[Rhodes22-list] Hey Slim! Music

[Brad Haslett]

Slim,

I believe music is like flying, or visa verse.  You can teach 95% of your
skill set to anyone but the last 5% is a natural talent that can't be
taught.  You  can make a good living at the 95% talent level.  Nobody gives
a shit or recognizes the last 5%.  I've seen your act.  Accept the fact that
95% will never recognize your talent.

Brad


On 2/5/07, Slim <stevenalm at comcast.net> wrote:
>
> Very interesting, Brad.  Thank you.  I'd like to see a lot more brain
> research done on the effects of music.  He writes about the emotional
> response of people experiencing a live performance.  I'd like to know how
> much dopamine my brain produces when I'm performing and the audience is
> really liking me.  It's truly an overflowing sense of pleasure for
> me.  I'd
> also like to know what's happening in my brain when I'm totally bombing
> and
> want to crawl in a hole and die.  The gulf between those two extremes is
> huge.  Sometimes they both happen only seconds apart!
>
> Back when I was an undergrad in the 70s and taking freshman psych, I
> volunteered to be a subject for some EEG experiments.  I was seated in a
> nice, comfy chair with the lights low as the guy hooked the electrodes
> onto
> my hands, chest, head, etc. and then he told me to just relax and listen
> to
> some music until we get started with the experiment.  This was not a music
> experiment.  The music he had on the stereo (and it was a very nice sound
> system) was the scherzo movement of Beethoven's 9th symphony which, for me
> anyway is some of the most exciting music there is.  He told me to just
> relax?  Sorry, impossible!  After a bit, he walked back into the room and
> said he was getting some funny readings and checked the connections of the
> electrodes.  They were fine and he shrugged and again told me to relax
> until
> we get started.  The Beethoven was still playing and I was still NOT
> relaxing at all.  He came in one more time to check his gear and walked
> out.
> After a few minutes more, He abruptly cut the music off and began his
> experiment which had nothing to do with music and I don't remember the
> experiment itself but after it was over I asked him what was wrong at the
> beginning.  As I recall, he was measuring heart rate, breathing and brain
> waves (alpha waves, beta waves...I really don't remember).  He flipped
> back
> to the pages the machine recorded during the music and all the needles
> were
> going crazy.  At the point when he cut the music off, they all immediately
> settled down.  I offered the explanation that it was because I was a music
> major and really got into the Beethoven.  He said every subject he tested
> had listed to the same music but he had never seen that response.  Well, I
> don't need a machine to tell me that I really like Beethoven, but it shows
> how people differ in their response to it.  Apparently, nobody else cared
> a
> hoot about Beethoven.  I'd like to see that experiment done to a variety
> of
> people with a variety of music and see what happens.  Dr. Levitin seems to
> think that "popular" music is more, well, popular.   8-)  Obviously the
> EEG
> technology of the 70s is crude compared to today's MRI and I'm sure we
> could
> learn a lot more.
>
> Here's what we know about the brain in terms of music being associated
> with
> other disciplines like math and so on.  As a young person's brain is
> developing, the brain grows "dendrites" which are like fingers that grow
> from one part of the brain to another and enables you to make cognitive
> connections between, say, the past (memory) and the future (projection).
> It's been shown that music students grow more dendrites than non music
> students, but only if they start music study before the age of about 12.
> This stands in sharp contrast to Dr. Levintin's conclusion that there's no
> connection between music and math.  The research shows that young music
> students do better in all other subjects.  Of course there are anecdotal
> examples to the contrary.  Levintin uses the example of subjects with
> Williams syndrome who show low math ability but high music ability.  I'd
> certainly call that anecdotal.  They're handicapped--not "normal"
> subjects.
>
> But let's move beyond math and consider the connection between music and
> history, visual art, dance, reading and language skills, social skills,
> motor skills, cultural anthropology, physics, who knows what else!?
> Consider that when a group of wind instrument players begin a phrase, they
> literally all breathe together as one.  Now that's cooperation!  What
> could
> be more cross-disciplinary?
>
> I'd like to go on and on but that's enough for now.  Thanks for the
> article,
> Brad.  I'll surely pick up Levintin's book.
>
> Slim
>
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