Brains on Music
Question: Does the brain work differently when playing real instruments versus virtual instruments?
Using acoustic instruments connects the tactile more directly. There must be a difference between using a computer keyboard or even the computer itself to make music and real instruments in the sense that computers are complex systems that do many things, whereas acoustic instruments do one thing. One is inherently distracting and the other focusing. Using a computer and its controllers sets up frames and cascades that relate to text and language systems as opposed to musical systems, that are similar in some ways are different in that music has rhythm that more intimately connects with the body. We can't tap our feet to reading a novel, for example. Clicking and tapping to select chords in software is different from fingering chords on an instrument. On a screen we click buttons to hears sounds or watch videos, but that is mostly a passive experience, at least in terms of how much the body is involved.
Using acoustic instruments connects the tactile more directly. There must be a difference between using a computer keyboard or even the computer itself to make music and real instruments in the sense that computers are complex systems that do many things, whereas acoustic instruments do one thing. One is inherently distracting and the other focusing. Using a computer and its controllers sets up frames and cascades that relate to text and language systems as opposed to musical systems, that are similar in some ways are different in that music has rhythm that more intimately connects with the body. We can't tap our feet to reading a novel, for example. Clicking and tapping to select chords in software is different from fingering chords on an instrument. On a screen we click buttons to hears sounds or watch videos, but that is mostly a passive experience, at least in terms of how much the body is involved.
