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Suggestions needed
I need some input and who better to ask than my readers!! I am in the process of interviewing and writing about musicians who, after suffering a brain injury, stroke, movement disorder, physical or emotional trauma, protracted length of time when they have been unable to practice, etc. etc., have made a recovery and returned to performing…
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Mirror neurons and music, part IV: mirroring vs. mimicking
Mirror neurons are imitation neurons, but does how we imitate matter? Forty years ago, long before mirror neurons were known about, psychologists Seymour Wapner and Leonard Cirillo were interested in finding out at what age children develop an understanding of right from left in terms of their spatial development. They conducted a series of experiments in which children…
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Mirror neurons and music, part III: imitation learning
Pianists seem to be used as research subjects more often than any other musicians – perhaps because there are so many of us, both amateur and professional. I once met a well-known singer who, upon finding out that I was a pianist, remarked that pianists “are a dime a dozen.” Not the most gracious comment when…
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Mirror neurons and music, part II: the discovery
I know. You’re waiting to hear about mirror neurons and music and we’ll get to that. But the story of the discovery of mirror neurons is really too good to pass up because it was one of those serendipitous discoveries that has sometimes happened in the history of science. Alexander Fleming’s discovery of penicillin is probably the best-known,…
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Mirror neurons and music, part I
You are at a concert and find that you are becoming increasingly tense, uncomfortable, and nervous as the performer experiences several memory lapses. You know by the look on a student’s face as he comes to your studio that he hasn’t practiced during the past week. A stranger smiles at you as you walk…