This is your brain on music
One of my Christmas presents was Daniel J Levitin's book, This is Your Brain on Music. Levetin is a former record producer and current neuroscientist. The book is written for a general audience and attempts to explain what music is and how it works, scientifically and culturally. I'm less than fifty pages in so far, but I'm enjoying it. I'm almost certain Paul would enjoy it. And many of you might (and you'd have a leg up, being musicians and all).
You might be familiar with Levitin's theory that musical virtuosity is largely a function of time-on-task (specifically, 10,000+ hours of practice). I haven't made it to that part of the book yet, but that was circulating around the blogs and whatnot some time back. Anyway, I'll be posting about it as I find interesting things.
That book looks really
That book looks really interesting. Resonably priced too. I'll sure think about buying it. Thanks Wheat.
I read quite a bit more of
I read quite a bit more of it yesterday and I like his writing style. I think you'd dig it. And you'd probably understand the science part of it better than I do. If you get it, we'll start a BP Book Club. :)
Wheat
bassplaying.com
10K+
10K+ hours=virtuosity!?!?!?!
Where's my timer and bass? I'm going in, boys!
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
Bo
You don't love me, you just love my FINGERSTYLE!
Peavey T40; SX/Squier P-bass; Spector Legend 5
Roland Bass 30 Cube
Well, I oversimplified it a
Well, I oversimplified it a bit. I jumped ahead to the chapter on musicians and the claim (not sure if it's the author's claim or if he's just reporting on other research) is, more or less, that without 10K hours, virtuosity/mastery rarely develops. This is true, evidently, in music as well as in other things. 10K seems to be the magic number. So, if you sample instrumental virtuosos, you will rarely find any who have put in less time on their instrument (though you will, of course, find others who have spent more). So, while quality is important, quantity seems to be essential.
Wheat
bassplaying.com