The connection is that — to my way of thinking, and I have thought about this for some time — . “In music there are a lot of patterns, and mathematics has a lot of patterns. … In fact, mathematics is really about patterns.”
Does music help math, or does math help music?
Musicians and scientists alike have attempted to find whether a person’s musical talents benefit other aspects of that individual’s life, such as the ability to focus. Though no one have not precisely determined how, or if, music education and performance give a person increased skills in areas like math and science, and based on some of the researches that I’ve read, some claim that musicians have some increased cognitive abilities.
“If you play a musical instrument, your brain shows changes,” mainly in the motor and auditory cortices, (Gaab,2006). “Auditory, because you’re using your ears a lot … and then motor because you’re doing a lot of practice with your fingers and arms” requiring unique movements, Gaab said.
It is unclear, to this stage, whether musicians have that because they are born with it and they are just really good with listening and doing certain finger movements and that’s why there drawn to music, or it’s the other way around, and music actually changes the brain? We don’t know that yet.”
The correlations found between musical and mathematical abilities could come from many different factors, as studies are not created equal and other variables could influence the outcome.
“I think you could say there’s evidence for relationships between musical experience, ability or interest, and various kinds of cognitive and social domains,” (Slevc, 2014). “What those relationships mean, I think we don’t yet know.
The association between performing music and having mathematical skills could mean, simply, “that smart people are good at things.”
There are a lot of aspects of music that can be expressed mathematically, but musicians do not sit through a piece of music calculating its mathematical nuances or interval frequencies, Though a performer may understand intervals and time measurements in music, it does not mean he or she is automatically good at math, he said.
Similarly, while the laws of physics govern how a ball travels through the air, playing baseball doesn’t make a person a scientist.
We’re all good at catching things, too, in ways that are quite complicated, but that doesn’t necessarily make us good at physics,
And yet, the differences are clear
Studies also have shown that children and adults with musical training have heightened skills in an area called executive functioning. This involves the mental processes that allow brains to plan, focus attention, remember instruction and successfully juggle multiple tasks.
Anytime you learn a new skill, that skill is represented in your brain in some way and can show up significantly,
Areas of the brain can show a person’s aptitude for certain skills, allowing scientists to physically observe a person’s traits rather than just make psychological observations. These areas include grey matter, which comprises regions of the brain involved with muscle control, memory, emotions, speech and senses.
Grey matter densities can show the instrument that a person plays, violinists tend to have more grey matter density devoted to their left hands, while pianists have density bilaterally, (Slevc,2014), with professionals having higher densities than amateurs.
Though scientists do not know whether executive functioning skills influence someone to become a musician, some conclude that music education allows for increased cognitive performance.
Music education helps to refine that skill, descriptions and words to what we are hearing.
Though there might be a scientific explanation connecting music and one’s neurological abilities, the true impact and results of having musical training is left for the musicians to decide. Music goes right to the brain and stimulates emotions, allowing people to feel the same things.
“Music is a great thing to connect science and psychology,”
By: Haizle V. Romasanta
