MUSICAL ABILITY TALENT VS TRAINING

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MUSICAL ABILITYTALENT VS TRAINING

• Glenn Wilson PhD
• Kings College, London
• Institute of Psychiatry

2
TALENT VS TRAINING

• Unfolding of inborn potential or hard graft?
  (Mozart cited by each camp).
• Musical genius runs in families (Bach, Strauss)
  but this could be down to genes or environment.
• Often emerges at very early age (but also some
  impressive late starters e.g. Gluck,Wagner,
  Bruckner).
• Family support not essential Gershwin
  Bernstein grew up in homes without pianos Louis
  Armstrong had no cornet before age 17.

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TYPICAL DEVELOPMENT (AGES)

• 0-1 Reacts to sounds
• 2-3 Reproduces song phrases
• 3-4 Conceives general plan of melody
• 4-5 Can tap back simple rhythms
• 5-6 Understands louder/softer
• 6-7 Tonal music preferred to atonal
• 7-8 Appreciation of consonance/dissonance
• 9-10 Harmonic sense established
• Source Shuter-Dyson Gabriel, 1981

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MEASURING MUSIC ABILITY

• Tests like Seashore Measures of Musical Talent
  (1960) commercially available - take about
  1hr.
• Present pairs of tones for comparison on pitch,
  loudness, timbre, etc also test rhythm and
  memory.
• Reliability acceptable, but only moderate
  validity (e.g. prediction of progress in music
  college).
• Not good at assessing creative aspects (e.g.
  appreciation, composition).

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CORRELATES OF MA TESTS

• Only slight correlations with general IQ (around
  .3). Savant phenomenon illustrates considerable
  independence of musical ability.
• No striking sex or race differences (despite male
  preponderance among famous composers and fabled
  African rhythmic ability).
• Blind people show no consistent superiority
  (despite famous cases of exceptional talent).
• Scores improve with coaching and musical training.

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TWIN COMPARISONS

• Best way of separating genes from environment (
  family vs non-family influences).
• Show some degree of heritability for music
  ability(40-70).
• Training/family environment also shown to be
  important (may override gene effects up to
  moderate levels of ability).
• Global ability may be more genetic than
  Seashore-type aural skills.

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INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

• Top musicians often come from non-musical homes.
• Report intense, joyful (peak) experiences from
  earliest listening usually not in lessons.
• Casual and frequent exposure to musical forms
  from
• an early age favours development (emphasis on
  enjoyment and spontaneity).
• Pushy parents who force kids into competitive
  situations may interfere with playful exploration
  absence of threat, bribes and browbeating
  needed.
• Formal training may be counterproductive if
  overly rigid and inhibits creativity (e.g.
  Chopins thumb on black notes).

8
EFFECTIVE PRACTICE

• Professional musicians practice long hours (or
  did as children) but those most talented may get
  away with less.
• Sheer amount of practice less important than
  quality. Best when motivated by keenness (not
  whip-cracking) and directed toward specific
  goals.
• Need to self-monitor performance to diagnose
  weaknesses and thus focus future practice.
• Consistency of timetable, with emphasis on
  mornings early afternoons best. Important not
  to miss rest/sleep.

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MONITORING PRACTICE (from Williamon Valentine,
2000)
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ROLE OF TEACHERS

• Specialist teaching does enhance knowledge of
  formal aspects of music.
• Ages 5-9 critical (earliest time at which verbal
  instruction possible).
• Formal training promotes competence but creative
  genius may follow separate path (may even benefit
  from absence of rules).
• Difficult to separate maturation experience
  from contribution of teacher (esp. in singing).
• Cause effect problem talented people find way
  to reputable teachers, further enhancing their
  reputation.

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ABSOLUTE PITCH

• Rare and mysterious ability more common in
  great musicians but not universal (a mixed
  blessing).
• Most striking forms appear early in childhood but
  can be acquired to a degree.
• More common in those who started music training
  early (ltage 4).
• Sometimes associated with colour-tone
  synaesthesia sometimes just tonal memory.
• No evidence that particular keys are suited to
  particular emotions (other than major vs minor).

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MUSIC AND THE BRAIN

• Music perception, composition performance
  depend on pattern processing hence mainly right
  hemisphere (damage to left hemisphere may leave
  melody and harmony largely unimpaired).
• Lateralization more clear in musically untrained
  people training adds analytic, linguistic (left
  hemisphere) processes, so that whole brain is
  involved.
• Highly developed musical skills are matched by
  anatomical changes (e.g. violinists have more
  cortex devoted to left-hand finger
  co-ordination). Neural plasticity greatest ltage
  10.

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MUSICAL/UNMUSICAL PERFORMANCE

• Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI)
  permits digital coding of performances for
  analysis.
• Musical (as against mechanical) performance adds
  expression emphasis on notes phrases that
  build tension and anticipation.
• Involves signals that composer performer know
  that a note is wrong (e.g. a dissonant chord is
  pointed up, built or repeated before resolution
  unexpected sequences are underscored).
• Musical expression seldom formally taught
  acquired mostly by intuition and imitation.

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PERSONALITY OF MUSICIANS

• Musicians more introvert than other performers
  and general population.
• Introversion is associated with
  private/imaginative thought, which promotes
  creative engagement with the domain.
• Also enables tolerance of long periods of
  solitary activity (e.g. practising, composing).
• Variations among types of musicians (e.g. pop
  jazz more extravert than classical, brass players
  more extravert than strings).

15
CREATIVITY AND MADNESS

• Many great poets, artists, writers and musicians
  suffer from mental disorders, including
  Aspergers/autism, bipolar mood disorder,
  antisocial personality, addiction.
• About half of great composers suffered
  significant psychopathology.
• Depression may provide painful feelings to
  express (Tchaikovsky). Mania/obsessionality may
  contribute to creative output (Mozart).
  Grandiosity may spill over in works (Wagner,
  Beethoven).
• Danger that genetic engineering and drug
  treatments might deprive us of great art?

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CREATIVE VS EXECUTIVE SKILLS

• Distinction helps resolve inborn/training debate
  and research contradictions.
• Creative (compositional) talent appears more
  inborn. Benefits from freedom from
  pre-conceptions, internal motivation, defiance of
  rules.
• Executive (performance) skills benefit more from
  training, hard work, encouragement of
  teachers/parents.
• Neither benefits from coercion.