OT Perhaps: Musicians Brains

Whistle
1

Copied this from the Dulcimer List…I can even relate to some of this:

SCIENTISTS FIND MUSICIAN’S BRAINS ARE WIRED DIFFERENTLY
Study comes on the heels of a frightening prime-time Michael Jackson
special.
SAN DIEGO (AP) – The brain waves of professional musicians respond
to music in a way that suggests they have an intuitive sense of the
notes that amateurs lack, researchers said Wednesday.

Neuroscientists, using brain-scanning MRI machine to peer inside the
minds of professional German violinists, found they could hear the
music simply by thinking about it, a skill amateurs in the study were
unable to match.

The research offers insight into the inner workings of the brain and
show that musicians’ brains are uniquely wired for sound, researchers
said at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience.

Neuroscientists are increasingly studying how we hear and play music,
since few activities draw on so many functions of the brain,including
memory, learning, motor control, emotion, hearing and creativity,
said Dr. Robert Zatorre of the Montreal Neurological Institute.

“It offers a window onto the highest levels of human cognition,”
Zatorre said. In a study by researchers at the University of
Tuebingen, the brains of eight violinists with German orchestras and
eight amateurs were analyzed as they silently tapped out the first 16
bars of Mozart’s violin concerto in G major.

Brain scans showed professionals had more activity in the part of
their brains that controlled hearing, said Dr. Gabriela Scheler of
the University of Tuebingen. “When the professionals move their
fingers, they are also hearing the music in their heads,” Scheler
said.

Amateurs, by contrast, showed more activity in the motor cortex, the
region that controls finger movements, suggesting they were more
preoccupied with hitting the correct notes, she said.

Scheler, a former violinist with the Nuremberg Philharmonic
Orchestra,
said the findings suggest that professionals have “liberated” their
minds from worrying about hitting the right notes. As a result, they
are able to listen, judge and control their play, Scheler said.

“Presumably, this enhances the musical performance,” she said. In a
second experiment, the two groups of violinists were asked to imagine
playing the concerto without moving their fingers. Brain scans showed
again that the professionals were hearing the music in their heads.

Zatorre, who has studied the brain’s response to music for two
decades, said it was the first time anyone had studied music and its
relationship to motor control and imagery.

Researchers from Canada also found differences in the brain waves of
professional musicians and nonmusicians as they listened to musical
notes.

Violinists with Canada’s National Academy Orchestra and advanced
pianists studying with the Royal Conservatory of Music in Ontario
showed a brain wave response 40 percent higher than university
students with no background in music.

The enhanced response, which occurs one-fifth of a second after the
tone is played, suggests that more neurons are firing in the part of
the brain that controls hearing.

Roberts is currently testing young music students ages 5 through 15
to test whether the brains of musicians are different because they
came wired that way or developed as a result of training.

While the study is not complete, initial results suggest that major
changes occur during childhood in the part of the brain that controls
hearing, he said.

2

It would seem that since so many areas of the brain are used during playing music as mentioned above that playing an instrument would be a good way to avoid alzheimers. Studies have shown that those with more active minds have a seriously reduced risk of getting it.
I wonder if anyone has every done a study regarding the frequency of alzheimers among musicians and non musicians?

3

Hi Betty,

Funny, we could have told them all that and they could have saved the research money!

Best wishes, Tom

4

06497596
What about musicians who play aluminum whistles?? :slight_smile:
Edit: that row of numbers is what I got when I selected text and clicked the quote icon. I hardly ever get that function right.
Tony

Clips](http://nwparalegalcom.readyhosting.com/clipssnip/newspage.htm%22%3EClips) and Snips Tunes
“When you make it to the top of the mountain, keep on climbing.” -Zen saying

[ This Message was edited by: TonyHiggins on 2001-11-16 19:27 ]

5

Tony,

People who play 06497596 aluminum whistles keep wanting 06497596 to repeat strange numbers!

6

FINALLY!!!

Now I know the reason why!! I’ve fought with various musical instruments for the past 35 years trying to get good at something…but without success. So the fault doesn’t actually lie with me anymore but with the inferior wiring in my brain. (not that that gives me any real comfort) My fingers say “yes, yes, yes” but my brain says “not in this lifetime”.

7

I knew I could stir up some interesting conversation with this one. LOL I can also relate to the derailment between brain and fingers! Gm

8

Thank you for this…fascinating!!! It brings up too the whole nature/nurture argument. And it has me thinking about my own ‘musical’ upbringing. My father was very talented..you know the ‘hum me a few bars and I’ll play it for you’ type.
Mostly on piano. I was taking lessons and because I could not do what he was doing, I felt very inadequate musically. And also he gave me the idea I could not sing, because I could not sing in the keys he played in. Much later I became friends with a music teacher who gave me some insights…like I can sing perfectly well in key if a piece is keyed low enough…and she actually told me I had a ‘good ear’. If it were not for her, I would never have thought to try to learn a musical instrument. So there is where the ‘nurture’ had a negative affect. I mean I must have got a few of my father’s genes!!!

All of which leads me to another question…I have a ‘good ear’ for other kinds of sound…eg I have a good ear for languages and I can do (she said modestly) accents, for example, really well. I wonder if that kind of’ear’ relates in any way to a musical ear…it seems the ability required is similar…that is, hearing something and being able to reproduce it. Ideas anyone?

9

Being able to hear music in your head is one thing. Being able to get it out through your fingers is an entirely different concern and requires the function of a different part of your brain (which will have varying capacities in different people).

The article refers to a part of the brain that’s active when listening to or “hearing” music in your head. The more accomplished musicians have more neural activity going on during this and it’s in a specific part of the brain associated with hearing.

The parts of our brain that control the fingering of our instruments are elsewhere and are heavily influenced by practice/repetition of a task. (A somber thought.)

The connection, as I see it, is the ability to “hear” a tune in your head gives you something to work with when you’re trying to play a tune. I think someone on this board earlier quoted a musician as saying one couldn’t play any better than one could hear a melody. An intuitive conclusion. So, the person who can hear the subtle nuances of a tune mentally has the opportunity to express those nuances with the hands. This all presumes that you can play as well as you can hear. If you don’t, you just need to keep practicing. I’m fortunate in that I hear the tunes like background music in my head all day without thinking about it. I still have a very long way toward being able to express what I hear through the whistle. My focus, is therefore, on stimulating the motor cortex and cerebellum by blowing through the whistle and wiggling my fingers.

I wouldn’t be surprised to find out that being exposed to a lot of music as an infant and young child has an influence on how that hearing part of your brain develops. I’m not sure about my exposure, by I guarantee my kids got an earful!

(And Tom Gaul, I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who has that 06497596 problem.)
Tony

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With regard to the “nature vs. nurture” question, the article as quoted can help reach a decision. It is stated that the heightened mental activity is associated with professional musicians, and not with amateurs. Presumably, by extension, the term “amateurs” includes non-musicians as well. This observation eliminates the possibility that one is born with the ability, because, if a person were born with it, some amateurs or even non-musicians would show evidence of it too.

The fact that they don’t, therefore, must mean that it is learned.

There’s hope, folks; keep at it!

11

Out of the almost 300 children that I teach, I’d say that VERY few of them (maybe five) are truly tone-deaf. Yet many, many 06497596 adults claim to be completely without musical ability, seeming almost proud (or perhaps relieved) of the fact. I’m not sure what this means, but I’ve 06497596 always found it intesting. Must be a cultural thing.

Thanks for an intesting article, GM! It reminds me of the whole “Band students do better in school” controversy: Are they smarter because they’re in band, or are they in band because they’re smarter? Shrug.

Tom

12

It’s interesting to note that early childhood is the time of amazing language development and, since this is related to hearing, it makes sense that this would also be an ideal time for musical development. There also seems to be a strong correlation between musical and mathematical ability so some of our ability may be wired in at birth. It would be interesting to find out among our members how many have had some musical exposure during childhood and/or if they have some interest in mathematical subjects.

Tony has made some interesting observations about the ability to hear music in our heads and actually play it. I’ve sometimes had the strange experience when trying to play something that I used to know on the piano that, although I can hear the music clearly in my head, I can’t play it unless I stop thinking about the music and let my fingers do their own thing! The fingers seem to have a memory of the right patterns as long as I keep an empty mind (Is this some kind of ZEN?)! I think this is also true in whistle playing. It’s as though the fingers are playing the MIDI file and the brain is playing the WAV file! Maybe this is a good thing and if we train our fingers well, they can go their own way while we add the subtle nuances of the music that we hear in our heads to our playing.

Best wishes, Tom
P.S. I’m switching to brass whistles!

13

I wish I’d started in music at an earlier age, instead of when I was 11. I hit puberty very early, so by that time, my brain was most likely already very static in its wiring. That’s probably why I sounded terrible the three years I was in the school band. pout

Life is unfair.

14

Neil. I don’t think we have enough info on just who was tested to draw such a conclusion. Were the amateurs all musicians of some sort or did the sample include total non musicians? The Canadian study referred to musicians and non-musicians.
This distinction sounds somewhat clearer. I’d also like to know if the results fell along some sort of continuum or were there cut and dried differences. Really interesting stuff.

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Studies on how different parts of the brain function doing various tasks are very interesting. Some of the most interesting and controversial are those studies that show the differences between the functions of male and female brains. Whether/how this relates to music, I don’t know, but it is fascinating.

16

Lizzie,

It may be that you are right, but I was working with the information at hand – which is why I specified that my conclusion was based on the article “as quoted.” Given that, it is inescapable that the ability described is the result of training.

It is important, I think, that this shouldn’t be confused with another issue. I have long said that “musicians are born, not made.” Musicianship is like integrity: It is possible to improve an existing talent, but not to create it where it does not exist. I had a graphic illustration of this a couple of years ago when I attended a violin recital hosted by my daughter’s Suzuki program. An advanced student played a technically demanding piece she had obviously worked very hard on, but flat ( as in “opposite of sharp” ) the whole way through. It was awful.

Musicial talent may include the ability to learn to hear music simply by thinking about it, but not everyone with such musical aptitude will receive musical training or pursue music on their own. This being true, if the ability to hear music by thinking about it is innate – one is born with it – then it should be found in some people who do not and have not learned to play an instrument. If the article above has been quoted correctly, this is not seen; therefore it seems that the ability must be learned.

Tom Gaul asked whether any of us had been exposed to music in childhood and mathematics later. I had an early, disastrous, acquaintance with the saxophone in about the third grade. ( No offense is intended to any who enjoy the instrument, as I now do. I refer to the manner of the introduction only. ) Later in life I took up the guitar for a time, then the fife, and now the pennywhistle. I have advanced degrees in geology, which included courses in calculus, differential equations, linear algebra, physical chemistry, and the like.

17

This is all way cool. Although I began clarinet lessons at about 9 and learned to play by sight, I’ve always played folk music by ear.

From a young age I’ve always had music going on in my head. When I was younger I would always get frustrated because I couldn’t hear multiple parts in my head (say, only the vocals or guitar of a piece). Then, around 20, I learned to play and sing at the same time (dulcimer, not whistle:), and suddenly I could hear multiple parts in my head.

Another thing in thought processes: I can always hear the notes of a whistle piece I’m thinking of – but can’t see the fingering until I have the whistle in hand.

Charlie

18

I always knew that my hardwiring wasn’t like everybody else, but dang, all Wellbutrin does is take away the craving for chocolate. I was always able to escape slings and arrows by hearing an entire symphony in my head, funny thing is, though, I seldom think it in the key in which it was written. I’m have the math version of dislexia, or discalculia, which is really weird and can’t add or subtract to save my life. I see numbers transposed. I’m a brilliant mimic, but have a build in sense of timing, friends say I’m one of ther few people who keeps perfect time without patting my foot when I’m playing. The more I force myself to draw with my left hand, the stranger things get. Go fig!

Let it shine! Anna “RoaringMouse” Martinez




[ This Message was edited by: Anna Martinez on 2001-11-18 18:38 ]

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Yea, chas, I have the same problem. I can hear parts of music in my head(I often get the worst songs stuck in my head :laughing:) but rarely the entire song.
I can usually “think” the lyrics and maybe the lead guitar part, but usually not more than 1 or 2 bits of it. Oh well.

Of course, my musical talent leaves something to be desired. I’m better than a lot of people are, but by no means a prodigy in the area.

But you know, everybody has their own talents. Nobody is exactly alike. For example, my brain has always been hard-wired for visual arts. I’ve been drawing since I was old enough to pick up a crayon(my teachers often get irate about the doodles in the margins and on back of my papers hehe), and I have a weird ability to “rotate” an object in my mind, see it from different angles, sometimes even after only seeing one side of an object, which a lot of people can’t do. A lot of people aren’t good at abstract thinking, and I am. So even if you can’t play the whistle worth a flip, that doesn’t mean you couldn’t do something else, no?

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As a teacher, I would venture that the hardest thing for the average person to do, is to remember the tune long enough to practise it at home. The quickest-learning students are always the ones with ‘tune memory’, ie, the ones who can ‘hear it in the head’ (with varying degrees of ability; trainable, I believe). The 2nd best are the hardworking ones who play it first thing they get home.

This has nothing to do with finger memory. I’m talking about the first 4 lessons, where everyone is still a blank slate relative to the instrument, before familiarity (with the instrument), flexiblity, stamina, focus (mental stamina), previous musical learning etc can play a part in helping to learn.

Ability to imitate exactly ( and this concerns language, mime, accents, impressions as well) seems to depend on recall of an order that pushes the brain to think it is presently hearing something that was demonstrated previously. My 2 cents.