Is Learning Piano Good for Your Brain?

The short answer is yes. Research keeps showing that learning piano improves memory, attention, and multisensory processing. It can reduce anxiety and depression. In older adults, it seems to help delay cognitive decline. Playing piano engages so many brain regions at once -- auditory, visual, motor, memory -- that it amounts to a full workout for your brain.

But none of that is why I practice.

I'm 64 now. I came back to piano about 10 years ago because I wanted to be able to play music, not because I was thinking about brain health. Still, after all this time I've noticed some things about how learning seems to work, and it maps pretty well onto what the research says about memory and neuroplasticity (the brain's ability to form new connections and reorganize itself in response to learning).

Three Phases of Learning

When I worked on something new at the piano -- a scale, a chord inversion, recognizing a pattern in sheet music, hearing a scale degree -- the process seemed to happen in three phases.

Phase 1: Put the knowledge in. This is where you encounter the new thing and get it into your brain for the first time. Say you're learning the F major scale. You figure out the notes, visualize them on the keyboard, use the correct fingering for each hand, feel what it's like to play those notes. At the end of this phase you can do the thing, sort of. You understand it. But you haven't learned it yet.

Since you're just loading information into your brain, you can bring in a lot at once during this phase. All you're trying to do is cross the gap between "I've never seen or done this before" and "I've seen or done this at least once." That's a big gap, but it doesn't require mastery. It just requires exposure.

I've always tried to take in as much as I can stand in this phase. You should play all the major scales, not just one. Play all the 2nd inversion major chords around the circle. Play through the entire piece you mean to learn, badly. Get all your mental feet wet.

Phase 2: Imprint it. Now you have to make it stick. You have to check that you retained it correctly and reinforce the memory. This takes at least two days, because you have to sleep on it. The brain consolidates memories during sleep -- this is well documented. So you practice it, sleep, come back the next day and check yourself, practice again. Now it's starting to be yours.

Phase 3: Practice finding it. This phase lasts forever. The knowledge is in your brain now, but you have to keep practicing the act of retrieving it. Every time you need to use it, you have to locate the information, pull it up, and apply it. The more times you do this, the faster and more automatic it becomes.

The danger after phase 2 isn't that the knowledge disappears from your brain. The danger is that you might have trouble accessing it. (You knew this once. Where did you put it?)

Why Retrieval Practice Matters

This matches what researchers call "spaced retrieval practice." The idea is that the effort of retrieving something from memory -- that moment of reaching for it -- is what strengthens the memory. Easy recall doesn't build strength. Having to work to remember something does.

I drilled scales around the circle of fourths. Do that, and you're not just reinforcing your knowledge of each scale. You're practicing the act of remembering which scale comes next, which fingers to use, where your hand needs to go. The retrieval is the exercise.

Same with sight reading. Every time you see a chord shape on the page and have to figure out what notes it contains, you're strengthening your ability to recognize that pattern. The more you practice retrieving that recognition, the faster it becomes. Eventually you can just see it.

This Applies to Almost Everything in Piano

Scales. Chords. Key signatures. Recognizing rhythmic patterns. Hearing intervals and scale degrees. Visualizing the keyboard layout. Reaching for notes without looking. Even memorizing a piece, if you do that. All of it follows the same three phases.

Learn it. Cement it. Practice finding it.

The Brain Benefits Are Real, But They're a Side Effect

Studies show that piano training improves executive function, attention, and memory in older adults. One study found that just 11 weeks of piano lessons improved audio-visual processing and reduced anxiety in beginners. Research on neuroplasticity shows that learning an instrument -- even starting as an adult -- promotes new neural connections.

I believe all of this. But I don't sit down at my piano thinking about my neural connections. I sit down because I want to be able to read a page of music and play it. The brain benefits are a side effect of doing something I find interesting.

Maybe that's the real point. Learning piano works your brain because it's hard and it requires sustained effort. It asks you to coordinate your hands, read notation, listen, and adjust -- all at once. It makes you pay attention, in today's world where we're all losing our ability to do that.