See last post, first paragraph, strike that

Okay, Joey Harrington phenomenom...

Actually, did you know that Joey Harrington is actually an elite piano player having played with Blues Traveler and Third Eye Blind. Personally, I wish that more football players (even the ones that were a bit of a let down) were as respectable as Mr. Harrington. The guy does philanthropic work, plays reasonably adequate football, and can hold a regular conversation off the field. He is also my sister's favorite player - explaining the autographed picture that she keeps on her night stand.

In all seriousness, I sort of think that certain things help people excel at sports. One of those things is music. I think that being a strong pianist or guitar player helps people develop discipline and creativity which are almost always necessary as an athlete. So, I did a little research at that oft quoted fact with limited independent analysis - does piano make people smarter, better students, etc.

Here is what I found. In a 1997 article from Neurological Research, there is documented evidence to suggest that learning piano in elementary school helps kids develop certain "hard-wiring" that prepares people to be better mathematicians. Here is a quote from the summary article: "Piano instruction is thought to enhance the brain's "hard-wiring" for spatial-temporal reasoning, or the ability to visualize and transform objects in space and time, Shaw said. Music involves ratios, fractions, proportions and thinking in space and time."

As a key proviso, all of the Chapman kids were required to take piano. If we had not taken piano, would be less smart? More importantly, is it possible that we - the Chapman kids, even with musical training, could be any less musical as a raw collection of humans - was this a cause or effect or simply a genetic predisposition?