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Playing Music Makes You Smart!

livescience.com — Scientists have uncovered the first concrete evidence that playing music can significantly enhance the brain and sharpen hearing for all kinds of sounds, including speech.

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interg12 1 year 207 days ago, made popular 1 year 206 days ago

875 diggs
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Winters, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Damn it. I had finally convinced myself that learning to play the piano just wasn't worth it.
- JaXaL, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1When will these fools learn.
- tsunamisteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ winters
  
  chicks digg piano players for that very reason--it demonstrates dedication.
  
  Tomorrow on Digg: "Learn to play piano in 3 days--AMAZING Tutorial!!!"
iamcrazyed, on 10/12/2007, -9/+23Is this really that surprising?

Who are these scientists, and why aren't they studying something useful like a cure for cancer? Or at the very least, a cure for male pattern baldness?

Man. I can't believe I'm balding.
- berwiki, on 10/12/2007, -5/+27why don't you find a cure for male-pattern baldness then??
  lazy complainer...
- iamcrazyed, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18Because I'm DUMB! You forced my hand. I can only use my small brain to complain. That's why I fit right in here on Digg...
- VinceNoir, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Actually he won't be able to find a cure for baldness until he learns how to play a musical instrument first and masters it for at least 20 years. By then he'll be TOTALLY bald, so what's the point? As a side note, isn't it funny how guys don't want totally bald heads because that's bad, but they want their women with totally bald "beavers" because that's good? Just thought I'd point that out.
CountC, on 10/12/2007, -15/+3Oh man, I thought they meant listening to music. I was going to make a witty rap comment.
- KMartSheriff, on 10/12/2007, -6/+41Rap doesn't count.
- berwiki, on 10/12/2007, -9/+47rap isnt music.
- CountC, on 10/12/2007, -16/+8As witty as that was, rap is music, even if most of it these days is brain dulled.
- Lutz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11If you want to listen to real music, I recommend Bach, if any music is boosting you intelligence it's his.
- praisethelard, on 06/06/2008, -4/+5mu·sic
  –noun
  1. an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions in significant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and color.
- djfdat, on 10/12/2007, -11/+3rap is the realest form of music still alive and thriving, you just listenin to the wrong *****
  
  get immortal technique, saigon, serius jones, styles, nas, jada, east coast stuff
- melve, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10In a strict sense, it's true. Rap isn't music. It's a form of spoken poetry. Hip Hop is an art form combining musical elements and Rap.
- doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Taste - noun
  
  7 a : critical judgment, discernment, or appreciation b : manner or aesthetic quality indicative of such discernment or appreciation
z0l0pht, on 10/12/2007, -0/+31I've had some friends that could single-handedly disprove this study.
- asdfrewq, on 10/12/2007, -9/+6I think the existence of the hair metal genre alone disproves this theory.. And don't even get me started on ska.
- jamsea, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Listen to Streetlight Manifesto.
  They'll change your entire opinion on ska (this is coming from a diehard metal fan too).
- colto, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6@ jamsea
  
  Ok I tried listening to Streetlight Manifesto due to your comment. I think my ears are bleeding. :/
JoshStix, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5I'm glad I play bass. I already feel smarter...
- SelfAbortion, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11The study was about playing music, not bass.
- datastorageguy, on 10/12/2007, -2/+15Yeah we're not talking about fishing here dude. Go take your elitist bass master attitude elsewhere!
- chicken101, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1I think he meant that he he plays the base guitar. (;
- JoshStix, on 10/12/2007, -3/+15All your bass are belong to us?
- datastorageguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Unless he is talking about lance bass...but lets not go there.
syuusuke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+16good job education system on cutting back my music classes.
- Blandyman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Rofl, you'd think school systems were trying to teach us something by how much they mention my "education".
  
  You mean the one stripped from me because listening to my iPod while doing my classwork helps me concentrate, even if I'm the only person who can hear it?
  
  Good job, school.
  
  Before anyone says anything overly negative, last year, we were allowed to use them. I used it, but made sure to never have it loud enough so anyone in my vicinity could hear it. The noise (I usually listened to classical music in class, I play violin so I'm a huge fan of Beethoven, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky, Bach, etcetera, and if not classical, I listened to Queen, Poison, or any number of oldies or new stuff that was slow) helped me take tests and do my classwork. I can't concentrate in dead silence.
  
  But then again, I guess all those idiots listening to 50 Cent and Chamillionaire ***** it up. Damn you for ridin' dirty!
doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11Insert drummer jokes here..

"What do you call a guy who hangs out with musicians?"
- iamcrazyed, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Yeah, imagine what her IQ was before she started making music. Oh, wait...
  
  EDIT: Dirty comment changer... make my witty counter-point not make sense. AH!
- doctechnical, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Sorry, sorry. My original post was "I defy anyone to explain to me how listening to Brittany Spears makes one *less* dumb". Then I re-read the headline and changed my post. I didn't know you'd be so quick on the reply, iamcrazyed. My bad.
- crawfishsoul, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Yeah, nevermind, doc changed his comment.
  
  But I stand by my original comment, RTFA.
- dj_sea2005, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5How do you know when a drummer is knocking at your door?
  The knock always goes out of time.
- creep303, on 10/12/2007, -3/+5Nickelback.
- Antha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6What do you call a drummer without a girlfriend?
  
  Homeless.
- texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2"How do you know when a drummer is knocking at your door?
  The knock always goes out of time."
  
  NO NO NO! The correct punch line is: "The knock is *really* loud and speeds up at the end." :P
  
  /is a drummer
- soupnrc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7What has 9 arms and sucks?
  
  Def Leppard
- texpundit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4More drummer jokes:
  
  Q: How can you tell when the drum riser is level?
  A: Drool runs out of both sides of the drummer's mouth at the same time.
  
  D: What's the difference between a drummer and a drum machine?
  A: You only have to punch the information into the drum machine once.
  
  Q: How many drummers does it take to change a light bulb?
  A: None. They have machines to do that now.
  
  Q: What's the difference between a drummer and Dr. Scholl's foot pads?
  A: Dr. Scholl's foot pads buck up the feet.
  
  Okay.. that's enough for now. ;)
FiP0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Doing anything other than sit on your ass can make you smart. :)
The brain loves a challenge.
- Scynet, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Sitting on your ass might actually make you think a lot more, which also increases your intelligence. Unless you're watching action movies, which practically shuts down your brain. Oh, and reading Digg comments :P
- FiP0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oops. :(
drmobutu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Anecdotaly, I have noticed that most of my more intelligent freinds have some type of musical ability, and better taste in music, too.

I think that it has something to do with biofeedback - when playing an instrument (or singing, or dancing, or really listening to music intensely), your attention becomes more focused, possibly developing concentration and pattern recognition skills, like a form of meditation.
- mustbepatient, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I think it's far simpler than that - I think your brain works better if it gets used, and playing music is one way to exercise your brain. Everyone seems to want to think that music is special, but I'm skeptical.
flashywordz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+11Wow.. Not surprising.
Let's see, without even reading the article, if I can put forward some of my own hypotheses as to why this is true.
1. READING music makes you to learn to interpret a new kind of "code", that you've never came across before.
2. Sight-reading music forces you to interpret that code at someone else's pace, and makes you more responsive to unexpected things
3. The physical act of playing the instrument develops your coordination
4. If you actually read music and study music theory etc, you get to the point where you can improvise well
5. Playing in a group makes you LISTEN to what's going on, improving your responsiveness to others.
6. I bet playing multiple instruments improves your coordination even more. I'm a saxophone/clarinet player, but for me, guitar is REALLY hard. I know how the strings are related step-wise, but I just can't seem to play chords very well
7. Playing more than one genre of music improves your ear.
8. If you want to better your sound, you probably have some artists that you listen to for inspiration / ideas. If you listen to a lot of different styles, you improve your ear again.
Note: If you take lessons or do ear training/music theory, all these are even more amplified.
One downside of my ear training and theory study is that pop music on the radio just sounds WAY too simple now, and I can't stand to listen to some music because it just isn't interesting enough, whether it's the complexity of notes, or the blandness of the chord progressions, or even how similar it sounds to another song.
Junkyarddawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3So how do they explain Oasis?
- drmobutu, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Easy, they just copied the most successful band in history - The fookin' Beatles!
- asdfkane, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1well, when you're as close to being a Beatles cover band as Oasis....
  
  EDIT: damn you drmobutu...
meshman, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Ah, this explains rappers.
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Quite a general statement there. Have you ever heard of Atmosphere, El-P, Sage Francis, Aesop Rock, MF Doom, Kool Keith, Del Tha Funkee Homosapien? Great rappers who actually have something intelligent to say.
- inv1c7u5, on 10/12/2007, -7/+5nah, he's right.
  rappers are ALL retarded, not just 99% of them.
  
  ...did he just say that??!?1
  (preparing to be dugg down)
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8I assume the only rap you've ever heard is the ***** they play on the radio. Saying rap sucks would be like me saying all rock music sucks. Every genre has it's good and bad.
- inv1c7u5, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1yeah I get that...
  
  but see, the good is still a lot worse compared to most other "good" parts of other genres IMO.
  although, I like you know, musical stuff... not beats and a cool loop or two.
  
  but that's just me.
- 10lbhammer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@ bendedavis: you forgot dose one, alias, saul williams, sole... pretty much anything on anitcon. thank you for your response. I get tired of people who badmouth any genre as being "all bad." closeminded people piss me off.
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@inv1c7u5
  
  Seriously, listen to Deltron 3030. If you still hate rap, fine. But give some good rap a chance before saying it ALL sucks.
- meshman, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1"Saying rap sucks would be like me saying all rock music sucks"
  
  That would be an invalid comparison. Rock is Music. Rap is not music. You can call it an artform but it hardly qualifies as music.
- inv1c7u5, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2alright fine, I'll listen to Deltron 3030...
  
  but I'm downloading it ILLLLLEGALLY
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Well it's not sold anymore, cheapest you could get it is like 30 dollars on ebay.
PaulC, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I love the random link to a video of a guy sitting in his bedroom playing pinch harmonics.
pumpedvideo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3What if i play Metallica?
- SelfAbortion, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2/me waits for the "You might be a redneck if..." joke.
floppyparty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Concrete evidence? maybe after a dog ***** on that concrete.
santiago1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2 I'm not sure about the intelligent part, but all those years of playing the drums seated between the amps has made me almost stone deaf and this stinking ringing in my ears just won't quit! Will somebody answer that damned phone?!

Better hearing my ass... (Yes, I DID even wear hearing protection!)
Snoked, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is old news, all you need to do is look at a dedicated musician and non-musicians.
the differences in ersonnality are flabergasting.

and the chicks dig it
dstz, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Too

"One downside of my ear training and theory study is that pop music on the radio just sounds WAY too simple now, and I can't stand to listen to some music because it just isn't interesting enough, whether it's the complexity of notes, or the blandness of the chord progressions, or even how similar it sounds to another song."

I prefer

"One upside of my ear training and theory study is that so much music sounds WAY great, and so many musicians are heroes"

Anouar Brahem
Hamza El Din
Ali Ibrahim Farka Touré
Ali Akbar Khan (seek "connoisseur" serie from the 60, more recent recordings are not as good)
Hariprasad Chaurasia (idem, more recent recording are whores to new age culture)
Nusrat fateh Ali Khan
Ustad Mohammad Omar
Derya Turkan
Kudsi Erguner

Jean Richafort
Josquin Deprez
Palestrina
Victoria
Bach
Bruxtehude
Pergolesi
Purcell
Jean Gilles
Mozart (ok I only stand the piano concertos)
Borodin
Chopin
Brahms
Puccini
Elgar (totally underated)
Debussy
Fauré
Stravinsky

John Coltrane
Django Reinhardt
Duke Ellington
Aki Takase
Dave Douglas
Henri Texier
Masada
Nils Landgren
Zony Mash

American folk music also harbors many great musicians, but I guess most people here know about Grateful Dead, Van Morisson and alts. And basically every genre of music provides interesting artists, some just more than others.
Snoked, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0this is old news
minorthreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I guess the study is geared toward people who learn to play music because they enjoy it and its relaxing, not so they can look cool in a hardcore band.

A monkey could learn how to play Korn in drop D on guitar.
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Drop A actually, why do you think they play 7 string guitars?
  
  Good point though, I think this study applies to people who play an instrument to the point where they can improvise. But simply playing songs from tabs and such doesn't really take much talent.
- Propapanda, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4I like how you use the tuning of the guitar in a derogatory fashion.
SPLASTiK, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Reminds me of high school when my Spanish teacher asked me if I played an instrument because I had very good pronunciation. She said most musicians tended to be better in that regard.

Too bad I dropped out because my vocabulary sucked :D
catch-22, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1sharpen your hearing? funny, my music playing experience has had the opposite effect... those scientists obviously weren't playing loud enough...
rocktopotomus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1since when does an cross sectional study give concrete proof? correlation != causation
tmyprod, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1But the drinking, pot, drugs and stds sure do counter any positive effects.
- lowerlogic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Oh, I just played a song. Now I must go smoke pot and drink and have sex!
  
  Seriously, what does any of that have to do with music?
DeusNova, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does Fruity Loops count as an instrument? D:
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1FL Studio ftw. I've used it for a few years now, probably the best software, for PC at least, for making beats.
theduke25, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0If this is true, what happend to spinaltap?
xenixninja, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does playing a didgeridoo count?
jordan314, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Great, so I can be smart and broke.
lms21, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Does playing Guitar Hero count?
- bendedavis, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3God no. That does the opposite.
badapplestudio, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0My 2 cents:

Who I am:
I've been a guitar player 25 years. I am currently opening a studio in PDX. I am a self taught musician who learned to play by ear. I later took classical guitar and music theory to build upon and supplement my own learning. I also play bass, keyboard, vocals, a little drums, and do programming and engineering.

How I learned:
I started with a classical guitar with 2 strings on it that was my sisters, listening to Van Halen albums and trying to get the rhythm notes to match what I was playing. The guitar was a mess, but tuned my ear into being able pick a single notes within a composition and play them. Regardless if I knew the actual notes or not. This was the precursor to "Perfect Pitch Hearing".

I played trombone for a small stint in school. I wanted to play drums, but there was only one set to go around. I wanted to play sax too, but somehow never seemed to be able to get a hold of one. I later came to the conclusion that wind instruments gave me headaches too easy and weren't my thing. I continued with guitar and eventually saved up to buy my first. A red Kramer guitar and a Washburn amp. I think I took apart the whole guitar at first trying to figure out how the strings go on. No one was there to show me. I eventually got it together. Learned cords through some books and eventually learned 2 hand techniques. Started playing every Van Halen song and Steve Vai note for not. Later on I started jamming with an older guy I met at a small community gig. He was way better than me and was into Yngwie Malmsteen, Tony MaCalpine and Racer X. Stuff like that. I learned a lot off him. Found new influences. Started taking some classical guitar lessons. Played in a few bands. Also was into Metallica, Suicidal Tendencies, The Cult and skater bands at this point as well. Technically I was great at playing. But I later came to the realization that I couldn't write a song worth a *****. So I started listening to more rhythm based bands and punk. I also started getting into electronic bands like Skinny Puppy, Front 242, Ministry and NIN.

At this point, computers started becoming big and I started getting into sequencing and music composition. Learned Cubase and Digital Performer. As artists and producers shunned digital, I dived in whole hearted. Started learning everything I could get my hands on. Books on acoustics. Studio design. Production techniques. Interned at a few studios. Recorded some bands at home. Started making a small portfolio. Started saving money and buying gear off eBay. Eventually bought a Calrec "POLAR" console. One of 8 left in the world.

And now, came into a little money through a family death. Decided to move from ATL to PDX and open a studio downtown by the river. To work, doing what I like doing, every day. No 9 to 5 *****.

So what does all this ***** mean?

1) Learning to play music by ear helps your brain with reasoning skills and audio tuning.
2) Having music or audio skills can lead to future jobs; such as studio musician/owner, audio engineer, foley production, audio book production, audio forensics, live sound engineer, stage hand and set-up.
3) Playing an instrument helps you meet people.
4) Music engineering can help with computer and networking skills. Can also lead to electronics studies.

(...and number 5, the most important)
learning guitar as a teen and being really good at it, will get you laid. As long as your looks aren't down right hideous. And your in a town with a population of more than 75.

-V
- Zafras, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3::noonecares::
Twist05, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Isn't Brian May an astronmer, and Jimmy Page an expert on gothic arcutexture?
gardnert1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1psh! Every REAL musician already knew about this! Getting paid for doing something that becomes more enjoyable and easier as you progress? Why doesn't EVERYONE pick up an instrument? Personally, I like being able to go out every St. Patty's Day, make the drunk people happy, get a little cash in my pocket, and get all the free drinks I can handle all for playing the bagpipes... Plus, chicks dig the kilt ;)
fatadamblog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Classical Music better count because I love Classical playing and listening.
Junkyarddawg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Frankly, though, music is about emotions. I pity people who think that music is an intelligence test - they're missing out.
KiloCharley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1instrument not needed, i would say a person that whistles a tune, also exercises the brain.
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Playing Music Makes You Smart!

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