Musicians who train from a young age have more ‘connected’ brains, study finds

Musicians who train from a young age have ‘super connected’ brains, study finds. Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

 

Scientists discover the “robust” effects of musicianship on brain networks.

Musicians who started young, and continued with their training, have more ‘connected’ brains, a new large-scale study has found.

The research, led by experts from the Stanford University School of Medicine, used a sample pool of 153 musicians and non-musicians.

Among the musicians, 52 had perfect pitch – the ability to name a note without reference – and 51 did not. The other 50 participants in the study were non-musicians.

Scientists found a significant difference in brain structure in musicians who trained young, whether on piano, clarinet, trumpet or violin (or indeed, any other instruments within those families).

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Specifically, the team discovered that those who started young had stronger brain connections than those who started making music in later life.

Study author Dr Simon Leipold explained that the longer musicians train, the greater the impact on their mind. “Musicians that began their training at a younger age had stronger structural connections than musicians with a later start,” he said. 

“These results demonstrate how experience shapes the brain, especially early in life, and how enhanced musical skills are represented in our brain,” Dr Leipold added.

The team also found that musicians, whether or not they had perfect pitch, had stronger structural and functional connections than non-musicians.

Published in the journal J Neurosci, the paper used the biggest sample to-date to compare the brains of musicians with and without perfect pitch, but found no strong differences.

“Instead,” Dr Leipold says, “Absolute pitch may shape the brain in more subtle ways.”

Read more: Studying music makes your brain more efficient, study reveals >

Both groups of musicians showed sounder functional connectivity, and stronger white matter connections between their brain’s auditory regions and the areas involved in high-level processing.

“Our results suggest that long-term musical training is associated with robust changes in large-scale brain networks,” the team wrote in their paper.

Children, on average, start playing at 7.6 years of age – and popular thought says that children are more likely to pick up a musical instrument, and continue to play it, if they are introduced to it while at primary school age.

But, this doesn’t mean to say there’s ever an age limit on beginning your music-making journey. Here are some wise words from Classic FM’s John Suchet and Alexander Armstrong, who both took up an instrument on the other side of 30.

Seven in 10 people say orchestral music improved their ‘mood and well being’ in lock down

Seven in 10 people say orchestral music improved their ‘mood and wellbeing’ in lockdown. Picture: Chris Christodoulou

By Rosie Pentreath, ClassicFM London

@rosiepentreath

 

Classical music can be a calming, positive presence when times are tough, this study shows.

Seven in 10 people surveyed have said that orchestral music has been improving their ‘mood and well being’ in lock down, since various forms of restrictions began in March 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Reminding us of classical music’s power to calm and soothe, as well as uplift us, in our toughest times, the result is from a new study from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) which explores engagement with orchestral music in 2020.

The study asked a nationally-representative sample of 8,000 people in the UK various questions about their music habits, including if they had been listening to orchestral music at various points in the year, if instrument learners have practiced more, and how corona virus lock downs, and then the news of the vaccines, have impacted respondents’ overall music habits and interests.

Read more: Classical music boosts mental health and wellbeing in isolation >

Toronto Symphony Orchestra perform Appalachian Spring virtually amid coronavirus outbreak

Facebook, Toronto Symphony Orchestra

As well as the 71 percent of people discovering the positive impact of orchestral music on their mood, 85 percent responded that they ‘actively broadened their cultural horizons’, a third of them through learning more about orchestral, opera and chamber music, while 66 percent said they had a child doing more music practice since lock down started.

And it seems lock down helped more people discover classical music for the long term: one in six people (16 percent) said they intended to continue exploring the music they discovered during lock down, while, when asked, respondents indicated they’d be willing to donate money to arts organisations or become members in the future.

The vaccine seems to have increased people’s confidence in attending large events as well. 83 percent of those surveyed said news of the vaccine made them more comfortable with social activities in 2021, and 29 percent of people indicated they felt it would be safe to attend concerts, and 31 percent for theatres, once the vaccines had been announced.

The survey is an overarching view of 2020, and is based on four main periods last year: pre-pandemic times, the first lock down (March until July), the lifting of lock down from July onwards, and following the news of the arrival of the vaccine towards the end of the year.

The national research is coupled with views from industry partners and anecdotal feedback from RPO players and audiences. Click here to read the RPO’s full report on engagement with orchestral music in 2020.

Pop legend Annie Lennox plays enchanting ‘Moonlight’ Sonata

... on her living room piano

Annie Lennox plays Beethoven ‘Moonlight’ Sonata on her living room. Picture: Annie Lennox/Instagram

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

 

Annie Lennox takes on a Beethoven masterwork, and nails it like the music royalty she is…

For many of us, all this time at home has presented a silver-lining opportunity to sit down with a once beloved musical instrument and practise, practise, practise.

And it seems one pop legend has had the same idea.

“Well, I’ve wanted to play the Moonlight Sonata perfectly for quite a long time,” Eurythmics star Annie Lennox, sat at her living room piano, explains to her followers in an Instagram video.

“I’ve been practising a great deal because It doesn’t seem that I’ve ever managed to play it perfectly.

“But I’m going to try! So, just for the record, here we go…”

It’s a wonderful performance. Lennox even gains a tiny fly-on-the-wall audience member, as a little bird hears the beautiful Beethoven and does his best to join in – socially distanced, of course – from the other side of the window.

Lennox, who is perhaps best-known musically for her feel-good 90s hit ‘Walking on Broken Glass’, plays the first movement of the German Romantic’s enduring sonata with beautiful expression and sensitivity.

And her performance, which has been enjoyed by more than 400,000 people across Instagram and YouTube, is being praised by music lovers all over the world for its star’s humble approach to music practice.

After all, how often do you see a legendary pop star being completely open and vulnerable about their journey to perfecting a song or piece of music?

As LVB himself once said – and as one particularly astute YouTube user pointed out – “To play a wrong note is insignificant. But to play without passion is inexcusable…”.

(C) 2021 by ClassicFM London