the music mind lab BLOG

By Caileen W. You may have heard of people being referred to as tone deaf. Maybe it’s in the car, with one of your friends poking fun at your off-key singing. Or maybe it’s in a music ensemble, where one of your group members just can’t seem to match everyone else’s pitch. But what does tone deafness really mean? And what causes it? To begin, the scientific name for tone deafness is amusia. Specifically, this term refers to the inability to accurately perceive or produce musi

By Caileen W. Why do musicians frequently seem to have exceptional memory, coordination, listening skills, and emotional sensitivity? Modern neuroscience suggests that years of musical training can physically and functionally reshape the brain through a process called neuroplasticity — the brain’s ability to reorganize itself in response to experience. Music Training and Neuroplasticity Learning music is an incredibly complex process. It involves many brain systems at once: h

By Caileen W. You’ve likely heard the word “color” being used when describing a piece of music. Your teacher might’ve asked you to make a “color change” at a specific section, or you might’ve heard a peer comment on the “dark color” of a specific piece. For most people, the concept of colored music is an abstract way to characterize different types of sound. But for others, music truly does produce colors. But how? Synesthesia. Constructed from the prefix “syn” — meaning t

By Caileen W. We use a variety of movements when playing our instruments. Some movements are large, such as bringing your forearm closer to your body to shift to a higher position on the violin or leaning your torso as you play a long scale on the piano. In the last blog post, we explored how these movements can be categorized into fast-twitch and slow-twitch, as well as how they are facilitated by the brain. On the other hand, many movements are small, such as shifting your

By Caileen W. If you’ve ever watched a recording of a professional musician, you’ve probably had the same thought as I have — how do their fingers move like that? The answer you’ve most likely heard is a lifetime of practice, a good bit of talent, and plenty of performance experience. But in this post, we’ll be briefly exploring how the brain facilitates movement. INTRODUCTION The type of muscle we’ll be focusing on in this post is skeletal muscle. As its name suggests, the

By Special Guest Writer Angela W. For musicians, the ability to understand and manipulate pitch is fundamental to their playing. Without a strong grasp of pitch-based concepts such as melody, harmony, or variation, performances would fall apart. A knowledge of pitch is absolutely essential, possibly the most important skill to master for any musician. As such, great prestige is assigned to perfect pitch, also called absolute pitch (AP). Broadly, AP is the “ability to identif

By Caileen W. PART 1: WHAT IS NONDECLARATIVE MEMORY? We use nondeclarative memory every day. Also known as implicit memory, nondeclarative memory is characterized by the lack of active recall. For example, an advanced musician can easily play a scale with very little thought. They don’t have to remember where to place their fingers, how to hold their instrument, or what notes are in the scale. Their memories are retrieved unconsciously, and are relatively stronger than declar

By Caileen W. PART 1: WHAT IS DECLARATIVE MEMORY? The basis of memory is the synapse (Queensland Brain Institute 2016). Synapses are connections between neurons, the cells that make up our brain. When you form new thoughts or connections, new synapses are created. When you repeatedly recall a topic, related synapses are strengthened. When you don’t think about an event for a long time, related synapses are weakened and can eventually be eliminated, which is why you forget thi

By Special Guest Writer Eidee T. Why Practicing Isn’t Enough to Perform Under Pressure I’ve practiced pieces until they felt effortless—until my fingers moved without thought and my bow knew exactly where to go. But the moment I stepped onstage, everything changed. My hand shook. My mind zoomed in on details I’d never thought about before. Suddenly I was trying to play instead of just playing. For a long time, I thought this meant I wasn’t prepared enough. So I practiced more

By Special Guest Writer Jer-Shyan C. The viola was always presented to me as something akin to an evil version of a violin. Mechanically, it is the same difficulty; although the violin’s highest E string is replaced by a C string on a viola, every technique — string crossings, basic left hand and right hand coordination, bow hold, vibrato — are virtually identical to their counterpart in the violin's learning process. For the most part, viola just seemed to be the lesser-know

By Caileen W. Introduction The lights are too bright. Your palms are sticky. Your heart seems to be beating way faster than usual. Backstage, you’re filled with dread—what if you mess up that one spot? What if you trip? What will everyone think? For some, the time before they go onstage is the most nerve-wracking part of performing. For others, it’s the time they spend onstage. Yet for nearly all musicians, some form of stage fright accompanies most public performances. Unfo

By Caileen W. Disclaimer: a few aspects of this article are specific to the violin, but the majority of this article is applicable to all string instruments! :) Introduction: Why should I practice my scales? Practicing technique can often feel like the most boring part of your practice session, but as every teacher will tell you, it’s truly the most effective and essential tool to improve your playing. Techniques like shifting, vibrato, double stops are the building blocks of