Comments on: Amateur Neuroscience meets Actual Neuroscience

By: koen

koen — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 15:02:39 +0000

as an almost exclusively improvising musician I can relate completely to the autobiographical storyteller part. I often feel as if I’m speaking, meaning the music flows as my voice, unhindered by thoughts. It is something you come across a lot reading about improvisation: not thinking. Many improvising musicians have stated “it was like it wasn’t me playing” after a good session or concert, or that the “music came naturally”. So the art of meditation and improvisation are very similar in ways. BUT, there is a difference. Meditation is more about listening that it is about creation i.e. more passive. And making music is, as I hope we all agree, very creative, interpreting a score or otherwise. I think there lies the key, and also a few answers to the question you have posted.
In education of any kind (of music) inspiring creativity in students is most important. The ‘skill’ of improvisation, which I could describe as the freedom of self to react to any given (situation) tone or chord, uninterfered by judgmental mechanisms (of oneself or others), will come naturally.
Anyways, sorry for this long response, but the underlying topic here (improvising classical musicians;) greatly interests me. I’d be happy to send some more experiences I’ve had improvising with classically educated friends, and suggestions of how to ‘learn’ improvising to you by mail. Just let me know if you’re interested.
Oh yes, and great work you’re doing here! Thank you.

ps: you might also like this article about synchronized brainwaves between musicians: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316201501.htm

By: admin

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:05:43 +0000

Thanks for reading, Helen, and for your thoughtful reply. I’m going to try that Robert Dick Trick sometime–it seems like a good method for when you are stuck, and struggling to come up with a convincing interpretation.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:03:38 +0000

Thank you for the reading suggestions. And how cool to hear that you can feel your brain developing!

By: Helen Bledsoe

Helen Bledsoe — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:21:00 +0000

Unscientifically, I would guess that the answer to all your questions is yes, to some extent. From what little I know about neuroscience, the brain is much more plastic than we think.
I do try to practice improvisation, sometimes even in a classical setting like a short Mozart or C.P.E. Bach cadenza. I do feel this process switches something on. Something Robert Dick proposed decades ago was to take the passage you are playing, turn the music over, improvise a passage in the same style and character, then turn the music back over and play what’s written. It will probably be different, in a cool way.
You mentioned that “free flow feeling”, and yes I’ve had it, I guess. One thing that happens with me during improv (and seems to be typical of most people I talk to) – I play something I think is really cool, then comes a passage I am sort of just going with the flow, not really paying attention, sometimes thinking this might be lame.
But when I hear the tape, the stuff I thought was good was actually lame and the stuff I thought was lame was really good. Maybe my flow is bass ackwards?
Anyway, keep posting, this is interesting!

By: Lisa Dee

Lisa Dee — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 20:51:27 +0000

People interested in these issue might want to read two super interesting books:

“Musicophilia” by neurologist Oliver Sacks
“The Brain that Changes Itself” by Norman Doidge

Sometimes, when I am practicing or learning new music, I imagine I can feel the connections changing inside my head — what my Rolfer calls “cranial viscera.”