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The Book Of Music Basics/Book Excerpt

     The Book Of Music Basics

     Chapter One; The Great Divide

     Probably everyone is familiar with the theory of the right brain and the left-brain. The theory goes that the left side of the brain handles logical sorts of things such as mathematics, while the right side of the brain is more intuitive and connected to emotions.

     A person will often be able to tell you what side of his brain is the dominant one. It is often offered as a bit of brag and also an excuse as to why they are always late or something.

     Interestingly, if you take a look around the music scene, you can spot musicians and even musical genres that seem to be more right-brained or left-brained.

     This seems to hold true despite the fact that the theory says music is processed in the right brain. I don’t doubt this but I think you will see my point about musicians and musical genres appearing to be either right-brained or left-brained as we go on.

      An example of a left-brained musician would be a ‘classical’ musician who reads music very well and plays rather pedantically. He cannot improvise and is terrified to do so. Changing the written note is something akin to heresy. It’s a matter of pride that the music he plays is highly complex and he is a bit of a snob, looking down his nose at jazz or pop music and saying it’s simple and crude.

      An example of a right-brained musician would be a ‘jazz’ musician who ‘plays by ear,’ refuses to learn to read and protests vehemently if that is suggested. It’s a matter of pride that his ear is so good that he doesn’t need to learn to read music. He looks down on classical music as being for stuffed shirts. I think of the line from Star Wars when Hans Solo says ‘Never tell me the odds!’

      Now these two examples are extremes at either end of the divide we are discussing and I’m certainly not suggesting that all classical musicians of all jazz musicians fit these profiles.  

      It also appears that there are musical genres, which are more right-brained or left-brained. Easy to see how the so called classical music could be considered more of a left brain genre, especially with the Avant-garde music of the fifties and early sixties often being generated off of a mathematical formula.

      If you’ve spent much time around the music scene, you have either encountered these extremes or you can identify with them.

      It is also kind of easy to see that, if this theory is true, there are both positive and negative aspects to being more dominant on one side than the other, especially as far as being a musician is concerned. 

      If you’ve had trouble learning music or have encountered blocks to your progress, you can chalk it up to one or more of these negative aspects.

Get The Book Of Music Basics on Amazon

     


































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