Taking piano lessons and solving math puzzles on a computer significantly improves specific math skills of elementary school children, according to a study by UC Irvine researchers. Researchers worked with 135 second-grade students at the 95th Street School in Los Angeles after conducting a pilot study with 102 Orange County students. Children given four months of piano keyboard training, as well as time playing with newly designed computer software, scored 27 percent higher on proportional math and fractions tests than other children. The study was funded through grants from the Texaco Foundation, The Gerard Family Trust and Newport Beach philanthropist Marjorie Rawlins.
Music involves ratios, fractions, proportions and thinking in space and time.
Children who took piano lessons and played with the math software performed better on tests of fractions and proportional math than children who took English language instruction on the computer and played with the math software, and better than those who had neither piano lessons nor experience with the math software, Shaw said. Puzzles in the STAR game allow children to apply the type of mental acuity that appears to be heightened by piano practice. The findings are significant because a grasp of proportional math and fractions is a prerequisite to math at higher levels, and children who do not master these areas of math cannot understand more advanced math critical to high-tech fields. Not only is proportional math crucial for all college-level science, but it is the first academic hurdle that requires the children to grasp underlying concepts before they can master the material. Rote learning simply does not work.