Just when you think there’s an area of your life you can’t green up, new ideas spring forth – like eco-friendly musical instruments. Who knew? Enjoy today’s guest post, and learn something fresh and green. And musical.
Over the past few decades, there have been leaps and bounds of research and developments in the area of teaching, healing, and meditation through music and instruments. It has been proven that students listening to specific types of music excel more in studying and preparation, that music can play an enormous part in mental health and functioning, and even that music is integrally involved in behavioral, cognitive, and psychological well-being.
There has been a recent addition to the arena of music as a socially, physically, and environmentally positive factor: eco-friendly instruments.
It might seem obvious that the wood instruments like guitars, drums, and piano are already environmentally friendly, but far too often old and used instruments end up being tossed in the trash, wasting precious resources. However, due to recent advances in woodwork and electric development in instruments, new types of eco-friendly keyboards are being created with only the greenest of intuitions.
For parents investing in piano lessons for their children, there is a new advancement in green technology for practice sessions. Yamaha, the popular music and hardware company, has recently released a new “eco-friendly power adapter,” a device that connects to your keyboard and saves enormous amounts of energy and power.
Most families don’t realize nearly anything plugged in a socket is constantly sucking out energy, even if the device is turned off. The same is true for electric keyboards. Yamaha’s new adapter significantly cuts down the energy consumption by keyboards. This new green technology will absolutely pay for itself in the long run.
There are also plenty of green advancements in piano accessories, including recycled piano lamps, recycled steel strings for tuning, even entire “green” pianos made from beautiful, reclaimed wood from trashed and used instruments.
However, one of the most eco-friendly advances you can pioneer through musical instruments is looking into “simple instruments:” simply put, instruments that can help children practice without investing in an entire piece the child might not put to good use, or even drop eventually.
For instance, the roll-up piano is a relatively new instrument idea that has all the parts of a piano – keys, sounds, hardware – but in a small, recycled, rolled up form. One could literally take their piano to school, work, even to bed to practice. Another option is a set of drum pads – the user sits in a throne and plays exactly like a complete drum set, but instead of large, voluminous drums, there are simple pads and rubber heads children can practice with in silence, while still learning technique, theory, and form.
There are several new and upcoming ideas for “greener” music, and these are just scratching the surface. If you’re looking for more eco-friendly instruments, they can be great investments to teach your children important life lessons.
