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I wonder if playing polyphonic music has the same effects. Have pianists a lower IQ than trumpet players?

• ex3xu 5y ago
  My intuition would be that the kind of multitasking that can cause damage refers to trying to do multiple tasks that require a certain threshhold of focused attention and executive function, whereas musical training allows for the encoding of muscle memory to a level that doesn't really require executive function. I'd be curious to see if that intuition holds up in practice, though I have my doubts about whether IQ or EQ would necessarily be the right quantitative metric.
  • holri 5y ago
    Playing polyphonic music like Bach Fugues requires an enormous amount of focused attention and executive function. Relying on muscle memory alone does not work at all for me and all musicians I know that play polyphonic Bach music.
    • ex3xu 5y ago
      I think as musical training increases, the amount of energy required for specific kinds of bimanual motor coordination tasks decreases, see Haslinger, 2004 [0]. Regardless, looking at the literature, logitudinal studies seem to indicate that playing polyphonic music seems to improve brain plasticity rather than cause damage. Maybe the damage is more related to the context switching aspect of multitasking. [0]: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hbm.20028 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/hbm.20028
      • holri 5y ago
        In my personal experience playing polyphonic music is extremely fast context switching. That is, you can not sing two melodies at the same time, but you can switch very fast between them if you sing in your head mentally. That enables polyphonic piano playing / hearing.