New Study Sheds Light On Creativity

[braincell]

This Is Your Brains On Jazz:

http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/Press_re ... 26_08.html

A new study shows that turning off inhibitions helps jazz musicians solo. A rather obvious thing but now there is proof. It is very interesting to me as I have been focusing on improvisation. It is the heart of creativity.

[wayne]

Yep, ya gotta be a little loose, get into a good headzone for it.

[garyb]

yeah, you gotta loose your inhibitions to dance around like a fool in front of others and then demand payment.

what will these eggheads discover next?

[MikeRaphone]

Edgy?

[astroman]

hey, I also want payment for stating the obvious... please...
btw no need to close my eyes or whatever, but just hand me a fine bass, a guitar or a fine amp and I will play music I never played before, and noone else ever did, as I don't learn tracks

cheers, Tom

[dawman]

The taxpayers should be proud to see their money so well spent.

Sonny Rollins use to practice under the Brooklyn bridge for 2 reasons.
1) Great natural reverb
2) To loose his inhibitions, and mask the smell of the blunts he was stroking.

Concert Pianists improvise in the form of dynamics.
Perhaps a similar study in the amount of Guilt they endure while straying from the Original composers written tempo and dynamics.

I actually see this money being spent much wiser than shoring up Banks and Insurance companies, or paying for some CEO's backrub and room for 2500.
Our shameless members of Congress just voted themselves another pay raise for the great work they have done in the past 2 years. I never knew how stressful spending everyone's money could be.

So as ridiculous as Jazz Improv studies go, it appears to bear more fruit than our payed stewards in D.C. have shown us.

[kensuguro]

Interesting. Well, it's sort of obvious, but it's nice people are interested. I think it's nice that it's becoming more and more widely accepted that improv isn't some voodoo magic. I mean, part of it is "magical", but I think a large part of it is just knowing your stuff very well, to the point of exceeding what it called for by the piece. I mean, being able to freely alter a song is essentially knowing the song extremely well right?

What I'm also curious about, is, the link between musical learning and linguistic learning. During my short stay in grad school, I wrote a term paper on audio cognition and found that there's surprisingly little research in that field. Apart from the physical and physiological aspect of audio, how we make sense of notes / chords etc is a learned behavior based on intelligence (in a cog sci sense) much like language.. so then how does the linguistic part of our brain play a role in musical learning? Does it play a part at all? What about the magical age of 16 (on average) when the linguistic brain pretty much stops developing? Is that when we stop creating new internal representations of musical constructs?

The way I see it, musical cognition is not critical, doesn't solve health problems, etc, so it doesn't get the attention or the funding it needs.. but that just means things go slower, and hopefully we'll find answers to some of these issues at some point.

[braincell]

You might like this book:

This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

He also wrote:

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature, and Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings

"Professor Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. (born December 27, 1957, San Francisco) is an American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, record producer, musician, and writer"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Levitin


Research into music and the brain will help understand the brain in general. The problem is most people are too narrow minded to realize this, just like Jimmy who enjoys making fun of the study of bees and cocaine. I am increasingly convinced that Jimmy was one of the children who teased other kids because he didn't like the way they dressed. People are like bees in many ways. Sometimes it is easier to study a simpler creature first. Maybe you think we are not related to insects because god just made us from scratch? That is ignorant.

A friend of mine commented to me recently that he finds free jazz to be like musical masturbation; obviously a derogatory statement. The ethereal nature of music means we can not all agree on what good music is. You can though average out opinions and get some kind of guide to quality. Among jazz fans, John Coltrane is widely recognized as one of the best in his era.

I find most musicians to be too conservative, even among the best. When they improvise, much of what they are playing is based on patterns they have played many times before. Because they know these paths so well, it appears as if they are making it up on the spot. That is why it seems very magical. They ought to take more chances. Everyone is afraid of not sounding good and then they just sound bland or too predictable. At least when you are alone, you ought to be able to try a bunch of wild and crazy things which would translate to a more facile style of improvisation when in public. If more musicians did this, they would add to music and be more original. I think that a lot of the famous musicians started out creating their own style, but then they stick with that for the rest of their lives. It's just easier and that's what people expect of you.

[kensuguro]

I do agree many "improv" people are improvising, but not necessarily in a creative way. Stringing together signature riffs and ripping through insane scales (that sound so complex, it's obviously been pre-practiced... for thousands of hours) that, and creative improv I think are two separate things. It could be the same thing, but unfortunately I think the gap is very big, and growing.

I went to a Kenny Werner set recently. I really like Kenny Werner and have been listening to his CDs (late 70's early 80's) a lot. But to my surprise, although his technical execution during the set was godly, and everything about his performance was excellent, I just couldn't dig his improv. It could be just that my ears aren't educated enough, but there was a huge chunk of something missing. If that is what technical excellency is about, I dunno, perhaps I wouldn't care to go there.

[garyb]

KEEP OUT OF MY BRAIN. F-OFF.


all i do is improvise, since it's my only talent...

[siriusbliss]

All 'structured' music also starts out as an improvisation, so this is proof that the brain stimulates itself by seeking out various structures in frequency navigation.

As someone who's done some research on music as activation tool for autistics, etc., I can attest that SOMETHING goes on in the brain when someone who has never created music, played an instrument, and so on - gets the opportunity to play music (via improvisation). It's worth it to see people's faces light up.

Regardless of what you call if afterwards (jazz or whatever), it's worth noting that the brain is literally wired to create.

Now, if _I_ had been paid to do the research I took part in years ago, just to confirm some abstract hypothesis, then I would've done it.

Greg

[kensuguro]

Speaking of creativity, I think there is an interesting link between creativity, improv, and comedy. (humor) From my experience, if there is no laughter, or if a project gets so serious that no one can joke about it, then it usually either takes a nose dive from there, or becomes a "there, did it per spec" type of a job. I think humor comes from a sense of consequence-lessness, and creativity also flourishes in that sort of environment. Of course, certain types of music don't need that type of creative freedom (like a 2 part fugue).. I guess each piece calls for its own context.

Generally, though, humor has a very strong link to how a person is doing in life.. Not sure if it's self confidence, having random knowledge (widespread knowledge), quick thinking, playfulness... many qualities that also double as catalysts for creativity... and perhaps just living a good life in general. And as siriusbliss pointed out, if the act of creating / improvising music can nurture these qualities (as opposed from improv being a product of these qualities), that's a wonderful thing.

[braincell]

Humor is generally linked to absurdity or two things that don't go together.

Recently I was listening to a comedy radio station on the internet and I found that most of our comedy is based on sex or racial matters. The stuff which is meant to just shock I really don't find funny and I wish they could be more original in topic matter.

[Neutron]

I agree with you about humor and creativity. all the most creative people i have known also have a great sense of humor.

people with no humor are also the bane of humanity.
some of them are so humorless they think their seriousness is so important its worth killing for.

[braincell]

All 'structured' music also starts out as an improvisation, so this is proof that the brain stimulates itself by seeking out various structures in frequency navigation.
Greg

You are a guitarist. A lot of electronic music such as sequenced trance and pop have little or no improvisation. I have to think about your statement more and the definition of improvisation.

[siriusbliss]

All 'structured' music also starts out as an improvisation, so this is proof that the brain stimulates itself by seeking out various structures in frequency navigation.
Greg

You are a guitarist. A lot of electronic music such as sequenced trance and pop have little or no improvisation. I have to think about your statement more and the definition of improvisation.

But you're still 'making up' how you're putting the loops, sequences together. Even making a decision when to hold down a key to playback a sample is a sort of 'improvisation'.

The definition is relative to how deep you want to define improvisation itself, since you're always basically starting from nothing. IMO, even classical music composition has origins in improvisation to begin coming up with structures.

Just playing solo/lead lines over an underlying chord progression is not the only real definition of improvisation in my mind.

Greg

p.s. and that end, I would say that 90% of the Electro-Music New Year music 'festival' was improvised to a large degree.

[dawman]

Point well made.
Albeton Live IMHO is an excellent application fro Creativity for that very reason.
I worked w/ a DJ who hired me to improv live with samples and synths.
He used Live and a Kyma Capybara which is an excellent real time DSP platform in it's own right. Loops came on the fly over set BPM's, as dance was the crux of the project.
But this guy was so creative and the talkback answer type of schtick we did was very refreshing.
I believe improvization is a response to an idea in real time, and that is why recording over loops, etc. and just using your ears, memory, and basically any of your senses is fair game.
Even the smell of a foul cigar being smoked in front of you can cause a reaction, especially if you hate/love the smell. It triggers an emotion. I am becoming incredibly stale from playing covers for 6 months, no matter how good they sound. Another example of the corruption that money causes even in something as beautiful as music.

I have the best ideas when I first wake up, that's why I turn on my rig and sit at a Piano before I even make breakfast. As the day goes on I lose creativity and then try and rekindle it, but being by yourself, tends to make one run out of ideas after a while.
If you really want to expand on creativity having someone throw ideas back at you is important.
Chris Werner has the most unique appraoch using computers and improvising.
It's jamming w/ a computer at it's finest. I prefer other soloists personally, but mystery of the unkown is just exciting and can spark some really good creativity.
Being uninhibited seems to be helpful as the study suggests, but becoming uninhibited could also mean being confident which comes from knowledge or love of music.
If I was an electronic musician w/ a laptop and a small mobile rig. I would buy a small generator and play outdoors in a nice park or dark alley, etc.
Some of my fondest times are performing outdoors.
I have had my share of smoke filled rooms.
Funny thing though, I felt so uncomfotable at a club I played in Chino, CA. months back where there was no smoking. Just didn't seem right for some reason.

[braincell]

It's a great tool but I don't call that live playing. Not that I am against it in any way. You can do some interesting and clever stuff with Ableton. I am just more focused on playing an instrument now, not picking loops at the spur of the moment. One of the things that Ableton Live does I think is to encourage literal repetition. Even if I am repeating the exact phrase, I will play it again so there will be subtle differences or edit the sequence so that it never repeats the same thing exactly. It may sound the same to the casual listener, but I believe the subconscious mind can hear that it's not an exact clone of what went on before.

[garyb]

if LIVE is the intrument, then...

for a guy who always complains about luddites, you are awfully pedantic.

[dawman]

I don't improvise like that actually as I lack the knowledge to run the app. But it did keep my ears and eyes open as I had no more than 4 beats to listen and select a sound before I would start playing. It was a private club so members also pretended they owned the place and would often stand on stage next to you, etc.
I have had my feelers out for a while and have been looking around Vegas & Tahoe for venue where I can use my gear creatively and so far have only found the School For The Arts Live Improv Dance Classes. I did this years ago and found it to be a really great day gig. The pay is low and inconsequentail, but gives me a chance to work with a super talented percussionist from the shows in town.
This will allow me to look for a place where I can create a gig, since these gigs just aren't available. One must find the players and make it happen.
A guy in Vegas is very good at this as he went and took the Horn Section from the Bette Middler show, and made them work on their night off at the Palms in a great kick ass jazz band, which I will see Monday night.
I hope to regain some of my train of thought that I have lost while I kissed ass for cash the last 7 months.
Sure it's fun playing dance music and making good money, but it has taken a toll.
When I sit down at a Piano and subconciously start playing grooves instead of ideas, it's time to go.

I am messing w/ LBH VIII right now as a creative tool. Preset sequence storage recallable on the fly. This doesn't translate into a strict groove train of thought but it has many, many possibilities.