Piano teachers have known for years, that children who take piano lessons or keyboard lessons, do significantly better in school. Now, new research has validated this.
Many people think of IQ as a genetic trait you’re born with it. However, research is now showing that a person’s IQ can rise and fall over the years. IQ Scores can change gradually or quickly, after as little as a few weeks of cognitive training. In one study, IQ scores increased as much as 15% or more for some students.
Recent studies by several researchers have made a connection between music lessons and IQ level. The most pronounced results were in younger people. According to research by E. Glenn Schellenberg, psychology professor at the University of Toronto at Mississauga, music lessons are linked to higher IQ throughout life. He states that six years of music lessons increased children’s IQ scores an average 7.5 points.
In a 2011 study, researchers at the University of Kansas found that practicing musicians who are active for a decade or more continue to post higher IQs beyond age 60. A score in the 90 to 110 range is considered average. A “genius” may score 140 and above. A person’s IQ score fluctuate over their lifetime and is influenced by complex musical training, jobs, advanced schooling experiences, and new experiences. It has been discovered that learning new tasks stimulates the brain the most.
People can take practical steps to increase their long term improvements to IQ. People whose work involves complex relationship or problem solving perform better long term on cognitive tests. Peoples whose jobs little thought will experience declining IQ scores. A 30-year study at the National Institute of Mental Health found that people whose work involves complex relationships, setting up elaborate systems or dealing with people or difficult problems, tend to perform better over time on cognitive tests. Test scores of people whose jobs are simple and require little thought actually tend to decline, according to the research.
A rare video from the early 50’s. The King of Mambo, Dámaso Pérez Prado, playing with his band, and showing his flair in a piano solo.
Dámaso Pérez Prado was born december 11, 1916. He was a cuban bandleader, pianist, singer, organist and composer. He was born in Matanzas, Cuba and is known as the ‘King of the Mambo’. His mother was a school teacher and his father worked at a newspaper. He took classical piano lessons as a child, and later played organ in local clubs. He his career progressed, he played music all over Cuba, Mexico, and the U.S. He made a number of very popular recordings. His playing was known for its fire and expression and was backed up by his brass band. He is most known for his recording of “Mambo Jambo”, a very big hit in the U.S.
Here is a great example of the extraordinary piano playing of Oscar Peterson. The song is ‘I Can’t Get Started’ (With You); music written in 1935 by Vernon Duke, lyrics by Ira Gershwin. Peterson was one of the most accomplished jazz pianists in history. His playing was stunning, technical superior, and totally absorbing. His astounding left hand was one of the best ever witnessed since Art Tatum. He played powerfully, with lightning speed. The articulation of every note was remarkable. His complex piano playing sounded like an entire band of musicians. Peterson was an enormously talented piano player and band leader.
He was born Oscar Emmanuel Peterson (August 15, 1925 – December 23, 2007) in Montreal, Canada. As a child, he was immersed in the black culture of jazz so popular in the early 20th century. Oscar Peterson began piano lessons at the age of 5. He also played trumpet, but tuberculosis prevented him from continuing. He placed all his attention on playing piano. His father was also a pianist and was one of his first piano teachers. His sister taught him classical piano. Peterson was totally dedicated to the piano and committed to an arduous practice schedule of up to six hours a day. It was this complete focus on piano that helped him attain his exemplary piano virtuosity.
While studying classical piano, he became enthralled with jazz, ragtime music, and boogie woogie. At the age of nine, his mastery of the piano had already impressed many adult professional musicians. At the age of fourteen, after winning a national music competition, Peterson dropped out of school and began playing professionally. He played on a weekly radio show, at hotels, and music halls. His style was completely his own, with strong piano blues influences. His career took on legendary proportions as he began his prolific recording career, releasing over 200 recordings. Peterson’s remarkable piano playing earned him seven Grammy awards. In his lengthy 65 year career, he played thousands of concerts around the world, was enthusiastically received, and awarded many honors. Oscar Peterson was one of the greatest jazz pianists of all time.
Here is a really nice version of the very popular song, ‘Night and Day’ by Cole Porter, performed by Alfonso Gugliucci. Porter was inspired to write the song during a trip to Morocco in 1932. It’s one of his most famous compositions. Porter performed the song in several Hollywood movies, and it has been recorded by countless artists.
Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) wrote many popular songs during his career. He was born in Peru, Indiana. Porter began his music training early. He began piano lessons when he was eight. He wrote his first piece at the age of ten.
Porter wrote 300 songs while he was at school at Yale. Upon graduating, Porter began his law studies at Harvard Law School. Realizing that he did not wish to be an attorney, he switched to studies to music. In 1915, his first Broadway song was an immediate success.
In 1917, At the start of World War I, Porter moved to Paris. He worked to distribute relief supplies for several months. There is some documentation that he may have served in the French Foreign Legion in North Africa. While there, he had a special portable piano constructed so he could carry it with him and entertain troops while on bivouac.
On October 24, 1937, the horse that Porter was riding, fell down on top of him, crushing his legs. He was left crippled and in agonizing pain. His doctors insisted on amputating at least one and possibly both his legs, but Porter refused the procedure. He later underwent more than 30 surgeries, and during the remainder of his life, was beset by pain and depression.
Cole Porter performed exclusively on a Steinway piano and owned one. His piano currently resides in the lobby of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City
Piano video from the movie ‘Secret’ (不能說的秘密), starring and directed by Jay Chou. Two very talented pianists battle it out on the piano. Yuhao Zhan’s improvisation skill is absolutely amazing. A brilliant showdown of dueling pianos in competition.
Cast
周杰倫 (周杰伦) Jay Chou as 葉湘倫 (Ye Xianglun): Music student majoring in piano and lives with his father.
桂綸鎂 (桂纶镁) Kwai Lun-mei as 路小雨 (Lu Xiaoyu): Music student who lives with her mother.
黄秋生 (黄秋生) Anthony Wong Chau-sang as 小倫爸爸 (Xianglun’s father): The discipline teacher of Xianglun’s school and his father.
曾愷玹 (曾恺玹) Alice Tzeng as 晴依 (Qing Yi): The girl Ye Xianglun met when he joined Dangjian. She always admired Ye Xianglun.
宋健彰 Devon Song as 阿宝/阿寶 (Abao): Not a well-behaved student. Member of a rugby team.
黃俊郎 (黄俊郎) Huang Junlang as 阿郎 (Alang): Abao’s good friend, captain of the rugby team. Organised a dance party where he performs.
詹宇豪 Yuhao Zhan as 雨豪 (Yu Hao): “Prince of the piano”, a talented piano player, had a “piano battle” with Ye Xianglun.
Plot
Ye Xianglun, a music student majoring in piano, transfers to Tamkang (Danjiang)Secondary School. It is a school famous for musically talented students, especially for those who play piano. On the first day of school, as he wanders through the piano building, he hears a mysterious melody being played that leads him to Lu Xiaoyu, another piano major. When he asks her about the song she was playing, she tells him that it is a secret that cannot be told. The two develop a relationship that is clouded in mystery. When Xianglun tells Xiaoyu of the demolition of the piano building on graduation day, she teaches him the song that he heard on the first day of school.
However, when a mis-passed note leads to Xianglun’s accidental kissing of Qing Yi, Xiaoyu disappears for five months, only to return on graduation day and mysteriously disappear again. Xianglun asks around and discovers through Xiaoyu’s mother and his own father that Xiaoyu was actually a student from the class of 1979, who graduated 20 years ago. His father tells him claimed she time traveled to the present via a piece called “Secret” that she played on an old piano in the piano building. She had fallen in love with Xianglun, but the only barrier is that, in the present, the first person she sees on each trip is the only person that can see her.
When Xiaoyu was misled that Xianglun liked Qing Yi, she returned back twenty years to her normal time. During her absence, her story spread and everyone believed that she was crazy. Remembering that the piano room would be destroyed on graduation day of 1999, she tried time traveling to see Xianglun one last time, but was misled once again that he liked Qing Yi as she saw Xianglun was wearing Qing Yi’s bracelet, loaned to him for good luck for playing at the graduation ceremony. Xiaoyu retreats back to her own time and faints due to an asthma attack, while writing on her desk, to which Xianglun desperately tries to write back by writing on a desk with white out.
After finally learning of Xiaoyu’s story, Xianglun realizes that the piece that she taught him was “Secret”, which had the power to take the pianist forward or backward in time depending on the tempo at which it is played. He rushes off to the piano room, which is about to be torn down. Xianglun’s father retrieves the manuscript of Secret that Xiaoyu had given to him for safekeeping, then realizes that Xiaoyu had written a secret message to which he finds out was for Xianglun. Meanwhile, Xianglun enters the piano building where the old piano is. As the demolition begins, Xianglun begins “Secret” from memory, recalling something Xiaoyu told him while teaching him the piece: “I always play it that fast when I go back”. Just before the piano room is completely destroyed, Xianglun travels back to 1979. He sees Xiaoyu, and she sees him and smiles, but doesn’t seem to know him. The last scene is when the 1979 Tamkang (Danjiang) Secondary School graduation picture is taken, in which Xianglun and Xiaoyu are present. As the old piano and the piano building have been destroyed, Xianglun stays forever in the past living a normal life with his love Xiaoyu.
