This guy has fallen into a well-known statistical fallacy.
All intellectual abilities are positively correlated, so the average good drummer is going to be smarter than the average bad drummer. However, being a good guitarist/frontman is more highly correlated with traditional IQ scores than being a good drummer. THEREFORE within any given rock band of quality, the drummer is less likely to be smart than the guitarist/frontman. That’s where all the “drummer jokes” come from.
Occasionally the drummer in the band is the smart songwriter (Phil Collins) but it’s quite atypical.
This scientist’s mistake is not controlling for OTHER types of musical ability.
As a drummer I must concur. I believe that you are absolutely correct.
Don’t forget they only chose right handed people for the
study....Is drumming right or left handed????
One of the statements made sounds a bit odd. They said there
is more white matter in the brain (hence more connections.)
But they didn’t say that the white matter might have been
clogged, or diseased, or that too much white matter might
cause mismessaging to go on...I’m not to enthused by the
study, plus the common experience appears to be that it is
not the with drummers with the “smarts”....Lots of front men...
but few drummers....
Since there are so few female drummers...does that mean
that the females are dumber than males??? Don’t flame me,
it’s just a “fun” question.