More benefits to playing music

A few days ago we were talking about the fact that people who listen to music use more of their brain. People who play music use even more of their brain! Right now we're in one of the biggest holidays seasons of all and every one of these celebrations focuses on special music. Want to create warm, wonderful positive memories for your children and grandchildren? Put the music on, or even better, pull out the old sheet music, guitar, violin, flute or whatever! Music reinforces all of the poitive behaviors and thoughts that you are creating every minute of every day. Don't waste a moment!

By the way, I'm having a big holiday sale on my website. If you buy a CD, tape or book, you'll get a free electronic copy of the product and you'll get free shipping though the 25th of this month! I'm also having a special on individual, personal consultations: If you buy a 30-minute consult, you'll get an additional 15 minutes free; if you buy a 60-minute consultation, you'll get an additional 30 minutes free. Don't wait! Go to http://www.healingmusicenterprises.com/NeedSomeLast-minuteGifts.htm

Want to use more of your brain? Play music!

At the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in Los Angeles several years ago, Dr. Lawrence Parsons of the University of Texas-San Antonio discussed the results of his research which showed that significantly more of the brain was being used during music making that previously thought. We have been taught for years that most of us use very little of our brain but it's not because we don't want to...it's because we don't know how to access more of it! If playing music will help us use more of our brain, bring out those instruments: drums, piano, horns, harps! Let the music begin!

"An understanding of the brain locations that represent the separate aspects of music will help us identify the neural mechanisms that are specific to music, specific to language and are shared between the two," says Parsons. "The finding that there is a right brain region for notes and musical passages that corresponds in location to a left brain region for letters and words illustrates how a neural mechanism may be present in each of the two brain hemispheres becomes special adapted for analogous purposes but with different information contexts."

Brains, Bicycles, and Brooks Hill

How does the brain think up music? Why do certain songs just pop into your mind at especially opportune times? Earlier today I was riding my shiny new red bike and I was thinking about a time about 20 years ago when I was doing a bike ride with the local bike club. Somehow I had missed the information that this ride would include a very, very steep hill, nick-named "The Wall." I always hated to get off my bike and walk it up a hill and so I put it in the lowest "granny gear" and stood up to pedal up the steep, steep hill. As I slowed down to a crawl a song popped into my head and I suddenly found myself pedalled in precise rhythm to "one, little two little three little indians..." Over and over I sang this song (internally) as I made my way up this hill. It was amazing how this seemed to give me the rhythm and the purpose and the distraction that I needed. Much sooner than I expected I was at the top of the hill, ego and reputation intact. Amazing!

What makes music sound "scary"?

With Halloween just around the corner, I've
been contemplating what makes music scary. Some of my younger
readers may not know that for a couple of decades, movies were silent.
In other words, the audience just read the dialogue at the bottom of the
screen, and a pianist sat to the side of the screen and literally
improvised whatever music seemed appropriate to what was happening on the
screen. This was quite an art and just anyone couldn't do it.
The musician had to be able to represent not only horror and fear but also romance, humor, religious feeling and tremendous joy.

Now that movies have soundtracks, the
music that has been composed for them will be among the classics of
tomorrow. The scary movies have some of the most famous themes.
Two that come to mind immediately are the themes from "Jaws" and "Psycho."
Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho is a definite classic horror film. It's
music, by Bernard Herrmann, truly evokes fear and panic. The famous shower
scene music (the screeching violins) is parodied and copied in media all
over the world.

Of course, most of this music is in a minor
key and incorporates sudden changes of dynamics (louds and softs).
You might also hear unusual instruments such as a digiridoo or perhaps a
sitar. The purpose is to create an atmosphere that is unfamiliar; a
soundscape that disorients and confuses. Have a fun Halloween and
pay attention to the music

How does your brain listen to music?

According to the Harvard Gazette: Your inner ear contains a spiral sheet that the sounds of music pluck like a guitar string. This plucking triggers the firing of brain cells that make up the hearing parts of your brain. At the highest station, the auditory cortex, just above your ears, these firing cells generate the conscious experience of music. Different patterns of firing excite other ensembles of cells, and these associate the sound of music with feelings, thoughts, and past experiences.

I've written quite a bit about how music elicits tremendous emotion when you hear songs from your adolescence or teen years. This music can shift you to a whole different emotional state and place. Now you know a little more about it!

Music on the Brain

At the Harvard Medical School, Dr. Mark Tramo is doing research on how music affects the brain. His research also suggests that even babies have specific musical likes and dislikes. The dark stripe on the model brain he holds marks an area particularly sensitive to rhythm, melody, and harmony. The good doctor says that "They begin to respond to music while still in the womb. At the age of 4 months, dissonant notes at the end of a melody will cause them to squirm and turn away. If they like a tune, they may coo. "

"Music is in our genes," says Mark Jude Tramo, a musician, prolific songwriter, and neuroscientist at the Harvard Medical School. "Many researchers like myself are trying to understand melody, harmony, rhythm, and the feelings they produce, at the level of individual brain cells. At this level, there may be a universal set of rules that governs how a limited number of sounds can be combined in an infinite number of ways."
"All humans come into the world with an innate capability for music," agrees Kay Shelemay, professor of music at Harvard. "At a very early age, this capability is shaped by the music system of the culture in which a child is raised. That culture affects the construction of instruments, the way people sound when they sing, and even the way they hear sound. By combining research on what goes on in the brain with a cultural understanding of music, I expect we'll learn a lot more than we would by either approach alone."

Imagine how wonderful it would be if music could provide one powerful path to peace!

Can Mozart's Music Make you Smarter?

Many of you have probably heard of "The Mozart Effect." The original research, done in California at UC Irvine, showed that Mozart's Sonata in D Major for Two Pianos helped highschool students score higher on the Scholastic Aptitude Test than students who listend to other music before the exam or those listened to nothing. This was exciting news and was widely reported in the media. Later, some marketers began suggesting that Mozart's music actually raised your IQ and "made you smarter." Not true.

Neuromusicologists suggest that Mozart's music may help you to organize your thoughts and may be good to listen before or during a task. It's also beautiful, brilliant music. But it won't make you smarter! Sorry.

Why are musical memories so powerful?

There is considerable research showing that the music we listen to in our "courting years" is the music that means the most to us in our last few decades of life. Think about it...what did you listen to when you were in high school? Was it the Platters, the Beatles, the Carpenters, Madonna, Cindy Lauper??? It seems that every generation thinks that the music from their courting years is the best. Why? Could it be that when we're "falling in love" in our teen years, the power neurochemicals released in our brains imprint the music in an indelible way?

Think about it...go back in time and let me know what you think!

Alice

www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com
www.SurgicalSerenitySolutions.com

Music and the EEG

Did you know that you have electricity in your body and your brain? This is not a theory, it's a fact! One of the most important medical tests that exists to diagnose brain problems is the EEG.

Music and the EEG
There have not been many experiments that have looked to see how the brain processes music. Measurements of brain activity using the electroencephalogram (EEG) have shown that both the right and left hemispheres are responsive to music.

Other researchers have recorded neuronal activity from the temporal lobe of patients undergoing brain surgery for epilepsy. During this study, awake patients heard either a song by Mozart, a folk song or the theme from "Miami Vice". These different kinds of music had different effects on the neurons in the temporal lobe. The Mozart song and folk song reduced the activity in 48% of the neurons while the theme from Miami Vice reduced the activity in only 26% of the neurons. Also the Miami Vice music increased the activity in 74% of the neurons while Mozart and folk music increase the activity in only about 20% of the neurons. Some of the neurons had action potentials that kept time with the rhythm of the music. Although these results do show that the temporal lobe is probably involved with some aspect of music, it is unclear exactly how this area of the brain is used in the appreciation of music.
You can read about this and more at http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/music.html#eeg

Comments and questions welcomed! My website is www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com

Welcome to the Brain and Music!

Scientific research is teaching us more every day about our brains. As a musician and a therapist, the most exciting thing for me is how music affects our brain. It would seem that sometimes music can even heal the brain.

With an increase in diagnoses such as ADD, ADHD, autism and behavior disorders, it is exciting to see that music can be a powerful, non-addictive, non-invasive intervention.

Over the next many months and years, I hope you will post to this blog and tell me your own stories about music and the brain.

See you online!

Dr. Alice H. Cash, LCSW
www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com