How playing an instrument benefits your brain - Anita Collins

[987baz]

I remembered my earlier years studying music theory, and as a child without absolute ear I didn't really like to learn the difference between two intervals, the minor and major scale and so on.

Now I am thanksful because I can read sheet music (at least for a guitar) and it's truly graphically beautiful. I lack some basics about it and I would love to learn more deeply, I found this app which seems very complete, even if I would like to find an ancient essay on music made by Beethoven himself :P.

_https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.evilduck.musiciankit

It's interesting how we all come to music in different ways. As a young child I learned music at school, they put me in an advanced group and told me I had to play the flute. Now I have nothing against the flute, but as a young boy it wasn't something that captivated me at all, so I stopped playing and pursued a sporting career. About 10 years later, I had an injury resulting in the end of my sporting career. At the time I had written a tone of poetry and wasn't sure what to do with it, so talking to my girlfriend at the times dad, who was a fusion jazz drummer, he said, give me look at your poetry, immediately he said these would make great lyrics, you should write songs. So that's what i did, went out the next day and bought a guitar.

Because of the way I came to music I never really learned theory, I just played what came to me, it was only later that I started to see what I was doing naturally had it's base in music theory. These days, I don't really go to hard core on the theory, I can go there if necessary but I have gone back to just "doing" as I find sometimes all this theory gets in the way, but that's just me, music theory can certainly be useful :)

 

[Nico]

I learned guitar because I was wantng to play rock and be accepted by some friends, I struggled a bit when I first learned classic guitar, I was not learning properly how to manage strong emotion, and clearly classical music would have help :P.

I think we can separate music and solfège (theory) it's two different languages that talk about the same thing. Just viewing sheets music is like entering a new world, and if you have the same ability of Beethoven I'm sure you can hear it just by reading.

There's also the technical language such as "Tierce", which is an interval of three degrees, etc... that foster an ancient sense of talking from direct silence.

The history of music theory seems also very interesting, the clerics allowed just the "harmonics" intervals : tierces, quarts, quintes, sixtes, octaves, whereas secondes and septiemes were discarded because they sounded discordants.

 

[Glenn]

Interesting thread. I started playing drums in high school. Spent many hours practicing loudly in the basement. And as time went on started to play in different bands. But eventually gave it up and sold my drums. Went many years till a few years ago, I decided to get an edrum set, with the thinking that they are not so loud to play in a condo, and in fact you could use headphones. But even that set is too big to have set up all the time, so I recently bought a Kat drum pad. I am amazed at what you can do with it. It has inputs for a kick and hihat. I will attach a picture of it, and an mp3 of me playing it.

 

[987baz]

Interesting thread. I started playing drums in high school. Spent many hours practicing loudly in the basement. And as time went on started to play in different bands. But eventually gave it up and sold my drums. Went many years till a few years ago, I decided to get an edrum set, with the thinking that they are not so loud to play in a condo, and in fact you could use headphones. But even that set is too big to have set up all the time, so I recently bought a Kat drum pad. I am amazed at what you can do with it. It has inputs for a kick and hihat. I will attach a picture of it, and an mp3 of me playing it.

I have a couple of friends who have also got electronic kits at home, they are fun to play with :) Depending on the model you are using, most of them can be hooked up to your computer (with the right interface) and you can use it to play sounds from your audio program (DAW-Protools-Logic etc)

The Kat drum pad looks like fun too, I am assuming you can use it as a sampler and load different sounds into it? I might look into getting something similar, just the top half though, would be cool to use for hand drumming.

I think we can separate music and solfège (theory) it's two different languages that talk about the same thing. Just viewing sheets music is like entering a new world, and if you have the same ability of Beethoven I'm sure you can hear it just by reading

I really like your analogy of language, I think your spot on!

 

[Glenn]

The Kat drum pad looks like fun too, I am assuming you can use it as a sampler and load different sounds into it? I might look into getting something similar, just the top half though, would be cool to use for hand drumming.

Yes, actually, I have it mounted on a snare stand. The Kat is just the flat black part at the top. And the kick and hi-hat I stole off my edrum set. It does have a couple of ports on the back for sampling I think, but I have never used them. Both my edrum set, (Yamaha) and the Kat come with enough onboard sounds for my uses. And yes you can use it for hand drumming, it has bongos and other hand percussion in the unit.

Here is a video demontration of the Kat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b60VfDRAGeg

Cheers

Edit=Quote

 

[987baz]

Yes, actually, I have it mounted on a snare stand. The Kat is just the flat black part at the top. And the kick and hi-hat I stole off my edrum set. It does have a couple of ports on the back for sampling I think, but I have never used them. Both my edrum set, (Yamaha) and the Kat come with enough onboard sounds for my uses. And yes you can use it for hand drumming, it has bongos and other hand percussion in the unit.

Here is a video demontration of the Kat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b60VfDRAGeg

Cheers

wow, cool, they do look pretty fun, I'll duck down to my local music store when I get a chance and have a play, thanks for the info

 

[Cleo]

Thanks for sharing the video, and the other links! Plan to look into the books mentioned.

I'd like to eventually take guitar lessons. For some reason though I've delayed finding a guitar teacher. Something I've thought about for several years now but moreso since I started taking singing lessons.

The guitar I have, my father found at a thrift store a couple years ago. He put new strings on it and I now have a tuner thanks to my cousin, so it's somewhat tuned. My cousin started taking guitar lessons in the last couple years, and has been encouraging me the most to learn.

I also took a few years of piano when I was younger (my neighbor was a piano teacher). I think I took it for granted and more as a sort of chore at times to learn when younger but I now really appreciate and enjoy being able to play a tune or two.

Great topic! I'm now curious to also find research on how singing lights up the brain..

 

[987baz]

Thanks for sharing the video, and the other links! Plan to look into the books mentioned.

I'd like to eventually take guitar lessons. For some reason though I've delayed finding a guitar teacher. Something I've thought about for several years now but moreso since I started taking singing lessons.

The guitar I have, my father found at a thrift store a couple years ago. He put new strings on it and I now have a tuner thanks to my cousin, so it's somewhat tuned. My cousin started taking guitar lessons in the last couple years, and has been encouraging me the most to learn.

I also took a few years of piano when I was younger (my neighbor was a piano teacher). I think I took it for granted and more as a sort of chore at times to learn when younger but I now really appreciate and enjoy being able to play a tune or two.

Great topic! I'm now curious to also find research on how singing lights up the brain..

Hey Cleo :)

while finding the right guitar teacher is important, there is a heap of cool stuff on youtube and the likes, plus, IMO nothing beats just figuring stuff out yourself, just learn a few chords and start playing!! once your fingers get used to the positions then you can move on to more intricate stuff, but basically, just have fun with it. And, since you can sing, what better way to express yourself than to write your own songs :) any way just my 2 cents.

 

[Cleo]

Hey Cleo :)

while finding the right guitar teacher is important, there is a heap of cool stuff on youtube and the likes, plus, IMO nothing beats just figuring stuff out yourself, just learn a few chords and start playing!! once your fingers get used to the positions then you can move on to more intricate stuff, but basically, just have fun with it. And, since you can sing, what better way to express yourself than to write your own songs :) any way just my 2 cents.

Hi!

Yeah, I think I'll give it a go in the meantime :) My cousin gave me a beginners book on guitar method I could start with.

 

[987baz]

Hi!

Yeah, I think I'll give it a go in the meantime :) My cousin gave me a beginners book on guitar method I could start with.

Awesome, happy playing

 

[3DStudent]

If it wasn't for my kinesiologist and another friend who does healing work, who both utterly convinced me that I would never be whole in this life if I didn't express myself through music, it is my gift, and to go against it is to go against DCM.

I was reading this thread a few weeks ago and that part gave me pause. Because it was a bit coincidental that I had read something about music before this thread, and was looking up some instrumental covers of songs. But that part bolded stood out because I have neglected playing music for a while now.

And I don't express myself much in words, so music is usually helpful with that. I used to play guitar and a little drums as a kid and young adult. But I got rid of those. The only things I have now are hand drums, a djembe and a doumbek. So one weekend I pulled out the doumbek and played on it. And it was really relieving and cathartic. I forgot how much fun it is to play music.

I had a little drum circle for my birthday party last year and it was great! I recently revisited the 21 powerful questions thread and my answer for the happiest I've been was when I was playing my grandpa's guitar he let me borrow about 2 years ago, along with *trying* to sing and play to some songs my sister was playing. It was just such a great emotional release, even if I couldn't sing and play at the same time well. Another of the questions was something like, "If you could not fail at this, what would it be?". And I chose that I would play cello.

I had been looking up cello song covers those few weeks ago, and I had a cheap little violin back in 2009-2010. So that's as close as I got to one. But I miss having a tonal instrument. Sure, drums are the "heart" of the song, and drive the pace. But you miss out on being able produce recognizable tones and melodies. I cannot even communicate the song "Happy Birthday to You" on a drum. So I think tonal instruments have more information and are more fluid. Sure you can tune the drum head higher or lower, but after that, it's kind of static. Violin was too much of a high register, so I seem to resonate (pun intended) more with the cello.

So that gets me excited. But for now my job situation is a bit in the air so I will have to hold off. They're kind of expensive and I wouldn't want to get a cheap one. I'd have to find some free time, which would be hard too. I know I'd be moving at a snail's pace with the time I have, but I think I'd enjoy the process.

 

[goyacobol]

If it wasn't for my kinesiologist and another friend who does healing work, who both utterly convinced me that I would never be whole in this life if I didn't express myself through music, it is my gift, and to go against it is to go against DCM.

I was reading this thread a few weeks ago and that part gave me pause. Because it was a bit coincidental that I had read something about music before this thread, and was looking up some instrumental covers of songs. But that part bolded stood out because I have neglected playing music for a while now.

And I don't express myself much in words, so music is usually helpful with that. I used to play guitar and a little drums as a kid and young adult. But I got rid of those. The only things I have now are hand drums, a djembe and a doumbek. So one weekend I pulled out the doumbek and played on it. And it was really relieving and cathartic. I forgot how much fun it is to play music.

I had a little drum circle for my birthday party last year and it was great! I recently revisited the 21 powerful questions thread and my answer for the happiest I've been was when I was playing my grandpa's guitar he let me borrow about 2 years ago, along with *trying* to sing and play to some songs my sister was playing. It was just such a great emotional release, even if I couldn't sing and play at the same time well. Another of the questions was something like, "If you could not fail at this, what would it be?". And I chose that I would play cello.

I had been looking up cello song covers those few weeks ago, and I had a cheap little violin back in 2009-2010. So that's as close as I got to one. But I miss having a tonal instrument. Sure, drums are the "heart" of the song, and drive the pace. But you miss out on being able produce recognizable tones and melodies. I cannot even communicate the song "Happy Birthday to You" on a drum. So I think tonal instruments have more information and are more fluid. Sure you can tune the drum head higher or lower, but after that, it's kind of static. Violin was too much of a high register, so I seem to resonate (pun intended) more with the cello.

So that gets me excited. But for now my job situation is a bit in the air so I will have to hold off. They're kind of expensive and I wouldn't want to get a cheap one. I'd have to find some free time, which would be hard too. I know I'd be moving at a snail's pace with the time I have, but I think I'd enjoy the process.

3D Student,

I think you would love playing a cello. I just saw this yesterday and was amazed by the range of the cello and other instruments not normally played together. The mandolin player is from a group called the Punch Brothers but Yo Yo Ma is the cellist.

https://youtu.be/O7EcT5YzKhQ?rel=0

 

[987baz]

If it wasn't for my kinesiologist and another friend who does healing work, who both utterly convinced me that I would never be whole in this life if I didn't express myself through music, it is my gift, and to go against it is to go against DCM.

I was reading this thread a few weeks ago and that part gave me pause. Because it was a bit coincidental that I had read something about music before this thread, and was looking up some instrumental covers of songs. But that part bolded stood out because I have neglected playing music for a while now.

And I don't express myself much in words, so music is usually helpful with that. I used to play guitar and a little drums as a kid and young adult. But I got rid of those. The only things I have now are hand drums, a djembe and a doumbek. So one weekend I pulled out the doumbek and played on it. And it was really relieving and cathartic. I forgot how much fun it is to play music.

I had a little drum circle for my birthday party last year and it was great! I recently revisited the 21 powerful questions thread and my answer for the happiest I've been was when I was playing my grandpa's guitar he let me borrow about 2 years ago, along with *trying* to sing and play to some songs my sister was playing. It was just such a great emotional release, even if I couldn't sing and play at the same time well. Another of the questions was something like, "If you could not fail at this, what would it be?". And I chose that I would play cello.

I had been looking up cello song covers those few weeks ago, and I had a cheap little violin back in 2009-2010. So that's as close as I got to one. But I miss having a tonal instrument. Sure, drums are the "heart" of the song, and drive the pace. But you miss out on being able produce recognizable tones and melodies. I cannot even communicate the song "Happy Birthday to You" on a drum. So I think tonal instruments have more information and are more fluid. Sure you can tune the drum head higher or lower, but after that, it's kind of static. Violin was too much of a high register, so I seem to resonate (pun intended) more with the cello.

So that gets me excited. But for now my job situation is a bit in the air so I will have to hold off. They're kind of expensive and I wouldn't want to get a cheap one. I'd have to find some free time, which would be hard too. I know I'd be moving at a snail's pace with the time I have, but I think I'd enjoy the process.

Hey 3D Student,

I had a similar reaction the the 21 powerful questions, the happiest I have ever been is when I was playing with my band, and more recently, just playing my guitar and writing songs.

I hope you find the time and money to get your cello and start your journey with it :)

 

[Amor]

Heey peeps, I found an interesting research done with bacteria and how certain sound frequencies affect their growth and behavior. I ll put abstract info below with the link to the research.

Abstract
Microbes, as one of the primary producers of the biosphere, play an important role in ecosystems. Exploring the mechanism of adaptation and resistance of microbial population to various environmental factors has come into focus in the fields of modern microbial ecology and molecular ecology. However, facing the increasingly serious problem of acoustic pollution, very few efforts have been put forth into studying the relation of single cell organisms and sound field exposure. Herein, we studied the biological effects of sound exposure on the growth of E. coli K-12 with different acoustic parameters. The effects of sound exposure on the intracellular macromolecular synthesis and cellular morphology of E. coli K-12 were also analyzed and discussed. Experimental results indicated that E. coli K-12 exposed to sound waves owned a higher biomass and a faster specific growth rate compared to the control group. Also, the average length of E. coli K-12 cells increased more than 27.26%. The maximum biomass and maximum specific growth rate of the stimulation group by 8000 Hz, 80dB sound wave was about 1.7 times and 2.5 times that of the control group, respectively. Moreover, it was observed that E. coli K-12 can respond rapidly to sound stress at both the transcriptional and posttranscriptional levels by promoting the synthesis of intracellular RNA and total protein. Some potential mechanisms may be involved in the responses of bacterial cells to sound stress.

Link: Effects of sound exposure on the growth and intracellular macromolecular synthesis of E. coli k-12


There is another experiment with mice and effect of chronic sound on gut microbiome and brain function:

Conclusions​

The study provides a systematic investigation of the effects of chronic noise exposure on the microbiome-gut-brain axis in the senescence-accelerated prone mouse. Our results indicate that chronic noise exposure altered the gut microbiota, accelerated age-related neurochemical and inflammatory dysregulation, and facilitated AD-like changes in the brain of SAMP8 mice (Table 3). These findings enhance our understanding of the etiological association between chronic noise exposure and dysregulation of the microbiome-gut-brain axis and suggest that modulation of the gut microbiota is a potential intervention for protecting against the detrimental effects of chronic noise exposure. We have reason to speculate that AD may begin with imbalance in the gut microbiota; the present study highlights the possibility that chronic noise and aging produce a synergistic effect on gut microbiota dysbiosis and gut-brain axis abnormalities, though this hypothesis requires further study.
Link: Effects of chronic noise exposure on the microbiome-gut-brain axis in senescence-accelerated prone mice: implications for Alzheimer’s disease