Piano Lessons Are a Life Skill, Not an Extracurricular Activity

Recently at a concert where I sang with my brother and other family members, several students of his Vocology Institute asked me if our parents were musicians. I had to say that neither my mother or my father played an instrument but that singing was a life skill we learned like cooking or repairing a flat tire. Every family gathering consisted of singing and those that played an instrument became essential to the overall success of togetherness. 

I saw my niece go to the piano and start to play familiar songs during  a lag time at our recent family reunion. The children gathered around her and quieted down. They were pulled together in the magic web of music.

When you give a child piano lessons you are offering them a life long skill. It is not just an activity to stimulate their intellect or keep them out of trouble.

But, it is essential that you, as parent, show the value of that skill  My mother showed me, by sitting in the living room and listening , that she enjoyed my playing. Not to say that I was an easy child. I would have quit playing many times during my first ten years of lessons.. But she was convinced that I would thank her for her tenacity. And I have thanked her and I owe any success I have had as a pianist and piano teacher to her vision.