The reason I first became interested in this topic was actually not musical. I speak three languages of which two, Japanese and French, contain levels of politeness. Japanese is especially complex, with many tiers of honorifics and politeness. It’s embedded in my being and attitude even when speaking English which is a very equalizing language. But when I enter a studio to improvise, I noticed that all of my attitudes were completely gone, almost as if I had shut it off, which led me to wonder how music-making, and specifically improvisation, affected the person (at that time, I didn’t specifically relate it to the brain), and possibly interpersonal relationships between ensemble members.
At the same time, I was also conscious of the difference in my own improvisation depending on what I was concentrating on: consonant/vowel combination or pitch/rhythm/volume combination. The latter took much more work. It was also difficult to try to combine both at a level I felt was 50/50. I also noticed that after every intense improvising session, I seemed to encounter a brain fog, as if parts of my brain needed rebooting.
Some of the answers to my questions came in the form of a surgeon, neuroscientist, and musician named Charles Limb. I highly encourage everyone to watch his TED talk, which explains the relationship between music improvisation and the brain. The brain is activated in certain areas and shut off in others.
As Mr. Limb says, this research is just the beginning. But it is an important step in thinking about improvisation. I wonder which areas of the the brain are activated when we improvise vocally, i.e., creating consonant/vowel combinations and pitch/rhythm/volume combinations in real time.
This thought process will also put into context one’s own strengths and weaknesses in improvisation, and how that might be related to certain areas of the brain. Ear training may be a misnomer. It’s all brain training.
Now that we’ve arrived at the discussion of the brain, please go back to the first post and reread some of the material. Perhaps the reference to a vocal long tone conjuring emotion will now have a different significance. What the research seems to show is that music is indeed perceived as a form of communication, often nonverbal, and that we humans have the ability to both send and receive these messages. The implication of these researches are enormous, from understanding human emotions to community-building through collective musical activities. That’s it for this series. Thanks for reading!