It looks like openbook.org is gone. That was what I used to search for random quotes I posted here. I tried using the Facebook search box which didn’t get my anywhere. So for now I guess I have to say goodbye to the facebook quotes of the day. Sorry!
When you sit down at the piano and learn how to play a song, your brain has to execute what’s known as a “motor-action plan.” It means that a sequence of events must unfold in a particular order, your fingers must hit a precise pattern of notes in order. And you rehearse those motor movements over and over, strengthening the neural circuits the more you practice.
But musicians who memorize how to play music often find they can’t just begin a remembered piece at any point in the song. The brain has a certain number of entry nodes in the motor-action plan, so you can only access the information from particular points in the song.
“Even though it feels like it’s in your fingers, it’s not,” Levitin said. “It’s in the finger representation in your head.”
He’s talking “songs” and I’m wondering if he’s referring to pop musicians, as he does in his book This Is Your Brain On Music. I do see classical soloists start at nearly any point in a work when we are rehearsing and the majority just dive right in.
Thoughts?
I read it here (as well as in his book). The article has a lot of other interesting tidbits like …
Did you know that monkeys can’t tap their feet to songs, or recognize beats?
Heh … I know some people who can’t do that too. 😉
Making history: We recorded bass oboe for our next theoretical album last night. First rock album with that instrument. Ever. #oboe
