Are musicians brains different?

Musicians have more connected brains than non-musicians The brains of musicians have stronger structural and functional connections compared to those of non-musicians, regardless of innate pitch ability, according to new research from JNeurosci. Years of musical training shape the brain in dramatic ways.

eurekalert.org - Musicians have more connected brains than non - EurekAlert!

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The brains of musicians have stronger structural and functional connections compared to those of non-musicians, regardless of innate pitch ability, according to new research from JNeurosci. Years of musical training shape the brain in dramatic ways. A minority of musicians -- with Mozart and Michael Jackson in their ranks -- also possess absolute pitch, the ability to identify a tone without a reference. But, it remains unclear how this ability impacts the brain. In the biggest sample to date, Leipold et al. compared the brains of professional musicians, some with absolute pitch and some without, to non-musicians. To the team's surprise, there were no strong differences between the brains of musicians with and without absolute pitch ability; instead absolute pitch may shape the brain in more subtle ways. Compared to non-musicians, both types of musicians had stronger functional connectivity -- the synchronized activity of brain regions -- in the auditory regions of both brain hemispheres. Musicians also had stronger white matter connections between auditory regions and lobes involved in various types of high-level processing. Musicians that began their training at a younger age had stronger structural connections than musicians with a later start. These results demonstrate how experience shapes the brain, especially early in life, and how enhanced musical skills are represented in our brain.

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Paper title: Musical Expertise Shapes Functional and Structural Brains Networks Independent of Absolute Pitch Ability

About JNeurosci

JNeurosci, the Society for Neuroscience's first journal, was launched in 1981 as a means to communicate the findings of the highest quality neuroscience research to the growing field. Today, the journal remains committed to publishing cutting-edge neuroscience that will have an immediate and lasting scientific impact, while responding to authors' changing publishing needs, representing breadth of the field and diversity in authorship.

About The Society for Neuroscience

The Society for Neuroscience is the world's largest organization of scientists and physicians devoted to understanding the brain and nervous system. The nonprofit organization, founded in 1969, now has nearly 37,000 members in more than 90 countries and over 130 chapters worldwide.

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Can you play jazz on a classical guitar?

Re: Jazz on Classical guitar 2, can be very useful for jazz on the classical guitar. As one who has played jazz on the nylon-string 6 and 7-string guitars, I can say that the main problem is simply swinging, and that takes a lot of listening, as well as a pretty good grasp of scales and arpeggios for improvising.

classicalguitardelcamp.com - Jazz on Classical guitar

Post by Ali Hamdani » Thursday 31 January 2019, 18:39 pm

Hey,I have been practicing classical guitar for a couple of years now and I came to conclusions that I wanted to start branching out into other genres of music besides the typical classical rep. I wanted to get started in jazz but I still like to tone and techniques of classical guitar so I wanted to stick to my current instrument as opposed to getting a jazz guitar. (TBH to me jazz guitars sound like a electric guitar holding its nose) I know there are some artist out there that play but I really like the style of Charlie Byrd. I think he does an amazing job combining the two styles and he also does a lot of latin american music.So my questions is I am trying to come up with a routine to practice jazz guitar on the nylon string and I was wondering if there were any good resources out there. So jazz theory is pretty standard throughout all instruments but what I am having trouble with is how guitarist approach arpeggios, I have reading jazz guitar books on arpeggios and there fingerings are hard on the classical. So any tips on how to approach arpeggios and jazz in general.Thanks,

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