Guitar and The Brain | Los Angeles or Skype Guitar Lessons with Vreny

The Study of Music Does Amazing Things for The Brain

Playing guitar does amazing things to your brain development.
I just finished watching a 2-DVD, 6-hour lecture by Dr. Richard Restak.
Professor Restak teaches neuroscience at Washington University and is the author of about 20 books on the brain. I learned tons of things from watching professor Restak’s lecture.

As a professional musician, who is constantly looking for ways to learn more quickly and more effortlessly, I learned from watching this 6-hour lecture, how much the impact of my music studies on my brain, has contributed to my ability to learn much more effortlessly.

For one: Richard Restak spends a great deal of time talking about the unmistakable link between dexterity and brain development.
Turns out that doing exercises that improve finger independence, grows your brain and raises your IQ.

IQ is not something that is fixed upon birth. You can grow and develop it. The dexterity exercises you get out of learning and practicing an instrument is one of the best ways to grow IQ no matter your age.
Not only that: not only does it further grow IQ, but also memory.
Apparently: there is a link between dexterity and memory development too.

That alone would have been enough reason for me to want to start learning an instrument.

All that Brain development also adds major quality of life to the people who learn an instrument.
I wrote about this in the past here:
The Life Enhancing Benefits You Get From Music Studies
and here
The Positive Influence of Music

Deliberate Practice vs. Natural Talent.

Countless volumes have been written trying to answer the question of whether genetic natural talent or deliberate practice and training are the most important factors determining the likelihood of someone achieving the level of expert performer?

The answer to that question has important implications: if genius is genetic, then most of us are out of luck; but if the individual effort is the essential component, then most people are capable of achieving impressive levels of musical performance.

It turns out that deliberate practice is more important than natural talent in determining success.

One piece of evidence comes from a study of musical trainees at the Music Academy of Berlin.
It was found that superior students, those who went on to have concert careers, practiced 24 hours a week while good students practiced only 9 hours a week. Similar patterns of long and intensive practice are found among athletes, chess players, mathematicians, and memory virtuosos.

It’s also pretty interesting to note that some of those studies have shown, contrary to what many think, that you don’t have to practice hours and hours a day to reach expert performance. Just 3 to 4 hours a day consistently every day seems to be all it takes to achieve top-level mastery.

A fantastic read about this is K. Anders Ericsson’s publication, The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance. It was published in the Psychological Review in 1993, by the American Psychological Association. It’s a very interesting, enlightening read I highly recommend.

Conclusion

Hit me up anytime at vreny@zotzinmusic.com if you have any questions, or if you would like to book a lesson.

These free lessons are cool, but you will never experience the progress, joy, and results that my students experience in lessons when you’re learning by yourself from blogs and videos.

That is why people take lessons: way better results and progress, much more complete information, exposed to way more creative ideas than you can get from a blog or YouTube video.
There is only so much that self-study can accomplish.

If you want to see amazing results and progress in your guitar playing, buy your first lesson here and get started ASAP.