Some ideas from a radio program with researchers, therapists and artists talking about what happens when brain meets music!
It seems difficult to define what music is but this is the definition one of the researchers in program used: A sounding artform which is not speach.
When listening your hearing, sound processing parts of brain are activated as well as the emotional system. Motoric system is activated even when you do not perform any visible movements. Shadow activities at miror neuron area are observed.
There is two kind of listening:
* When you have musical tranining you can focus on the structure. Your right ear takes in the sounds and the left side of brain is analyzing the music.
* Emotional person does it differently
Just based on these few facts in the program there could be four groups. One split line goes between the groups trained or not and the other if you are emotional person or the opposite.
In music production and learning an iterating vision-tactility-vision proces in motorical system is performed. An amateur musician has lot of activity in higher brain areas for planning, consentration, error correction and motoric systems. A professional musician brain is more quiet; some activity in motoric system and less in the higher areas.
The best predictor for performance is the quantity of training. This was his main point - quantity of training! And he actually redefined the musically gifted person as one, who is clever to pick a suitable training method and is interest to train a lot.
The ability to produce a constant, steady, exact pulse on drums is a good predictor of intelligense. The pulse must be controlled in milliseconds. The smarter you are the better you can keep the pulse constant. - Maybe a new line on you CV when candidating for your next job!
Rhytm experience is in left brain where gramatical and analytical processes take place.
Melody experience is in right brain where psycological, visual and primitive language centers are. Children learn first to recognize the melody pulse and the basic pulse comes later.
All this information can be used to analyze location and range of a brain damage as well as to be used when reactivating the deeper layers of damaged brain with music therapy.
Personally this could explain why I have been dancing all the years without recognizing tangons rhytmical pattern: ONE twoTre four. I am ALLWAYS using my left ear when speaking in phone - I have a feeling not understanding when using the other one. It means I always activate the melody recognizing, right brain when listening. Thats what I do also when dancing!
Which is your favorite ear?
In future this could be implemented when creating the training for these people with strong left/right ear preference. Maybe first train the melody part for left ear group to have a good start and then focus on the musical structures which needs more training.