The Neuroscience of Music

~ wilktone ~ 2 Comments

Jonah Lehrer blogs for Wired.com. Recently he posted a piece on The Neuroscience of Music.  In it he asks questions that musicians and neuroscientists have long wondered about, “Why does music make us feel the way we do?”  Lehrer then looks at a recent study designed to take a close look at that question.

The first thing they discovered (using ligand-based PET) is that music triggers the release of dopamine in both the dorsal and ventral striatum. This isn’t particularly surprising: these regions have long been associated with the response to pleasurable stimuli. It doesn’t matter if we’re having sex or snorting cocaine or listening to Kanye: These things fill us with bliss because they tickle these cells. Happiness begins here.

But the study didn’t stop there.  They used an fMRI and noticed something interesting.

In essence, the scientists found that our favorite moments in the music were preceeded by a prolonged increase of activity in the caudate. They call this the “anticipatory phase” and argue that the purpose of this activity is to help us predict the arrival of our favorite part.

In other words, the anticipation of a favorite phrase created a Pavlovian response in the brains of the listeners.  This anticipation itself could be responsible for much of the pleasure we get when listening to music, particularly when the composer surprises us by doing something unexpected.  The surge of dopamine our brains get is caused by our struggle to figure out what’s going to happen next.

The article is an interesting read, but so are many of the comments on the blog as well.  If you’re looking to waste some time, go over and check it out.

A Rebuttal to my Balanced Embouchure Review

~ wilktone ~ 3 Comments

I’ve posted a number of resources for brass players and teachers online about brass embouchures and it’s common for people to contact me asking for my opinion about different practice methods. Almost a year ago I decided to post a skeptical review of one method that I’d gotten a number of different queries about, Jeff Smiley’s book, The Balanced Embouchure.

One of the reasons why I started this blog is to get more information out there and hopefully start a public dialogue about some subjects that are not well understood, even by experts in the field of brass pedagogy. It’s important to me that this dialogue be open and that my own ideas are questioned too. Recently a commenter, Alistair, took me up on this challenge and posted a rebuttal to my review of The Balanced Embouchure. Since Alistair raised many points that are worth another look, I thought I’d devote a new post to the topic of The Balanced Embouchure. In the process of responding to some of Alistair’s comment I hope to clarify my position and acknowledge a few points that he made. Since I’m going to respond to his comments out of the order in which he wrote and gloss over or skip some of them, I would recommend that you read his entire comment in context here.

First, let me concede some points, because Alistair caught me in some errors. For example, in my review I wrote about Smiley’s bunched chin/loose mouth corners recommendation, “If it’s so effective I’d expect to see at least a few really fine players around that have those embouchure characteristics, but I don’t.” Alistair commented:

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Guess the Embouchure Type – Italian Hornist Plays Jobim

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It’s been a while since I’ve done a “Guess the Embouchure Type” post.  Bruce Hembd, from the excellent Horn Matters blog, spotted this one and sent this link, knowing that I like to look at embouchures.  Since my Italian is very bad, I’m not certain of this horn player’s name, but I recognize the tune he’s playing as Antonio Carlos Jobim’s composition Corcavado.  Take a look and see if you can spot this horn player’s embouchure type. 

Almost definitely a Low Placement type.  His placement looks sort of like mine does, except he has what looks like the more typical jaw position and horn angle of Low Placement types.  His teeth look more or less aligned and the horn angle is fairly straight out (don’t be fooled by his downward tilted head through much of the video).

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Advice For Composers – Keep a Composition Notebook.

~ wilktone ~ 2 Comments

I do a lot of my composing directly into Finale, but I find that it’s easier for me to sketch out ideas at the very beginning on staff. One of the reasons I like to is because it feels more organic to me. Basic inputing with Finale makes you follow notation rules, while when I’m playing around with themes or motives I like to be able to simply mark in note heads and not worry about rhythm. Or start at the end of a phrase and work my way backwards.

But one of the main reasons I like to work out initial ideas by hand is so that I can keep a composition notebook. Over the course of composing a piece I end up rejecting a fair bit of material. I like to think that what I’m doing is putting only my best ideas into the completed piece, so this elimination process is a good thing. However, a lot of what I leave behind isn’t necessarily bad, it just didn’t fit the spirit and mood of the composition I happened to be working on. So I save those rejected ideas and tuck them away for later.

A lot of times those half finished ideas grow into a composition of their own. Other times they just sit there in the stack and collect dust. Every once in a while, however, I like to go through all the rejected themes and see what I’ve left behind. I never know when something that didn’t speak to me when I first jotted it down on paper will suddenly inspire me. Sometimes I find myself stuck for a second theme or bridge to a composition and find just what I needed in my composition notebook.

I like to think of composition as similar in practice to performing on an instrument. You have to practice to get good at it and if all you work on is what you can already do well you’re not going to make fast improvements. You don’t necessarily have to finish a piece to get something out of the experience. Excellent performers are always practicing their instruments and I’ve found that the composers I admire also are always working on some project, even if it never sees the light of day. For me, adding to my composition notebook is a good form of composition practice.

How Important Is Soundtrack Music?

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It’s a busy time for me just now, so I’m afraid updates will be a little longer between for a bit.  At any rate, here’s something interesting I just saw.

It’s a good demonstration of just how powerful an effect the music has on our perception of the action in a film or video project.  I’ve done something similar a few times with students by recording someone walking down a hallway and dubbing in different music  for the that exact same scene.  As the music changes, so does the feel you get of the person walking.  In the above video, the change in music makes the happy Sound of Music turn into a dark and terrifying drama.

Lip Muscle and Sore Lips – Another Embouchure Question

~ wilktone ~ 7 Comments

Here’s another embouchure question I got asked a while ago.  Apologies to Mike to not getting him a reply until now.

I have a question about how much of the circular muscle of the lip should be on the teeth or within the gap created between the teeth. I find that I play with the muscle top and bottom entirely within the gap between the upper and lower teeth. I personally feel that this condition is detrimental to both range and endurance even though I can get a reasonably nice tone. When I finish an hour practice session, there is a sore area above the muscle in the inner surface of my upper lip created by my teeth even though I use a minimal amount of pressure to play.

It’s a little hard to follow your question, but I think I may have an idea of what you’re asking.  Without being able to watch you play in person, I can only speak generally and offer speculation on what’s happening with you, so take this with a grain of salt.

Before I do that, I want to describe my understanding of the anatomy of the lips.  It really isn’t necessary to go into this to answer Mike’s questions, but it’s a common enough misunderstanding that I wanted to use this opportunity to address it quickly. When you refer to the “muscle” in your question I think you’re talking about the vermillion part of the lips, or the red part of the lips.  The muscle we’re placing the mouthpiece over is the orbicularis oris.  The red of the lips is over this muscle, but this muscle doesn’t stop at the red membrane of the lips.  There’s no “muscle line” along the red.  The vermillion border of the lips is red because the capillaries are much closer to the surface of the skin there.  Another interesting bit of trivia is that this is unique to humans, no other animals have red lips like us.

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Embouchure Question

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Here’s another embouchure question I’ll take a stab at.

I’ve watched all your videos in the last 2 days and have been studying Reinhardt with the encyclopedia for quite awhile and I appreciate your use of “embouchure motion” rather than pivot. My embouchure is upstream, off to the L side, angle almost straight out. I had been using side movement: R and up for low reg. and L and down for higher reg. In the ency. Reinhardt says it is best no matter what type to put pressure on lower lip but in listening to your videos you say that with a low placement upstream emb. more vibration happens with the lower lip and I seemed to have confirmed this today. Putting more pressure on top for low notes and then more pressure on bottom lip for high notes. This seems to free up vibrations and the side mvt. is not so extreme. Is this correct for low placement upstreamer?

What you’re describing here is both normal for almost all players, regardless of embouchure type, yet incredibly personal to each individual player.  This is a complex topic and from the outset I can’t say without watching you play whether or not what you’ve described above is actually correct for you.  Instead, I’ll try to explain some of the relationships I’ve learned about between the embouchure motion and horn angles.

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Is it normal to spend an hour learning a lick?

~ wilktone ~ 2 Comments

Here’s another great post from David Valdez at Casa Valdez Studios.  One of his students emailed him a tough question.

Is it normal to spend an hour or more trying to learn a lick? I was learning the last four bars of Chris Potter’s RC solo but it felt like it took forever just to get the fingers to work through the notes in every key.

David begins his response by saying that learning licks in all twelve keys is a total waste of time.  It sounds sort of crazy at first, but you should go read his whole explanation.  He has some good suggestions about learning to play in all keys comfortably and some interesting food for thought.

The Two Hal’s: Hal Galper and Hal Crook on Practicing Improvisation

~ wilktone ~ 1 Comment

Jazz pianist Hal Galper talks in this masterclass about the illusion of the piano (or any other instrument) being the “instrument.”  Galper talks about the real instrument is the musician himself/herself.  Check out what he says in this video.

In this video Galper asks the audience, “How many of you think you have trouble playing what you hear?”  He responds to the audience members who agree with that by telling them, “Well, you’re all wrong.  You are playing exactly the way you hear.”

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