Guitar Connections
The Neuroscience of Improvisation
This article by Carl Sherman on the Dana Foundation website reports on a symposium, Music and the Spark of Spontaneity, in June, 2011. Very interesting fMRI studies document brain areas that activate or deactivate during improvisation. The author makes the subject approachable for the non-scientist. Good hotlinks to studies.
Music Practice as Meditation
Steve Vai on Meditation —Musical Meditation
The first essay I encountered that dealt directly with playing as a meditation was written by Steve Vai, rock guitarist and devil in the “duel with the devil” scenes in the movie “Crossroads”. Although many musicians understand the meditative qualities of practice, the idea is particularly well presented here.
Musicians found to have “more sensitive” brains
In an intriguing series of studies, Dr.Peter Schneider of Heidelberg University and colleagues are investigating individual differences in sound perception, absolute pitch, and morphology of the auditory cortex in various conditions. Abstracts can be found at researchgate.net.
According to this article in the Independent (UK), Dr. Schneider, et al. have found that musicians have “bigger, more sensitive brains.” More precisely, the auditory cortex of musicians was found to have more grey matter than that of nonmusicians; sensitivity apparently refers to ability to detect small changes in melodies. In an intriguing series of studies, Dr. Schneider and colleagues are investigating individual differences in sound perception, absolute pitch, and morphology of the auditory cortex in various conditions.
Interesting tidbit from the study: “Remarkably, the number of instruments played by subjects showed significant correlations with all language aptitude measures and musicality, whereas, the number of foreign languages did not show any correlations “. The hotlink to the study is in the research section on this blog.