The Pianist With Two Brains

The Pianist with Two Brains is a phrase I coined to show how a pianist is constantly exchanging information between the hemispheres of their brain. The connection between the hemispheres is called the "corpus callosum" and is 40% larger in musicians. We all know that our brain has two hemispheres, or sides. Furthermore, the left hand is controlled by the right side of the brain and the right hand is controlled by the left side of the brain.

Piano Study and Cognitive Health

Piano study helps your brain to multitask, organize, sequence and prioritize, according to a recent study. Playing piano keeps you mentally active, challenging your brain.

Being mentally active can protect brain health. This is known as your cognitive reservoir, or reserve, and activities like playing piano strengthen your brain's ability to think in more complex ways.

Music Makes Your Hemispheres Talk To Each Other

Music constantly and naturally stimulates “talk” between the two sides of the brain. Increased inter-hemisphere communication affects several areas of human expertise besides music.

Math skills rely on this two-sided brain juggling, as does writing prose and handwriting. Each side of the brain performs very different functions. They work together to create even more complex supra-functions and ideas.

Piano Is Easy

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Out Of Body

I bring all this up because I had a rather “out of body” experience yesterday while practicing Chopin. It seems to demonstrate this very two-brained human dynamic. I was playing a very difficult passage in which the two hands play extremely different things. Suddenly I was struck by a moment of clarity. I clearly felt each hemisphere managing each hand, working together without the slightest effort.

I looked down at my hands as if someone else was playing, and for the first time saw my hands playing two insanely unrelated physical things. And it was perfect!

Simplify Parts, Hands Separate

So here’s my point. There are degrees of repetition in practicing the piano. At first it may be drudgery to simply grind out the notes in difficult passages. But now I know why I was doing that, playing hands separately and/or simplifying. I was allowing the brain hemisphere that controls that single hand to fully absorb the movements. I limit the time that I play the two hands together at first.

I've found it's best to allow only occasional two handed, slow playing. Then my brain starts to understand how to juggle the information for that passage. Each passage is different, and demands a completely different set of memories.

Many Differing Types of Repetition

It takes weeks and months of repetition in many forms, such as intense, bored, fast, slow, etc. The brain needs time to deal with the wealth of sensory information. “Look here, look there now, reach, curl finger, tall hand, now low.” It’s an endless list that each pianist has to account for in their own way in an inner dialogue.

And there seems to be not only two brains, but a sort of uber-brain, which coordinates the two. It’s that part of your brain that remembers things that you have to forget until you need them, like where you left your keys. Perhaps this uber-brain is in fact the fabled “corpus callosum,” the mythical information autobahn within your brain that ties the two sides of the brain and all the information inside them together.

How All This Helps Kids

The practical result of this discovery of the two “live” brains is to redouble my attempts at games that result in two-handed expertise. For example I play a game called Adventure, in which a child plays only the keys G and a higher octave G, (5 and 12) over and over like a clock chime, while I improvise mad gypsy pirate music in C minor on the lower keys.

The point is to get the child playing with two hands as easily as possible, spending as much time as possible in this easy-to-maintain two-brained state. Left-right, left-right.

Find The Child's Speed Limit

To really succeed, you have to find the “speed limit” of that child playing that passage, and then slowly build the skills in each hand before you try combining them. Then a child succeeds at this carefully orchestrated approach to a two-handed problem, there is a huge rise in self-esteem as they realize, “Hey, I can play this stuff.” Getting them to realize how hard the piano is may only be useful if you can give them a solution.

The solution to technical problems is always to first separate the hands (brains hemispheres separate.) Then play each part slowly (allow the two brains to absorb the moves.) The brain demands patience.  

REFERENCES:

ADHD PIANO GAMES

PIANO BY NUMBER AND DOWN'S SYNDROME

PIANO BOOKS FOR SPECIAL NEEDS CHILDREN

EXTREME PIANO GAMES FOR ADHD

PIANO BY NUMBER FOR A SEVERELY DISABLED CHILD

HYPERACTIVITY AND KID'S PIANO

HYPERACTIVE CHILDREN AND THE PIANO

BRAIN HEMISPHERE COORDINATION AND CHILDREN’S PIANO

BRAIN CHEMISTRY AND EMOTIONS IN CHILDREN’S PIANO

BRAINS, CHILDREN AND PIANO

THE PIANIST WITH TWO BRAINS

ENDORPHINS, CHILDREN AND PIANO

WHY KIDS DISLIKE PLAYING WITH THEIR LEFT HAND

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHILDREN, PIANO, MUSIC AND MATH

EINSTEIN’S PIANO

EINSTEIN’S VIOLIN IMPROVISATIONS IN GYPSY STYLE

PIANO BRAIN CHEMISTRY FOR KIDS

BRAIN HEMISPHERES AND KID’S PIANO

MATH, PIANO AND KIDS

NEUROTRANSMITTERS, CHILDREN AND PIANO

BRAIN STRUCTURE AND KID’S PIANO