11/06/06 Making Connections (more thoughts from Davidson’s “Brain” course)
It became apparent to me the first day of class here at NEC that everything I have learned up until now is directly linked to what lies ahead in my career. I was sitting in Lyle Davidson’s class on the brain, and I realized that my life path is completely up to me. I came to understand that the only boundaries are the ones I set, myself. Therefore, anything is possible! Now that I have been in the brain class for a number of weeks, I really see the connection between what I strive to accomplish everyday, and what parts of my brain are helping me to do so. There is a very real correlation between mind, body, and spirit that I feel has become a bit cliche in the media. When one looks deep within themselves, they can honestly realize that it is essential to keep these three elements of life healthy.
As a performer and music maker, I feel that certain parts of my brain are working harder than they might in an accountant, or a lawyer. This got me thinking about what makes people happy. I know that a large part of my mental power goes to the amygdala, the emotional center of the brain, since making music is a very emotional experience for me. But my question is, does the lawyer also receive emotional stimulation through his work? Does the accountant? It is hard for me to see the same emotional pleasure in these fields. So, then the question becomes, what do the accountant and the lawyer have in their lives to stimulate their emotional centers?
~Brynn
Brynn Rector is a first year graduate student studying trumpet performance. She is currently the Teaching Assistant for Larry Scripp’s “Graduate Seminar for Music-in-Education,” and is conducting a Guided Internship in the MIE Research Center on music and brain development.
November 6th, 2006 at 2:07 pm
You could look at it the opposite way too: What brain processes do accountants and lawyers use most, and how do those processes manifest themselves in the work of musicians? Great post, Brynn! Thanks for writing.
November 7th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
Brynn,
You should really read an article by Eric Booth, titled “The Teaching Artist and the Artistry of Teaching.” It’s a fascinating piece which, for me, throws open the doors of the creative possibilities when it comes to being artist-teachers. But more specifically, he takes some time in this article to create a working definition of “art” and does so starting with the perspective that his work as a businessman was as satisfying and engaging as his previous work as an actor.
As a musician, I feel like I take for granted that I know what a “musical experience” is – or what an “artistic experience” is – but when it boils down to it, it’s not a very informed understanding. It’s a very clear and definite feeling about the matter, but it is a hard place to work from logically/rationally/persuasively. But adding Booth’s ideas on top of that have helped me to feel more connected (and therefore more relevent to) the proverbial lawyer you speak of.
You can find this article in the first volume of the Journal for Learning Through Music, which is available freely on the Music-in-Education.org website:
– Fred –
November 14th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
I agree with Fred. It specifically talks about how people might engage their minds in professions other than music. In Eric Booth’s article on page 18, he refers to something he calls “the verbs of art.” He says that, “We can engage artistically no matter what medium we’re working in.” He also references a time when he was working in marketing. He began to compare his artistic experience with playing Hamlet and working in marketing. At first he began to think what a sell out he had become, but in the end, he concluded that he, “was engaged in actions that were the same as the actions [he] had engaged in playing Hamlet. Very different media, same verbs.”
December 6th, 2006 at 7:33 pm
Perhaps the accountant and the lawyer have found a career path that does not stimulate their happiness, but grants a means to their happiness.
Can money and financial security really make happiness. Is happiness only a matter of brain chemistry? Is there some notion of soul or spirit that we are forgetting? Where does that fit in to brain chemistry?
My head just exploded…