05-20-2013, 07:09 AM
Hi all recent posters on this thread,
I've just been reading the recent posts and thought i would try and partly answer some of the musical ability questions. First of all Milo when you asked at which level of musical accomplishment does brain development begin, I can't be certain but I'm fairly sure that it is a gradual development right from, I suppose birth, as regards perception of tones which is the left hemisphere. As we all need and use this ability to some degree, but when someone starts to learn an instrument then I must surely develop at a faster rate. I know that when I started playing guitar, the idea of tuning it by ear was a daunting task then over time it became easier. I got to a point where I could tune it as long as I was in a silent enviroment, but even this became easier to the point where it doesn't matter how loud the enviroment is I can always tune in easily, although I do see in less experienced musicians the same struggles that I had, so I can only assume that this is due to development over time. Bizzarely the ability to percieve tone can actually get to good in the respect of you hear all tones, like the fridge, a noisy light, or laptop, these all have a certain pitch and when pitches are slightly out with each you get a phasing effect which makes the sounds wobble/ oscillate against eachother. I have retuned my guitar to the fridge a few times because I couldn't cope with the dissonance. People with perfect pitch frequently feel ill and nauseous because of this phenomenon.
Regarding forced left hand development due to playing an instrument then I suppose it firstly depends on the instrument. In piano left hand plays the bassline most of the time, so in sense it's keeping rhythm and the right plays melody which is mostly the expressive content in music, but not always. In guitar it could almost be seen as the opposite if you are right handed, then the right hand either strums or finger picks which is in effect the rhythm. Whereas drummers both hands playing rhythm. There is another aspect to all of this which is muscle memory, but I'll come back to that soon because my tea is starting to burn. Hope this makes some sort of sense.
AR
I've just been reading the recent posts and thought i would try and partly answer some of the musical ability questions. First of all Milo when you asked at which level of musical accomplishment does brain development begin, I can't be certain but I'm fairly sure that it is a gradual development right from, I suppose birth, as regards perception of tones which is the left hemisphere. As we all need and use this ability to some degree, but when someone starts to learn an instrument then I must surely develop at a faster rate. I know that when I started playing guitar, the idea of tuning it by ear was a daunting task then over time it became easier. I got to a point where I could tune it as long as I was in a silent enviroment, but even this became easier to the point where it doesn't matter how loud the enviroment is I can always tune in easily, although I do see in less experienced musicians the same struggles that I had, so I can only assume that this is due to development over time. Bizzarely the ability to percieve tone can actually get to good in the respect of you hear all tones, like the fridge, a noisy light, or laptop, these all have a certain pitch and when pitches are slightly out with each you get a phasing effect which makes the sounds wobble/ oscillate against eachother. I have retuned my guitar to the fridge a few times because I couldn't cope with the dissonance. People with perfect pitch frequently feel ill and nauseous because of this phenomenon.
Regarding forced left hand development due to playing an instrument then I suppose it firstly depends on the instrument. In piano left hand plays the bassline most of the time, so in sense it's keeping rhythm and the right plays melody which is mostly the expressive content in music, but not always. In guitar it could almost be seen as the opposite if you are right handed, then the right hand either strums or finger picks which is in effect the rhythm. Whereas drummers both hands playing rhythm. There is another aspect to all of this which is muscle memory, but I'll come back to that soon because my tea is starting to burn. Hope this makes some sort of sense.
AR
wae aye man ye radgie