Poseur to Composer

A recently published study in The Journal of Physiology shows that neuro plasticity can happen immediately, instead of months or years. The findings show that after just one hour of training with a Brain Computer Interface (BCI), there were measurable changes in areas of the brain specifically required to conduct the tasks.

This answers the question lurking in my mind about how long it takes before hand independence exercises "rewire the brain". The answer seems to be sooner rather than later. In the article there's also mention of studies that demonstrated changes in grey matter density after different types of learning within several days or weeks.

Encouraging news for anyone who wants to develop hand independence for piano (or any other endeavor) but doesn't have a lot of time.

P.S. I'm making progress!

Meditation Time bookstanding today: 40 Quality of meditation (out of 10): 6

Practice Minutes on the keyboard today (out of 40): 5 minutes Quality of practice (out of 10): 6

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The post title is a quote by American author and Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow.

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Meditation Time bookstanding today: 40 Quality of meditation (out of 10): 5

Practice Minutes on the keyboard today (out of 40): 15 minutes Quality of practice (out of 10): 6

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You can follow this blog via @posertocomposer on twitter or by RSS in your favorite RSS feed reader (mine is NewsBlur). I also send out the occassional newsletter.

I was having second thoughts about project Dhymn. I wondered if it would be heretical to mix secular musical styles with sacred hymns. But then I discovered that's just what Martin Luther did. At least some of the melodies for his compositions were lifted from popular bar tunes and folk songs of the time and reappropriated for worship.

Luther even quipped, "why should the devil have all the good tunes?"

The substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music is called contrafactum. Contrafactum was a common practice in the sixteenth century, as there was no concept of copyright law or intellectual property.

An update on the hand independence exercise: I'm gotten a lot quicker, but can only do it five six times in a row before flubbing up. Developing hand independence requires complete attention and awareness. My window of high awareness is short, even with daily meditation.

I'll work on expanding this window with more meditation and mindfulness.

Meditation Time bookstanding today: 0... the night is still young, update forthcoming Quality of meditation (out of 10): 0

Practice Minutes on the keyboard today (out of 40): 20 minutes Quality of practice (out of 10): 6

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You can follow this blog via @posertocomposer on twitter or by RSS in your favorite RSS feed reader (mine is NewsBlur). I also send out the occassional newsletter.