Tag: study

Science Shows How Guitar Player’s Brains Are Actually Different

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Science Shows How Guitar Player’s Brains Are Actually Different

This is an interesting article:

For starters, guitarists literally have the ability to synchronize their brains while playing. In a 2012 study in Berlin, researchers had 12 pairs of guitarists play the same piece of music while having their brains scanned. They discovered that the guitarists’ neural networks would synchronize not only during the piece, but even slightly before playing. So, basically, guitarists can read each others’ minds better than they can read music.
That synch happens in the areas of the brain that deal with music production and social cognition, so it makes a real difference in how tight a band sounds. When people talk about a band’s chemistry, this may well be what they’re seeing. It also explains why brothers are the core duo in so many famous rock bands.

Wow, seems Guitarists have brains ;-). Next they will say Drummers have brains too…….

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Articulation Study from Apollon Marie-Rose Barret

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Articulation Study from Apollon Marie-Rose Barret

I was digging through my archive of Finale files, and there is this gem in there. I think I got it when I was a member of the IDRS. It’s good for Oboe and/or Saxophone.

  Barret 12 Articulation Studies (153.0 KiB, 154 hits)
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  Barret 12 Articulation Studies (iPad formatted) (159.4 KiB, 40 hits)
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Sheet Music

Wind Instruments and Sickness

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Wind Instruments and Sickness

The NY Times has an article out titled The Claim: Playing a Wind Instrument Causes Respiratory Infection.

“For years, scientists have noticed that people who play wind instruments seem to be at greater risk of chronic sore throats and airway inflammation. Some research suggested that saliva and microorganisms might build up in the mouthpieces, then get blown deeper into the instruments.

But until recently, scientists did not know whether the germs could breed and survive long enough to sicken someone playing the instrument a day or two later.”

Basically, yes, germs can survive a day or two and you might get yourself infected again. Bottom line is that you should clean your stuff out if you are getting sick or are sick…..and well, AT LEAST when you change a reed.

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Brain Scans and Music

Posted on By ericdano No Comments on Brain Scans and Music

Unlike the other scientific article about music, this article is rather interesting….

In new findings, researchers at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders say they have located the region of the brain — the medial prefrontal cortex — that lights up when musicians improvise. It’s the same area we all use when we’re talking about ourselves — who we are, what makes us tick.

At the same time, he and a colleague found, improvising musicians turn off the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, a portion of the brain linked to planning, careful actions and self-censoring.

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Scientists With Too Much Free Time

Posted on By ericdano 6 Comments on Scientists With Too Much Free Time

I wonder why things like this get funded.

John Coltrane and other famed jazz saxophonists hit piercing high notes that amateurs can’t by expertly changing the shape of their vocal tracts, research now reveals.

No shit Sherlock. It’s called having chops. Practicing for a long time.

Untangling this mystery has proven hard, since it is challenging making precise acoustic measurements inside the mouth during playing.

You think? Really? No way.

“It’s wet in the mouth and the acoustic conditions in there are really variable, and it gets really loud in there during playing,” explained researcher Jer-Ming Chen, an acoustician at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia.

No, you think?
Can I get a grant to do pointless research like this? Jer-Ming Chen, why not focus on IMPORTANT SCIENCE? Oh, maybe creating renewable energy, or creating a cure for cancer? No? Too hard? Is that why you had to spend time on this “science”?

Chen added that for pro saxophonists to reach these notes, “they say they have to hear the sound in their head, to kind of get a mental image of the sound. This suggests they have some muscle memory with this tuning. I think that means anyone can learn how to do this, but you need to put in a lot of practice to get that same muscle memory.”

A scientific study which “proves” the obvious. I give you a nice “golf clap” for this. Now go freaking do something worthwhile with science. Geeze.

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