Musicians Use Both Sides Of Their Brains More Frequently Than Average People

Science Daily ^ | 10/03/08

[Blind Eye Jones]

This research is kind of weird because classical musicians are trained like monkeys to read and play music but are not encouraged to be creative (put aside written music) and jam. They are like plumbers laying pipe and it becomes a matter of being routine, where the training kicks in and that is it. They have to give the conductor what he wants but there is no creativity for most of them. In fact, they are scared of it because what they do well is playing other people's written music. They are never encouraged to create at a young age and are tested only on their playing skills. The ones that do create are the heroic ones or the ones too temperamental not to do otherwise. And some of these musicians have emotional issues or problems so that creating music is their only source of solace, next to consuming copious amounts of drugs and alcohol.

Drummers, believe it or not, are suppose to be the smartest of the lot. Some good books to read about this topic are:

“This is Your Brain on Music” by Daniel Levitin and “Music the Brain and Ecstasy” by Robert Jourdain.

[Clock King]

Drug ‘ll do that to your brain.

[John Valentine]

I wouldn’t say excited, exactly, but more curious, as it would have implied a culture-wide phenomenon. And one that might have lent itself to some fairly pointed humor.

Everybody already knows that musicicans are subtly different from the rest of us, and are no good to make fun of anyway.

[One-Four-Five]

I’m going to go out on a limb & suggest that your post is a gross exaggeration that fails to distinguish between ‘musician’ and ‘rock star.’

Thoughts?

[april15Bendovr]

Page 81 of this study explains a little about the possibility of musicians being ambidextrous

http://books.google.com/books?id=juk1xMPqYBsC&pg=PA81&lpg=PA81&dq=Musicians+ambidextrous&source=web&ots=ETRgIm62Kt&sig=Sg7tBqHS20f9jkryuzmKtSGcI1o&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result

[Cringing Negativism Network]

“I’m going to go out on a limb & suggest that your post is a gross exaggeration that fails to distinguish between ‘musician’ and ‘rock star.’”

-

I’ll go further out on a similar limb, and wonder whether there is a tendency for ‘musicians’ to be conservatives, while ‘rock stars’ are liberals?

Musicians are disciplined professionals.

Musicians study and earn their skills. That self-control and training seem more the characteristics of conservatives.

Rock stars OTOH, are often undisciplined individuals whose specific manner of lacking discipline, just happens to strike some message with consumers of entertainment product - more often than not, having to do with a social trend, or personal appearance. More like hollywood actors.

Hollywood is 100% right brain... (remember brain function is right/left reversed)

[weegee]

Doesn't just have to be “rock” star, but the prominent figures in music around the world don't seem to live the lives they sing and preach about. They believe that they have given rational thought to the world's problems.

And what makes a musician something superior to justify calling the rest of society “average people”?

There are numerous endeavors, scientific and artistic, that would also bear measure.

[Ten Beers Gone]

Finally - a thread where I have some measure of knowledge! (Freepers - you can't disagree that you can learn a lot just by reading the insight of the many posters on this forum)

When I took up the trumpet at age 9, my music teacher told my parents that I should be a good musician because of my aptitude for math. As I progressed through my teens and early adulthood, I was able to teach myself to play guitar, piano, harmonica and saxophone. I know that I am not better or smarter than other people, I just know that I am blessed with a God-given talent for which I am eternally grateful. It has allowed me to entertain thousands of people throughout my life, and I put playing live music up there with going to the gun range as the one of the most fun things you can do with your clothes on!

On a similar note (pun intended - ;-} ba-dum-bump thank you, I'll be here all week. Don't forget to tip your bartender), I have many friends who are engineers, computer scientists and medical professionals who are musicians as well. So, there's something to be said for math aptitude vis-a-vis musical inclination.

[One-Four-Five]

What you’re saying still looks like an overreaching generalization to me. Especially since ‘prominent figures in music’ and ‘musicians’ are, again, two different things.

The post in this thread about the disciplines involved in performing classical music was spot on. I would suggest, if there is any accurate generalization that can be made regarding musicians and the Left, would be that creativity, not necessarily musical ability, is a quality that seems to be more easily identifiable in trying to establish that connection.

And I’d point to jazz musicians as a prime example. By and large, they are not only going to possess most of the abilities of trained classical musicians (if not the same types of disciplines), yet, unlike most classical musicians, they tend to thrive on improvisation, i.e. creativity. And, like prominent figures in popular music, I would say that a majority of them probably lean Left, as opposed to Right.

Moreover, it would seem that politicians such as President Bush might well think that people like Bono and Bob Geldof have given rational thought to the world’s problems; otherwise, why would he waste any time with them? I’m not much of a fan of celebrity activism, but I’ll trust his judgment so long as it’s those types he’ll deign to meet with, rather than Rage Against The Machine or Barbara Streisand.

>And what makes a musician something superior to justify calling the rest of society “average people”?

Where you see a claim of superiority, some would see a curse.

[Rudder]

Drummers, believe it or not, are suppose to be the smartest of the lot.

I knew that.

I'm a drummer, ambidextrous and use both left and right brains simultaneously. But I can't talk when I'm playing the drums.