Music and the Brain article- Scientific American

This is a GREAT article on music and how the brain is pre-programmed, and also adaptable to auditory stimuli.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?cha...8683414B7F0000

It was written by Norm Weinberg (the electronic drum guy) who writes for Drum! Unless of course, that's a different guy with the same name.

(almost) the same name, but different people:

Scientific American Guy:
NORMAN M. WEINBERGER, who received his Ph.D. in experimental psychology from Case Western Reserve University, works in the department of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine. He is a founder of U.C.I.'s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and of MuSICA (Music and Science Information Computer Archive). A pioneer in the field of learning and memory in the auditory system, Weinberger is on the editorial board of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory and Music Perception.

Drum! Guy:

A prolific author, Dr. Weinberg is an Associate Editor for Percussive Notes, and has published over one hundred and fifty articles in journals including: Modern Drummer, Drum!, Drums and Drumming, Rhythm, Percussive Notes, Percussive Notes Research Edition, Keyboard Magazine, Music and Computers, The Instrumentalist, and Home Recording Newsletter. In addition, he has several compositions published by Southern Music Corporation. His text, The Electronic Drummer, is a part of the Modern Drummer Library and is distributed by Hal Leonard Publishing. His most recent book, Guide to Standardized Drumset Notation, has set a world-wide standard and is published by the Percusssive Arts Society.

Very cool article! Thanks for the post!

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ November 06, 2004 10:15 PM: Message edited by: DrummerDav ]</font>

I find brain function and it's evolution one of my favorite topics to learn about. Partially because I am a car mechanic..... I can relate to the interworkings of the digital circuits that work on such low voltages. Amazing how our bodies work in theory very much like different systems on a car(i.e. pumps, circulatory systems, wiring, computer, chemicals, etc.)

Scientific American is a great magazine. Dr. Michael Shermer, a columist in Scientific American is the head of the Skeptics Society (www.skeptic.com)here in Pasadena. The article you posted talked about Dr. Steven Pinker who was a speaker at the Skeptics shortly after releasing his new book "The blank Slate". This book put the psychological community on it's ear for a while.

Funny.... me and Vinne got into this passionate e-mailing session a couple of days before the election. Were both upset King Bush got re-elected. So this kind of spurted a whole e-mail/discussion back and forth about Bush vs. Kerry supporters and the differences in their thought processes.

We kinda touched on the part about how we are genetically pre-disposed regarding our physical/biological abilities from birth. And some of those capabilities can be honed thru life and others cannot. Obviously this relates directly to drumming and the different styles, approaches, and concrete differences between drummers and their musical interpretation/playing abilites.

Here's a weblink that I sent to Vince regarding the topic of which we were talking..... babies genetically predisposed ability to tell a pretty face from a real one. Click on the "we are not blank slates" link to see some of what Steven Pinker says.

-j

forgot the link......

http://www.futurepundit.com/archives/002338.html

I love all these topics too. As far as Dr. Shermer, have you read his book, 'How we believe: Science, Skepticism, and the search for God'.... GREAT book, very interesting as far as how the humans are hard-wired through conditioning over millions of years, and how that influences our view of spirituality. I think it goes hand in hand with this, parallel line of reasoning. Why do certain sounds "sound" good? They are still trying to figure that one out, but lines of reasoning would point to the fact that the perpetuation of the gene pool has to do with it's ability to survive, which is obvious. That which helps us to keep our genes moving on, get honed while non-necessary traits get weeded out. The book "Music and Memory" deals with some of these idea too. It is a college text book, so it isn't dumbed down, or quick reading. One interesting point was how the brain puts together sound and organizes events that occur in temporal proximity into a single event. Imagine if when something falls, it makes a range of pitches, what if the brain counted those as all individual events, since they are all transmitted by different neurons, according to pitch, they could as well be "seen" or heard as all those events by themselves. The brain learned that within certain temporal windows, that all the sounds happening within that window can be attributed to one event, and therefore grouped as such. Example: 20 events per second are heard as a PITCH, therefore one continuous event, because they relate closely enough in time to be grouped as one source/event. It would help one to survive in nature to be able to automatically group stimuli into quantified events. If we all heard every bit of stimuli that entered our ear, and it wasn't organized as it is... not too easy to get around on a busy street, one would lose their mind trying to group such enormous informational quantity. As far as music, pitches that contour either up or down, well, in nature that indicates either the approaching or regressing of something. When something moves toward you at even 20mph, a slight pitch-bend up occurs due to doppler shift in compression waves. It would be something we would have to be keen to in order to deal with our surroundings, and therefore we can now manipulate that tendency to key into mathematical patterns, and whatnot, and take advantage of our inborn attention to those details by creating music (sounds) that appeal to our brain's way of reacting to that stimuli and how it is organized.
I don't mean to sound nerdy, this is just good stuff, though.

What is Vinnie's take on all this inborn stuff?

I do clinics in the UK and a lot of what I do has it's base in the revolutionary ideas coming out of cognitive psychology and neuroscience.

I think that we as much the product of nature as nurture and that this will have a radical influence on music education.

Pinker states that we have in built mechanisms to help us to develop walking and talking. Drumming (along with reading and writing) is relatively new to mankind and so we have no inbuilt mechanism to learn to drum. We therefore need outside inflences(ie. Positive AND negative motivation) and I believe it is motivation that is the key to music education.

We also differ individualy in our personal talents. Not everyone is a Vinnie and no matter how much you practice you may never achieve that level of playing. It is important to develop your personal attributes than measure yourself against other musicians (to some extent.)

I have worked quite closely on these ideas with the UK philosopher Gary Edwards who discusses these ideas at

http://groups.msn.com/THEVITUPERATOR/messages.msnw

excellent thread btw.

Hey Matricks....

Yeah... Shermer is great. Have all his books. Go to the Skeptics meetings pretty often, especially when they have great speakers.

I know Vince definetly thinks we have certain inbred qualities that are just part of being of the Hominid/Homo Sapian family. He originally turned me onto this fellow, Dr. Alan Slater, a psychologist at Exeter, England. Slater talks about babies abilities to tell the difference between attractive and not so attractive women (now you know why we can't get our eyes off of those hooters!!! Its because we HAVE TO look!!! [img]smile.gif[/img]

But seriously... I Liked a statement he made to me that said something like, "yeah.... we all have DOS (a Disc Operating System) and the rest is fairly blank". Totally classic Dr. Colaiuta. Vinnie is an amazingly intuitive thinker.

Andy...... Cognitive Psychology is another topic I like very much. Read several books on this topic. Pinkers "How the mind works" is another good one.

One statement you make Andy....

"Drumming (along with reading and writing) is relatively new to mankind and so we have no inbuilt mechanism to learn to drum. We therefore need outside influences(ie. Positive AND negative motivation) and I believe it is motivation that is the key to music education."

I kinda disagree with that a little. Only on the basis of saying we have no "inbuilt mechanisms".

In Africa, drumming was used to communicate from tribe to tribe, same in North America with Indians, and all throughout man's existance. Drums have been used in war chants, religious ceremonies, and other events. Like Vince once said at one of the bootleg clincs here on HOD, "Drumming was originally used as a way of communication". When we feel the "groove" or the "pulse" of a song, you get the feeling of wanting to bob your head, or sway to the groove. There again, you see this even to this day in young African tribal children. I wonder if this ability to feel this "pulse" or "groove" can possibly be one of those genetic markings that we carry in our Homo Sapian family line??

Makes you wonder......

As Weckl once said at a drum clinic. "Drummers rule the world!!"

-j

My opinion would be that our mechanisms for drumming are a hybrid of other mechanisms that we have evoloved for specific reasons, not having to do with music, but overlap into the drumming/musical realm.

Good topic and article.

I?m glad there are people who try to figure these things out cause it?s confusing. After reading the article I realized how amazing and wonderful it is that we are understanding these things but I still wonder if we will ever know why?

It?s easy to reason that music is just part of basic human nature. Music draws us together
in huge masses. Music evokes an emotion and creates a yearning. Music is a powerful
universal force that rivals sexuality in it?s persuasive, influential and addictive nature.
But there is a twist when we talk about rhythm...

I used to teach drums to little kids and one of the first things I noticed was they would
have (zone out syndrome) when learning to be repetitive. After a few minutes of repeating something and getting it going correctly they would begin to zone out mentally and gaze off into space while still executing the exercise. This (zoned out) space is what I consider a link to the metaphysical and a whole other subject. Well, since we are on the subject, here?s a little.

We all know early humans used rhythm to communicate with each other but they also
used it to communicate with the spirit world.. The reason they used rhythm was because
it?s simple repetitive nature (with 10 days of nonstop repeating) induced a trance. This
trance or alpha state of mind has long been considered the doorway to the spirit.
Throughout history, shamans, gurus, astralists and psychics of all sorts have used these
repetitive vibrations to seek out spiritual awareness. To a milder form, religion and music
have always been associated because they both abet this awareness. The universe, the
stars and the planets are all in perfect harmony (and time) as they expand on a consistent
and repeating spinning disc and we humans exist because the steady unrelenting
assiduous pulse of our heart propels us to repeat from day to day. Yet, can we ever
comprehend the ?spark? of existence? Sure, having perfect pitch or good meter or being
an accomplished musician isn?t easy for everybody but your average person can enjoy,
relate and comprehend a simple repetitive rhythm or melody.

So anyway, it?s always good to have the pinheads look into things but I think music is
simply a gift and whether you believe we come from a slimy piece of goo of from a
devine creator, it doesn?t matter, we are all attached to the rhythms and melodies of life
because these things are good and naturally bring us together.

Any SP?ers out there?

Quote:

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Originally posted by WecklsMechanic:
"Drumming (along with reading and writing) is relatively new to mankind and so we have no inbuilt mechanism to learn to drum. We therefore need outside influences(ie. Positive AND negative motivation) and I believe it is motivation that is the key to music education."

I kinda disagree with that a little. Only on the basis of saying we have no "inbuilt mechanisms".

In Africa, drumming was used to communicate from tribe to tribe, same in North America with Indians, and all throughout man's existance.

---

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Andy specifically used the word "relatively" new. You are correct, but in evolutionary terms this is all still very, very recent. The timescales required for mechanisms to become innate are enormous.

I was specifically talking about our ability to LEARN drumming which I believe we have no genetic base for. A child only needs to hear langauge at a certain, critical stage of development and they will naturally develop the ability to talk. It is believed we have an in built knowledge of phonemes. We haven't got any such apparatus for learning to read or write because these activities have not been around long enough to affect our genetic development.

This is not say that we don't have a inate ability to drum (ie talent) I believe whole heartedly that we do and that those who adhere to Blank Slate theory are a bit misguided...