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Can synesthesia be taught?
It wasn’t so long ago that the very existence of synesthesia was questioned. (You may recall from an earlier post that there are 60+ types of synesthesia, the condition in which stimulation of one sense leads to automatic experience of a second sense.) Many scientists throughout the twentieth century scoffed at the idea of synesthesia
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Myth or reality: mirror neurons and music, part VII
A few months ago I wrote several posts about the importance of mirror neurons in the study and performance of music. Mirror neurons, as you recall, are the cells that fire both when we act and when we see someone else making the same action, and multiple studies have been conducted that specifically explore mirror neurons in musicians.
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Keeping the beat – or not
I have always been fascinated when I hear an orchestra play without conductor. Interpretation issues aside, how do the musicians stay so expertly in sync through all of the nuances and flexibilities of tempo? A few weeks ago I heard the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in a concert that included the Beethoven Third Symphony.
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ET and the musician
Some of you may remember the story from a few years ago about the violinist who played the violin during his own brain surgery. It’s a powerful statement about the impact of medical professionals and musicians working together in creative ways to address the specific medical problems that musicians face. The story has recently
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Making music together syncs brains
When musicians play together, we always try to be “in sync,” unless, of course, we are playing Steve Reich’s Piano Phase or Violin Phase. And then we find how difficult it is, when two musicians are playing the same music, to be purposefully “out of sync” or out of phase. So are we hardwired to want to play