do playing certain instruments make us smarter?

[keithC]

hmm this is a thought that crosses me whenever i see those high-end players playing on the cello, violin, piano etc as compared to gigging musicians on guitars/drums/bass.

they always say that people who play piano are smart people,
people who play in symphonic bands are smarter people,
does this neccessarily mean that electric guitarists in bands playing locally aren'?
do the instruments we play and style we use affect our intellect?

pls post your thoughts!

 

[FREEKILL9566]

IMO to a certain extent, it affects our level of creativity if you improvise on the guitar or write music. Playing the drums, helps us co-ordinate better and gives us more rhythm, and the bass... uh, I guess it also about rhythm.

 

[YSR]

wrong, violinists celloist or watever people dat play without frets are arrogant pricks man. well, most of them are. They think their instruments are higher class den guitars. Just cuz they have perfect pitch and play 100yr old songs. Same goes for pianists but they are slightly better.

 

[DoubleBlade]

You must have had bad experiences with such classical musicians then. There are also gigging musicians who are equally as arrogant.

People who play classical instruments are brought up in a perfectionistic learning environment. That means that if I don't practice well, my teacher will scold me, beat me, parents will ground me etc. Trust me I'm a pianist myself and I've been through all the scolding from my teacher and stuff like that. From young they are taught to cultivate a perfectionist mindset towards music.

For gigging musicians, most of the time you are a self taught musician. Basically your learning curve is free and easy as compared to the classical musician who's learning curve is very structured (grade 1,2,3,4,5 etc).

In all the reason why people think that classical musicians "fare better" than their gigging musician counterparts is not because of the fact that learning to play classical instruments makes you a genius, but rather its the kind of teaching environment they are brought up with since young. Don't practice = kenna caning from teacher etc.

Classical musicians start playing at a very young age of say about 5-7 years old while gigging musician usually start playing their instrument of choice during their secondary school days. When you are young, its easier to incultivate such perfectionistic values....

And seriously I don't see what's "playing 100 year old pieces" got to do with being arrogant?

 

[YSR]

nah thats another point haha. Cuz they keep playing the same shit man, come up with ur own stuff... All skills no creativity.

 

[DoubleBlade]

Classical musicians are trained to interpret a composer's pieces like as if the actual composer is playing it themselves. This is what classical musicians are trained to excel in.

Gigging musicians are trainined to improvise, create their own riffs/solos/melodies etc. This is what gigging musicians are trained to excel in.

Both categories belong to different realms of music.

That's why it takes time for a "pure" classical musician to adapt to playing in a band without the use of scores.

 

[YSR]

ok, cheers to you then.

 

[pf]

I'm smart....just that my hands can't coordinate properly. Hahaha....

 

[jet86]

maybe your brains think faster than your hands can move... heh

 

[Mobius]

I joined a classical guitar ensemble once, wanting to learn about harmonies and all that stuff. the proud conductor begins his welcome speech by saying "I am glad u join our ensemble, do u noe that only the brainier people play classical guitar?" . I find that very very bias and quit the ensemble after one session.

 

[Cheez]

I believe in the past, the statement may be true. But this is quickly changing.

In the distant past (all the way back to the baroque and classical period), only the higher socio-economic status people (ie richer) are able to enjoy these music and listen to concerts. Even in the 70s, this is quite true. And they will instill this on their children - since they can afford sending their children for music lessons and buy the instruments. It's about opportunity cost. Others may not have that benefit. So, obviously, these "richer" people will have better education, and therefore deemed "smarter". Playing the instruments does not make them smarter.

Now, things are changing. The form of music is changing. We never have so many genres of music now than in the past. Education is no longer an option but compulsory for all. And people are being exposed to all kinds of music from the day they are born. This narrows the gap of what is expressed as the topic of this thread. Classical players are trying to bridge the differences by crossing genres (mixing classical and non-classical music) - to reach the masses. Nowadays, it's about market-size. As people's taste in music changes, the players and composers will have to change with the times. With the digital age, things changes even more. Mp3 downloads etc are changing the way people get exposed and access to music.

 

[cliffburton]

So i get guitarist that plays neo-classical must be must smarter than those that play rock. Hmmmm.. Damn Malmsteen must be a genuis!

 

[Alice9]

i think not. playing instruments basically all require the same set of theory. just diff instruments need diff skills to master. i think thr's no way to tell the IQ of a person just like tt. i mean if a guy plays piano & guitar, he's not sometimes smart sometimes dumb right?

 

[cliffburton]

he's not sometimes smart sometimes dumb right?

Maybe so, you know. Want to create a survey or something? It shud go something like this:

What instrument do u play:
Guitar
Bass
Drums
Violin
Piano
Cello
Others

Whats ur education level?
Psle
N level
O level
A level
Diploma
Degree
Master...

Simply enuff.. Hehehe

 

[Alice9]

well... i dun think it wud work. coz some ppl r still young here, they havent had a chance @ A lvl or uni yet... and, i dun think ppl who do well in exams r smart ppl. well, they r book smarts coz they pass their exams but being a real smarty pants means u need street smarts too. for eg, i hav a fren who gets freakin good results, shes smart but when it comes to doing other things like when we hav cooking lessons, she is rly rly umm *cough* u kno... who dumps a whole pot of green bean soup with sago into the sink?! ended up choking the whole thing... so u see... smart has got its varietes too.

 

[YSR]

I joined a classical guitar ensemble once, wanting to learn about harmonies and all that stuff. the proud conductor begins his welcome speech by saying "I am glad u join our ensemble, do u noe that only the brainier people play classical guitar?" . I find that very very bias and quit the ensemble after one session.

u see thats what i meant

 

[cliffburton]

Ok so thn everyone is smart in their own ways, doesn't matters what instrument they play.
I got good example that some rock musician are smart.
For example:
Serj Tankian(System Of A Down) got a 4.0 GPA from 9th to 12th grades and is a CEO of a software company.
Tom Morello ( Audioslave/ RATM) graduated from Harvard University with honours degree in political science.

 

[MadWerewolfBoy]

I don't think one's capability to play an instrument is directly proportional to one's IQ... thought it may be linked in some ways but definately not linearly.

 

[boiboi]

i think why people say rock musicians are dumber than classical musicians is that rock musicians are usually slackers . i think rock musicians and classical musicians have same basic intelligence, just that classical musicians usually tend to study harder (i dunno, my take on this)

 

[Anirudh]

I don't think one's capability to play an instrument is directly proportional to one's IQ... thought it may be linked in some ways but definately not linearly.

have you been doping a lotta math/physics recently?hah


cheers