Grow your own tuning device!

[Alan Barnard]

Yes, this is interesting stuff. But the sad finding is that MOST of the
growth and benefit occurs only if begun at a very early age. Hence the
twelve-year-old virtuosos who started at age 4 or 5, whereas someone who
only gets interested in an insturment at, say, age 25, can study and
practice for the rest of his/her life and have no prayer whatsoever of ever
becoming a concert musician.

Moral for parents: Introduce music EARLY, if there is any interest and
demonstrated ability help them persist in practicing, etc.

Alan Barnard
Salem, Missouri


> [Original Message]
> From: <ed440 at mindspring.com>
> To: <pianotech at ptg.org>; <ExamPrep at ptg.org>
> Date: 05/22/2006 8:53:56 AM
> Subject: Grow your own tuning device!
>
> Neuropsychologist Elkhonon Goldberg devotes a chapter of his recent book
_The Wisdom Paradox_ to experimental evidence that the brain grows new
nerve tissue when we learn special skills.
>
> "The next study compares the size of a cortical area known as the
Heschl's gyrus in professional musicians and nonmusicians... This cortical
area is critical for sound processing.  And guess what - the Heschl's gyrus
is twice as large in musicians as in nonmusicians.  Furthermore, the
greater the intensity of practicing music in the last ten years, the
greater the size of the Heschl's gyrus.  Again, the relatinship between
cognitive activation and specific brain regions is apparent and striking."
>
>
> Ed Sutton