I’m learning the piano at 61 to help save my brain

I’m hunched over a Steinway Model S grand while my piano teacher Cristina tries not to wince as I mangle my scales. Sweat trickles down my neck. I haven’t played the piano since childhood. I remember, aged eight, being made to dance round the room pretending to be a crotchet and a semibreve by my piano teacher Mr Bushell, in an effort to understand rhythm.

But after a few years of tonelessly banging out Béla Bartók’s piano pieces for children, everyone finally accepted I would never be musical. The relief of not having to stay in to practise on long summer evenings stays with me still.

So I never ever expected to play the piano again. But now it seems it’s a major health priority if I want to stay sharp in later life. 

A landmark research study by scientists at the University of Exeter, published in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, found that playing a musical instrument or singing could help keep the brain healthy in older age. More than 1,100 people aged over 40, with an average age of 68, had their brain function data observed as part of the wider Protect study that has been finding out how brains age, and why people develop dementia. 

The researchers compared cognitive data of those who engaged in music in some way in their lives, with those who never had. “People who continued to play into older age did the best,” says the study’s senior author Professor Anne Corbett, a senior lecturer in dementia research at King’s College London. “But even those who played in childhood, and then stopped, performed better than people who had never played. It seems we can then recruit those memories and abilities back much later on. They’re still there, even if we don’t use them every day.”

Playing the piano or keyboard appeared to be particularly beneficial, while brass and woodwind instruments were good, too. The researchers found that practising and reading music may help sustain good memory and the ability to solve complex tasks (known as executive function). 

When you play a musical instrument or sing, you have auditory, visual, motor and sensory activities interacting, Prof Corbett explains. This means neurons from different parts of the brain talk to each other and form connections. Repeated practice increases the grey matter volume in our brains (the outermost layer of the brain, which contains connections between neurons and small blood vessels). 

“It’s lighting up many different cognitive pathways. You’re learning the music theory, you’re reading the notation, plus there’s the sensory aspect. Problem-solving is a really simplistic way of describing it, but it’s working with variety, having a new perspective, making your brain see things in a different way.”

There is real benefit to encouraging older adults to take up an instrument in later life. Which is why I’ve signed up for a beginner’s lesson with Cristina, at the age of 61. 

Worryingly I don’t seem to remember much of my past tuition. So it’s back to basics. First she teaches me the difference between the treble clef (used for the higher sounding notes, usually played with the right hand) and the bass clef (used for the lower sounding notes, played with the left hand).

Cristina is very encouraging but wants me to learn to sight read, rather than taking the easy route of writing out the musical notes (A, C etc). The other surprise is that the exercises are still by Béla Bartók. Cristina explains the Hungarian composer’s bouncy style is particularly good for children learning about composition. 

But playing his five-finger scales, my brain and hands are at odds. There’s so much to take on board – working out the note from where it sits on the stave (the five lines on the sheet music), which finger I should play it with, and the duration (number of beats).

My old friends the semibreve (four beats), crotchet (two beats) and minim (one) make an appearance. The page swims before my eyes. Mostly I feel like Les Dawson playing “all the right notes not necessarily in the right order” (though later a composer friend tells me that to play the piano as badly as Les you have to be very good). Just occasionally there’s a moment of pure pleasure when I manage a rush of notes. But mostly my brain hurts.

I am the woman who scorns crossword puzzles, Wordle and Sudoku (“far too busy”), but I’m beginning to see it would really have helped.

Cristina demonstrates parallel motion on the keyboard (where the right hand plays the same notes as the left in a scale, but the fingering is different), then asks me to try. I apologise for my poor coordination but she pays me a surprising compliment: she can tell I played years ago. “Otherwise you wouldn’t be able to do parallel motion. The muscle memory is still there. It’s like riding a bicycle after 40 years.”

When I talk to Prof Corbett, she explains our young brains are like sponges. “Skills tend to be embedded a lot quicker and become essential to the way our neural pathways are put together, because those early connections are then built upon.”

But as we age, ‘‘brain plasticity’’ decreases. The brain also loses grey matter, known as ‘‘brain atrophy’’. Hardest hit is our working memory – where we briefly retain and manipulate information to achieve a goal, such as remembering a telephone number, translating a sentence from a foreign language or playing Bartók scales.

“It’s much harder to pick these things up as we get older,” she acknowledges. “But it’s still a fantastic way of challenging the brain. It’s like any other muscle – if you exercise and train it, the brain performs better.” Another factor may be the social aspect of playing in an orchestra or singing in a choir. “We know social engagement is an important protective factor for the brain and that social isolation increases your risk of dementia later on.”

The Protect study is run by the University of Exeter and King’s College, in partnership with the NHS. For more than a decade they have followed more than 25,000 volunteers, from all walks of life, to understand how the brain ages. Taking up a musical instrument doesn’t mean you will never develop dementia, Prof Corbett stresses. “It’s not as simple as that.” But Dementia UK are encouraged by the study: “The results of this study are positive, and echo similar research into the benefits of both listening to and playing music for people living with dementia,” says Caroline Scates, a deputy director of admiral nurse development. 

The Protect findings also build on last year’s research, co-authored by scientists at the University of Geneva, which found learning the piano in later life can slow down cognitive decline in retired people with little or no past musical training. After six months of weekly piano lessons, participants aged 62-78 performed better in tests that challenged their working memory, such as remembering directions. Normally the brain shrinks in our 60s and 70s, a process that, in some cases, develops into dementia. But after six months of music lessons, this was reversed in some brain regions. MRI scans showed an increase in grey matter in parts of the cerebellum, which helps with decision-making and storage of memories.

Cristina, 38, who has a Masters in Piano Performance, teaches a lot of mature students. Surgeons come to unwind from work stress; others to help with arthritis. Her own beloved university tutor Albert Attenelle, in his 90s, still teaches, plays concerts. “He said to me: ‘The day I stop playing piano, I go downhill’.”

Even so, I leave my first lesson feeling a little shellshocked. I don’t have a piano at home but Cristina emails me Bartók’s exercises and I practise the scales on the back of chairs. I’m determined to try to crack the code.

I talk to Hugh and Cathy Edwards, who have returned to music in their 70s. They sing in choirs, play in bands and orchestras. Cathy hadn’t picked up her violin for 45 years (she did Music O-level but stopped after training as a science teacher and having kids) but retirement gave her new impetus. “In Devon we have Wren Music which uses folk music to encourage people from all abilities to make music. I went along and remembered how to read music straight off.” At first she was shocked to encounter so many grey-haired people. “You go to a day choir and everyone’s ancient, and you think, ‘Oh goodness’, but as you get to know people, they all have a rich story to tell. We’ve made so many friends through music.”

As a primary headteacher, Hugh taught himself guitar to accompany pupils, but couldn’t read music. After joining Wren’s folk orchestra, he plays trumpet and mandolin and has a ring-binder of 200 songs. “Learning new songs makes me use my memory.” 

He thinks music boosts mental health as well as brain function. He’s had choir trips to Bulgaria and Cephalonia. “I was singing By the Shores of the Black Sea with five choirs in five different languages.”

After singing they come home on a high. “When you retire you lose some status, and self-worth if you’re not careful. But music has been a wonderful world for us. As you get older you tend to get worse at things, but with music there’s always something you can get better at.”

I promise to keep practising. Dementia risk can be reduced by one third through improving lifestyle factors from midlife, says Prof Corbett. “With the brain it’s a case of use it or lose it.” So encouraging older adults to return to music in later life is a valuable public health message. 

“I reckon half the population has a musical instrument somewhere in their house which they haven’t played for years,” laughs Hugh. “So get it out!”