Phantom Limbs: On Tactility In Music

What draws me to music most strongly is the tactile: I simply like the feel of vibrating strings across a slab of wood, and is so much more satisfying than a computer keyboard or a piece of glass. I have my instruments all out of their cases and make a point to play them and incorporate them as much as possible into my songs. (That's why I think country music sometimes gets folded into my music because a lap steel will suggest it). Also, we don't really need that many instruments: Musical instrument collections might have their own Dunbar Number. An instrument only used once becomes more of a passing acquaintance.

In my experience, musical ability is more easily attained through just banging on an instrument with little or no knowledge. Computers seem more fragile in a way because you can't bang on them as you can traditional musical instruments. Traditional instruments have quiddity, and are "anti-fragile" in a way, yet are capable of being delicate and more "vulnerable" to emotion.
 

Musical instruments are also more easily multi-tasked because they do only one thing--as opposed to using computers as instruments which do many things. What you want is one-to-many: one instrument in context with things that are multimedia. Learning to play music by playing along with recordings is one-to-one, but using a computer to emulate a piece of multimedia content is many-to-many. Playing a guitar while watching something is one-to-many, or one-against-many, which produces different results. What is good about having computers in the mix is that you can capture ideas more quickly--perhaps too many. You begin to hoard ideas. 

I've become somewhat attached to my instruments, which is a testament to an emotional bond. I think that's crucial to wanting to play music. But in spiritual terms this might be a bad thing---desire and attachment. What if you don't have an instrument when ideas arise? This is where a more generalized creativity comes into play. But writing for example doesn't have the same tactile connections, unless one can find a "phantom" instrument, like a "phantom limb". It is the memory of feeling which can be translated into other forms of memory. For me, it is the words themselves that create rhythmic ideas. Therefore, a couplet will suggest possible music if an instrument is in the mix at some point. Over time, one gets "encyclopedic" in their approach to creativity, or as per Julie Bolte Taylor's book a "whole brain" experience. 

If you looked at the brains of musicians against someone that never played a musical instrument there would be a big difference. If you looked at the brain scans of people that had formerly played instruments and no longer play instruments there might be some similarity there: you'd still see some aspects or areas of the brain in which is similar to a person that's actually playing. 

It seems intuitive to me that once the brain has been wired for playing music, you can't unwire it--it becomes your set-point, as people have a weight set-point. It's also interesting how that wiring can be reused in other ways. So what does musical wiring have to do with another discipline?
However your brain is wired is the wiring you bring to everything, so there's a thread through everything you do. Creative people are definitely wired for certain kinds of things because they've been using that part of the brain a lot more than other people. It just stands to reason that it's their set point. Once you've been doing something for so long there's no way that you're going to completely rewire, although Bolte-Taylor's book (as well as McGilchrist's The Master And His Emissary) suggest ways of intentionally activating the various hemispheres for different situations, and of course the use of psychoactive substances/microdosing.

The central metaphor in all my work tends to be architecture, so I like working with frameworks and use a combinatorial creativity. So for example, devising all the song titles and thinking visually before writing the songs is a framework in which to drape the outside skin. (For example, on 2046, the titles we based on time and place in the 2040s). 

I wonder if certain things go missing after a "rewiring"? But as we've seen with people that have had brain injuries, the music "phantom" remains: The initial wiring is still there and you can revisit that but I think what's crucial is to be able to pick up an instrument and get something nice out of it within a short period of time by noodling around for five minutes, which keeps it keeps the brain wiring in good order. It's like the idea of "maintenance practice" on an instrument--not hours of practice going over the same things, just the parts that keep it alive. 

If you play guitars your brain is wired for the tactility of strings. You know how the strings feel and so your brain remembers that and it likes that feeling.

 **

Original dictation: 12/26/2021