The author said she didn't take piano lessons as a child, but is enjoying learning alongside her own children now.
Courtesy of Saba Khonsari.
My grandmother is a pianist. As often happens, the pendulum swung the other way with my mom, who neither had an interest in taking piano lessons nor in making her kids do so. I vowed to throw the pendulum back the other way with my kids, enrolling them in piano lessons even though they showed no interest.As fate would have it, my eldest fell in love with the instrument. Soon after, I signed up for lessons, too. This fall I'll begin my 10th semester as an adult piano student at our local university's music education program.Over the years, I've learned to read notes and play chords. I performed an arrangement of Billy Joel's, "Piano Man," and Burgmüller's "L'Harmonie des Anges," for my recitals. The more I advance, the more I realize I am years away from the confident sight-reading necessary to fulfill my original vision of being able to plop down at the piano and play any pop song or carol in front of me. But that doesn't matter to me so muchSure, there are many reasons I could quit, but I find there are many more to continue. In total, I spent about $6,000 on piano lessons for our family last year, and about $2,400 of that was for me. The investment was worth every penny.Music is great for my brainMany parents know and understand the advantages of having our children learn how to play an instrument. No matter what our age, adults can benefit, too. A 2025 study found "playing an instrument was associated with a 35% reduced dementia risk."I saw the value firsthand when I attended 'Your Brain on Beethoven,' a public concert put on by the Music-in-Medicine Initiative. While the musicians performed the "Archduke Trio," a "Brain-Computer Interface and EEG brain dynamic data visualization" provided real-time feedback on how the music affected the pianist as a performer and the audience as listeners.Even without a Ph.D. in neuroscience, I can feel the positive impact of music each time I play. Oftentimes, my lessons feel like a literal mental workout.
