Kid’s Brains, Software, and the Magic of the Piano Keyboard

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When a child plays a computer game, they are limited by the software designer’s intent. It is not possible to make a move that has not been thought out by the software designer.

But when a child plays the piano, they are actually writing the “software” at the moment they play. The child’s experience at the piano is entirely original to the moment they play it. Yes, the composer wrote the song, but the child’s  attempt to play it resides in their brain alone. This takes far more mental skill than merely operating a game controller.

That is why playing the piano is, for kids, far more valuable than trudging through the well worn ruts that Nintendo has laid out for them, regardless of how colorful the sickly-sweet computer images and experiences are. Computer software is second hand garbage for a child’s brain compared to the fresh experience of trying to play the piano, however awkwardly.

I urge kids to play the piano slowly at first, in my attempt to convince them that they are burning a set of synapses in their brain, and the slower they go, the more accurate the “software” will be.

What would you prefer, to have your child realize the ignoble design of a Nintendo employee, created entirely with the goal of grabbing your dollar, or to have the kid’s brain attempt to create flesh and blood software out of the magic of Beethoven’s music?

Nintendo has great commerciality, whereas Beethoven is pure humanity. Yet America is the leader in supplying this automated garbage, built to numb your child’s mind.

It is only because Nintendo is easily available mind candy that children become involved with it. And the software is about as valuable as candied breakfast cereal.

The piano keyboard has a magic to it that has survived 700 years, and it has survived because the piano keyboard is one of the greatest human inventions, ever. Computers, on the other hand, are glorified doorbells, signifying nothing and robbing children of the ability to think for themselves.

I long for an America, a world, where as many kids play the piano as play the computer. What a better world it would be! My motive in writing these books was to find a way for every child to enjoy the piano as much as I did when I was a child.

The only way every child in America will take up the piano is if you use a simplified language like Piano by Number. Piano by Number is the only way to level the playing field with the computer and give music a chance to become part of our children’s lives.

Musical notation as a child’s first musical language has proved to be an utter failure with modern children, an impossible stumbling block that educators unwittingly put in the child’s way.

Piano by Number should be a fun part of every preschool and kindergarten  in America, and should be as ubiquitous as the pencil.  Developing an early appetite for the piano has benefits not only for the child, but the larger musical community as well, for more enthusiastic piano cadets means more sheet music sold, more pianos sold, more music teachers employed.

Pianos teach your child to be human, to play with a machine that has survived every disaster humanity can throw at it.

You can’t take away computers. They have their place, but so does the piano.

Balance computers with the grand design of the piano keyboard.

Go here to try Piano by Number with your child:

http://pianoiseasy2.com/keyboardmain.html

Copyright 2013 John Aschenbrenner All Rights Reserved