Playing Piano Relieves Stress and Anyone Can Do It

Feeling stressed over the economy? More and more Americans are turning to a millennia-old technique for relieving stress -- music. Whether you just listen or actually play an instrument, music has very definite therapeutic value for a range of mental and physical health issues, a growing body of scientific evidence shows.

From relieving depression in adults to helping children with Attention Deficit Disorder learn to focus better, playing music provides myriad health benefits, studies show. In fact, studies reported on the Music Industry Association’s Recreational Music Making Web site show that playing music has:

* Improved immune system performance in corporate workers studied in Japan.
* Relieved loneliness and boosted self esteem in senior citizens.
* Relieved stress and improved mood for 75 nursing students studied at Allegany College of Maryland.

But how can you tap the stress-relieving, health-enhancing benefits of playing music without investing years learning to read music and play an instrument?

“What keeps many people from playing, especially popular instruments like piano, is that they never get proficient enough at reading notes to play easily,” says Scott Houston, the “Piano Guy” and host of an Emmy-winning Public Television how-to show. A better approach, he says, and one that works for both beginners and experienced music readers, is to focus on chords and interpretation, rather than reading note-for-note.

“This method is effective for both trained and untrained recreational players,” he says. “It’s not unusual for recreational players to feel frustrated and even stressed if traditional music training isn’t working for them, or they’re not progressing as quickly as they’d like. This approach allows you to tap the health-enhancing and stress-relieving benefits of recreational music making quickly and easily.”

The key to Houston’s method is to teach you how to read a “lead sheet,” a kind of “shorthand” professional musicians use to queue them to a song’s melody line and the chords that accompany it. Because it’s a very simple form of music notation, lead sheets allow you to learn a song faster and put more creativity and interpretation into how you play. Actually creating music, rather than just playing notes, imparts an “artist’s high.

“Most people who want to learn to play piano simply want to do so for their own enjoyment,” he says. “Of all the things I do throughout my day, nothing is more enjoyable than to just sit down and play a tune.”

“Learning to play the piano is not only healthy for you, it’s just plain fun and can be attained quickly using the right techniques.