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There was an article in the Columbus Dispatch a couple of days ago on how peoples' need to memorize facts - and subsequently their ability to memorize - is being decimated by the internet. Anything we need to know is now stored on our computer or in our phone so we don't bother to memorize the things people used to have to memorize - phone numbers, for example - and so our ability to remember things is slipping into a state of atrophy. On the other hand, thanks to our computers we've become better at finding things that we used to have to store in our brains, our computers having become an extension of our brain, storing our memory for us.
Which is really cool in a sci-fi kind of way.
Until the computer crashes or somehow loses or deletes our electronic memory, leaving us with a brain memory so flabby that without our digital photos to send a message from our robust optic nerve to our cerebellum we can't recall what our dear old mom looks like.
So I guess the current dilemma is, now that nobody's memorizing phone numbers or addresses or multiplication tables or state capitals or names of presidents or what the people they know and the places they've been look like anymore, how do we keep our memory skills sharp?
Here's my suggestion: everybody take piano lessons.
Which sounds funny coming from me, not because I'm a piano teacher, but because whenever a parent tells me that it's been proven that taking piano lessons ups a child's math skills, I respond that I can't guarantee any outcome from piano lessons other than that, if the student practices well and follows my instructions, the student will become a good pianist.
Bit of a snarky response on my part, I know, but I'll admit that I'm ever-so-slightly bugged by the inference that the music itself is not important enough a reason to take music lessons unless it's linked to a more utilitarian end, such as improved math skills.
But in light of this latest discovery I'm now wondering if perhaps piano lessons should not be widely promoted for the welfare of internet memory-dwindled humanity.
Because taking piano lessons involves beaucoup memorization.
Which is really cool in a sci-fi kind of way.
Until the computer crashes or somehow loses or deletes our electronic memory, leaving us with a brain memory so flabby that without our digital photos to send a message from our robust optic nerve to our cerebellum we can't recall what our dear old mom looks like.
So I guess the current dilemma is, now that nobody's memorizing phone numbers or addresses or multiplication tables or state capitals or names of presidents or what the people they know and the places they've been look like anymore, how do we keep our memory skills sharp?
Here's my suggestion: everybody take piano lessons.
Which sounds funny coming from me, not because I'm a piano teacher, but because whenever a parent tells me that it's been proven that taking piano lessons ups a child's math skills, I respond that I can't guarantee any outcome from piano lessons other than that, if the student practices well and follows my instructions, the student will become a good pianist.
Bit of a snarky response on my part, I know, but I'll admit that I'm ever-so-slightly bugged by the inference that the music itself is not important enough a reason to take music lessons unless it's linked to a more utilitarian end, such as improved math skills.
But in light of this latest discovery I'm now wondering if perhaps piano lessons should not be widely promoted for the welfare of internet memory-dwindled humanity.
Because taking piano lessons involves beaucoup memorization.
 | There are the scales and chords, finger exercises, ear-training pieces, key signatures, musical terms, theory, key names, note names, which note is played on which piano key, learned ultimately by repetition, repetition, repetition, |
| ...brain memory, finger muscle memory, sight memory, ear memory all in play. |  |
And so when the internet goes down, the blue screen pops up, all the memory stored in the electronic brain is lost and we're scrambling to remember whether we had a lunch date Tuesday at 12:30 or a soccer game Thursday at 6:45, some fortunates out there will have the fall back of
| a memory amply fit and toned by the mastery and performance of their piano pieces. And that's memory that can be stored nowhere but in a human brain. |  |
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References
"Internet Erases Our Need To Memorize", Andrea Peterson, The Washington Post, The Columbus Dispatch, July 6, 2015
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