fame, the notoriety, the talent and the fact that they have made such an impact on so many lives, there’s one most apparent difference.

Money. Yep, that’s a predictable and disgruntling topic but it’s one that is at the center or most of our lives. Whether or not it should be is a different matter altogether but the fact is that if we want to live full, healthy lives, then money has to be our focus.

And so when we think about our favourite music stars, that’s the big thing that sets them apart. They are nowhere near as worried about it as we are because they’ve got enough money to last them a hundred lifetimes.

So when we think about our own financial struggles and the irritating necessities that chip away at our bank accounts, we tend not to consider the possibility of famous musicians ever having the same thoughts.

But that’s not the reality of the situation. No matter how famous or how rich they are, they are still humans, just like us and that means that they do have to make the same considerations and decisions, even if it means less.

So you think about health insurance. So important, yet such a hard thing for most people to acquire. You would think it’s a right that every human being is entitled to but unfortunately it’s not treated as such, especially not in America. And it’s only getting worse.

And you might not think too much about Bob Dylan’s health insurance coverage, but he has it too, probably. And while he and other global superstars don’t struggle to afford it, that doesn’t mean they don’t have to jump through the same hoops to get it.

The trouble with that is that it’s fine once you make it, but getting to that stage puts you in a significantly more treacherous position. The fact is that most musicians, and most people who work in the entertainment industry in general, are self-employed.

And it’s not quite so simple for the self-employed, with inconsistent work to get access to healthcare as it is for people who are working full-time and getting a guaranteed weekly or monthly salary.

When you’re applying and you can prove that you won’t be inhibited from paying it in the future due to your primary source of income being a reliable one, you’re much more likely to be approved.

And when you think about it from this perspective, musicians really don’t have it all that easy unless they actually are the ones at the top of the pile. In the grand scheme of things, the top of the pile is very few people.

While Obamacare did make it a little bit easier for some of the lower-earning artists and actors to get access to some health insurance cover, that’s slowly being scaled back under the Trump administration and so people are struggling once again.

For those who are musicians but aren’t best-selling artists, what can they do? Well first of all, they can’t just decide that health insurance is not worth the expense because it’s arguably more important for them than the average citizen.

The positive side of it is that most of them are young enough to naturally be in good health. Of course there are a number of working musicians who are older than 65 and who can seek out a Medicare plan, but in general the less well-known musicians are young.

The most common issues don’t come from age-related health problems, they come from things like spending hours and hours at a time stuck in a hot, stuffy vehicle with three or four other people in close proximity.

From the crowded bars filled with drunk, boisterous, loud fans. From dragging heavy equipment around and dealing with the stress of not knowing whether or not you’ll get another gig or if the ones you have will actually pay you.

It’s a line of work that can lead to an abundance of health issues and so those involved absolutely need health insurance. There are certain resources available which can aid in the process of trying to access the coverage.

There’s the Future of Music Coalition (FMC) who have made it a priority to ensure that musicians who have yet to make a name for themselves will be protected. They also keep people up to date on any changes that occur which may affect them.

A lot of musicians who are represented by agencies will often get assistance from their union in this area, but for those who aren’t there is also the Artists Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC) which offers consultations and advice for those without representation.

So in short, you would assume that musicians don’t have the same issues as you do when it comes to trying to get health insurance, but when you look at the bigger picture, most of them are likely struggling as much as you are.

The biggest names might be in good shape, but they don’t make up the largest portion of the industry by any stretch of the imagination.