Aquila Children's Magazine AQUILA Magazine Best Bits | Page 63

Australian and Canadian scientists have That weird blob in your skull will change
dedicated time to researching whether as you learn and develop your musical
musicians are born or made. In 2014, a skills. Another study, this time from
study got as close as scientists can to saying Finnish scientists in the field of
that, while there doesn’t seem to be one neuromusicology, revealed that
single gene that determines musical ability, listening to music touches almost every
it’s quite possible that this aptitude is the aspect of your brain’s functions. While
outcome of a lot of different genes your auditory elements are busy
interacting and working together. processing sound, the motor areas of
your brain (the bits that control
PLANT A SEED AND WATCH
IT GROW movement) are reacting to the pulse.
Much like watering a seedling and seeing it whatever emotions are coming up.
Then you’ve got the areas dealing with
grow into a flower, most experts take this to
mean that while there might be talent If listening alone can produce that
already waiting in your cells, you need to response, then learning to play it goes
practise and nurture it to really see it even further. To put it simply, musicians’
develop. brains are different to those of
non-musicians.
Unfortunately most of us won’t be able to
find out for sure if we’re genetically However you’ve learnt to play an
pre-disposed to musical brilliance. We just instrument, your brain is likely to be
have to work with what we’ve got. Let’s bigger and more sensitive than the brains
imagine for a moment that you’ve never of non-playing folk. What does this mean?
picked up a guitar before, but you’re pretty Well it can mean that you stay more
sure that you’re destined to become a rock mentally alert as you get older, and that
deity, like Grohl. Whether you have a your hearing continues to function pretty
dormant capability or not, is it possible to well.
teach yourself by ear alone and not
dedicate yourself to weeks of slavishly If you have dyslexia then you might also
plucking scales and learning to read benefit from learning music. Some
musical notation? studies show that musical training can
have a positive impact on reading skills
The answer is yes, but learning by ear is not
and speech processing.
hours (and hours and hours) of practice. There are literally zero drawbacks to
Figuring out a guitar solo by ear is a pretty learning a musical instrument. It can help
impressive achievement by anyone’s you improve hand-eye coordination,
standards. To get the chords down, you’ll sharpen your memory and even improve
probably need a little help from a book, or your mood. What’s not to love?
from YouTube, but otherwise, you’re good
to go. Really though, teaching yourself to
play by ear is just as hard work as learning Whether you come from a long
from a teacher. It’s just that you’re ‘winging line of gifted musicians or have
it’ a bit more and you can do it while never picked up a musical
wearing your pyjamas, something that instrument in your life,
can’t usually be said for bassoon lessons. according to science, Foo
Fighters and Lady Gaga, with
PLASTICITY enough practice you’ll be up
Do you think you have a musical brain, and, there with the best of them
if so, what does that look like compared – giving your screechy sister a
to the bog-standard non-musical run for her money.
version?
a shortcut. You’ll still need to carry out