Guitarists' Brains Are Different Than Everybody Else's, Study Finds

[Guest Len B'stard]

I admit there is a strong possibility that I'm just fucking weird when it comes to all things guitar.

"Music, sweet music

I wish I could caress, caress, caress

Manic depression is a frustrating mess".

See now THAT fuckin' guy i could imagine was wired different. But don't be lumping you or the guitar player 4 doors down or Snakes or that guy in the subway busking to that fuckin' guy. Do what he fuckin' does and I'll say you're wired different And thats no insult to you Rovim, you know i love you but like...nobodys on a par with that guy, he belongs with like an elite 10 or 20 in my lifes history that I'm aware of that are just preposterously magnificent in their given field, like gifted...in the way Ali or Bruce Lee are gifted.

Edited May 10, 2014 by sugaraylen

[DieselDaisy]

Guitarists are, and always have been, the cool dudes in bands. Singers are too poncy and sometimes complete dicks. Bassists are usually the geek in the corner, or somebody's un-musical friend who is usually roped into the job. Drummers who merely, the person who owns a drumkit. Guitarists however are the real deal. Think Richards, Slash, Perry, Ace - they all have an inherent coolness.

[Rovim]

I admit there is a strong possibility that I'm just fucking weird when it comes to all things guitar.

Thinking about it, the title kinda has a point but it seems to be inferring that it's like...something you're born with, like you just are that way, as opposed to like a developed skill that most people could acquire with the requisite effort.

Perhaps it's both. Obviously, it's also a developed skill, but you know when people say you need to have a natural talent to play guitar well and with feeling? that means there are some things you need to have genetically as a person, and maybe it's more specific or broad then just "talent". I'm going more by what I don't know, then what I do know.

I mean, we don't know much about inspiration and how exactly it works or how to truly control it (if that's even possible)

I just find it interesting is all. I'm actually a very skeptical person usually. Also, I did say in my first post in this thread that it's amazing IF true. I don't believe it blindly, or maybe at all. I'm undecided. I'm just trying to keep an open mind cause again, there is still a lot we don't know much about when it comes to the inner workings and the process of the mind in different circumstances generally speaking, not just music/art.

I admit there is a strong possibility that I'm just fucking weird when it comes to all things guitar.

"Music, sweet music

I wish I could caress, caress, caress

Manic depression is a frustrating mess".

See now THAT fuckin' guy i could imagine was wired different. But don't be lumping you or the guitar player 4 doors down or Snakes or that guy in the subway busking to that fuckin' guy. Do what he fuckin' does and I'll say you're wired different And thats no insult to you Rovim, you know i love you but like...nobodys on a par with that guy, he belongs with like an elite 10 or 20 in my lifes history that I'm aware of that are just preposterously magnificent in their given field, like gifted...in the way Ali or Bruce Lee are gifted.

Of course not. I wouldn't dare or want to compare myself to the greats. Especially not the greatest of them all. There was only one Jimi, and frankly, one was all that was needed. He was that good. A rare talent that keeps me humble everytime I listen to his tunes.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Rovim

[Guest Len B'stard]

Generally speaking I ain't on nobodys fuckin' dick like that but I can honestly say if that guy was alive I'd be a little bitch running behind him holding his picks and trying to hide my boner

[Rovim]

Generally speaking I ain't on nobodys fuckin' dick like that but I can honestly say if that guy was alive I'd be a little bitch running behind him holding his picks and trying to hide my boner

lol I'd be right behind you with a fresh LSD batch.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Rovim

[Guest Len B'stard]

The thing you say about perhaps its both makes a lot of sense too i suppose cuz i mean...its what seperates me from you as a guitarist...and then you from someone whoose perhaps better than you, like they're more inclined to like...excel at certain shit.

[Rovim]

The thing you say about perhaps its both makes a lot of sense too i suppose cuz i mean...its what seperates me from you as a guitarist...and then you from someone whoose perhaps better than you, like they're more inclined to like...excel at certain shit.

That was basically what I was trying to say. Even if that article is horseturds, the idea it presents is very interesting. Like, what exactly seperates one guitarist from another, what exactly is happening inside the brain while doing whatever activity that demands you to...be "inspired". What is that? I want to know. In other words: can we explain things like talent in a more specific way? can we then compare it? and maybe what we call "talent" is just a bunch of dynamic things in our brain that can be changed and it's not like "this fuckin' guy can't dance for shit".

Or even a sense of rhythm. I feel like our explanation of all those things is shitty. "it's like that cause it's like that". Maybe we don't know enough yet, so we just don't think about it enough in that direction.

[Guest Len B'stard]

I think it's just about like...formative exposure to certain things...like early on y'know, so you respond to things. Like for instance when i was growing Madchester was really big, like REALLY big. And since then I've always responded well to that kinda Stone Roses Fools Gold type drumming and funky guitar. To my mind thats what it is...and sometimes, often even, it might even be shit you don't even remember that clearly but it just gets embedded in you. Like i feel like I can trace all my primary musical interests, on some level, to formative exposure to that shit, certain pointers that I kinda subconciously picked up from....like, y'know, wherever...I might even come back to it like 20 years later and get into the thing and after a while of being into it the shit kinda occurs to you that 'yeah, hey, thats where i got that from'. Like I love rap music, always have done, it's just one of those things that just clicks with me, it and it's rhythms and everything just makes total sense to me. Like i can recall getting into it and it having this kinda weird familiarity. Which is odd cuz rap weren't really big in England in my formative years, especially to a point where I'd have some kinda massive exposure to it...but it might be like...a commercial or some little snippet of something from a film or...y'know, whatever that kind of embeds a prediliction in your head, one that perhaps lays dormant for ages.

The fundamental quality of music is repetitive rhythm...i think that speaks to everyone on some level, I mean we kinda live by virtue of a repetitive beat, don't we, our hearts, it's that deep in us. It's why some religions forbid music in the way they forbid alcohol because they think it takes you away from your senses and your sense of propriety etc. When really it's probably just the heightening of a particular aspect of your senses.

But yeah, i think it's to do with certain formative exposures that get embedded into you and like...you expand on it later perhaps. Cuz like...the first time you hear A rhythm, whether by virtue of a guitar or whatever...thats kinda your understanding of that entire concept, that IS rhythm to you and everything kinda shoots off from there but thats like...the nucleus of it for you...and then you get older and you get into or respond to a kind of music and it's because your subconcious has kinda 'found' that first...exposure to it again.

[GivenToFly]

The journal article probably makes more sense than that Ultimate Guitar piece.

It's not surprising though, some people are simply more talented than others at some things. Sure, practice is a big part of success, but don't all start off equal.

[Rovim]

I think it's just about like...formative exposure to certain things...like early on y'know, so you respond to things. Like for instance when i was growing Madchester was really big, like REALLY big. And since then I've always responded well to that kinda Stone Roses Fools Gold type drumming and funky guitar. To my mind thats what it is...and sometimes, often even, it might even be shit you don't even remember that clearly but it just gets embedded in you. Like i feel like I can trace all my primary musical interests, on some level, to formative exposure to that shit, certain pointers that I kinda subconciously picked up from....like, y'know, wherever...I might even come back to it like 20 years later and get into the thing and after a while of being into it the shit kinda occurs to you that 'yeah, hey, thats where i got that from'. Like I love rap music, always have done, it's just one of those things that just clicks with me, it and it's rhythms and everything just makes total sense to me. Like i can recall getting into it and it having this kinda weird familiarity. Which is odd cuz rap weren't really big in England in my formative years, especially to a point where I'd have some kinda massive exposure to it...but it might be like...a commercial or some little snippet of something from a film or...y'know, whatever that kind of embeds a prediliction in your head, one that perhaps lays dormant for ages.

The fundamental quality of music is repetitive rhythm...i think that speaks to everyone on some level, I mean we kinda live by virtue of a repetitive beat, don't we, our hearts, it's that deep in us. It's why some religions forbid music in the way they forbid alcohol because they think it takes you away from your senses and your sense of propriety etc. When really it's probably just the heightening of a particular aspect of your senses.

But yeah, i think it's to do with certain formative exposures that get embedded into you and like...you expand on it later perhaps. Cuz like...the first time you hear A rhythm, whether by virtue of a guitar or whatever...thats kinda your understanding of that entire concept, that IS rhythm to you and everything kinda shoots off from there but thats like...the nucleus of it for you...and then you get older and you get into or respond to a kind of music and it's because your subconcious has kinda 'found' that first...exposure to it again.

I think that's a big part of it too. But not all of it. What about genetics? put aside formative exposures and skill, which are pieces of the pie, but I want to focus on what the article hinted at, which doesn't have anything to do with exposure and skill.

Also, in this post you're talking more about the listening experience and not the activity of creating it without thinking. Don't forget that I'm only concentrating on that aspect.

Coming back to "talent", which I think is just a stop gap word until we know what it is exactly, how it's constructed from different qualities in the brain that are not as obvious as others.

Inspiration, and when you know enough, you can almost "forget" it all at the moment you're on some other place in your head. There are ways to see the inside of a brain in real time while the subject can do an activity that influence the chemical process of the brain in ways that are distinct from other people.

The journal article probably makes more sense than that Ultimate Guitar piece.

It's not surprising though, some people are simply more talented than others at some things. Sure, practice is a big part of success, but don't all start off equal.

But that's the point I'm trying to make here: maybe they're not "simply talented". Maybe it's not simple at all. Maybe "talent" is something that we'll be able to understand better in the future, and some crazy shit can happen like gaining the ability to change the levels of "talent" in our brains and other shit too. This sounds pretty crazy, but whatever.

If not changing it, then at least understanding the ingredients it's constructed from. We can disect skill and theory, but we can't really disect talent.

Edited May 10, 2014 by Rovim

[Guest Len B'stard]

I think that's a big part of it too. But not all of it. What about genetics? put aside formative exposures and skill, which are pieces of the pie, but I want to focus on what the article hinted at, which doesn't have anything to do with exposure and skill.

Genetics plays a part too i think...and envoirnment. Like certain African or Asian rhythms are kinda alien to over here so like...if you come from like, a long line of a particular like...race of people to whom a certain kind of rhythm is specific you might be more inclined to absorb or create or respond to that kinda shit. Maybe. I dunno, I'm not totally sold on the genetic disposition thing but hey, who the fuck am i to write it off?

Also, in this post you're talking more about the listening experience and not the activity of creating it without thinking. Don't forget that I'm only concentrating on that aspect.

The two are kinda linked though is what i was getting at because...when a thing embeds in you like that its what...comes out, often in some skewed way due to your skill set, when you try and play the shit.

Coming back to "talent", which I think is just a stop gap word until we know what it is exactly, how it's constructed from different qualities in the brain that are not as obvious as others.

I wanna know but then part of me doesn't? I like feeling that Hendrix was a magician When you kinda strip the shit down and work it out then it's like...oh, OK, so thats it. Thats kind of an ignorant mentality on my part, isn't it?

Inspiration, and when you know enough, you can almost "forget" it all at the moment you're on some other place in your head. There are ways to see the inside of a brain in real time while the subject can do an activity that influence the chemical process of the brain in ways that are distinct from other people.

I think the brain uses what it needs to use and when you've committed to the development of certain motor skills to the point of their being like...just a part of you and that gives the other part of your brain, the one that...like...the bit you improvise with, it allows that shit to flourish.

I'm talking absolute shit really, I cant even really play and I know fuck all about the workings of the human mind Certainly an interesting topic though.

[magisme]

tl;dr version of Rovim and Len's discussion: "I don't know, maybe."

[Rovim]

"The bit you improvise with, it allows that shit to flourish". That's beautiful. Part skill, part fucked up genetics, and of course, England.

[Guest Len B'stard]

tl;dr version of Rovim and Len's discussion: "I don't know, maybe."

Yeah well we cant all be philosophisticalistic fuckin geniuses, can we?

[Rovim]

tl;dr version of Rovim and Len's discussion: "I don't know, maybe."

Yeah well we cant all be philosophisticalistic fuckin geniuses, can we?

I don't know, maybe.

[magisme]

tl;dr version of Rovim and Len's discussion: "I don't know, maybe."

Yeah well we cant all be philosophisticalistic fuckin geniuses, can we?

"I don't know, maybe" is exactly what the philosophical geniuses say.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Yeah? Oh cheers Mags, i feel all clever now I feel like I should've said that in Latin.

[Guest Len B'stard]

Hey, we must have at least one neuroscientist on the forum, why don't you come to enlighten us about this?!

Yeah, me, didn't you know?

'See what i fink the fing is that like, there's fings that you do right, that do fings to your brain right, thats makes it different from other peoples brains and the fings they do to make their fing different'

In other words the i of your pi is equal to the angle of your dangle! These are like, neuroscience secrets I've let out here, you lucky lucky lucky people.

Genius, just sheer genius!

Edited May 10, 2014 by sugaraylen

[Guest Len B'stard]

I sure can, tin of Dulux and a horse hair brush, i'll do your living room out for £50

[Guest Len B'stard]

Wa-hey, everyones a winner!

[Thin White Duke]

The drummers is where is at.

[Guest Len B'stard]

You can't impress Dukie

[magisme]

Yeah? Oh cheers Mags, i feel all clever now I feel like I should've said that in Latin.

"‘Perhaps’, one must always say perhaps for justice. There is an avenir for justice (Il y a un avenir pour la justice) and there is no justice except to the degree that some event is possible which, as event, exceeds calculation, rules, programs, anticipations and so forth. Justice as the experience of absolute alterity (altérité absolue) is unpresentable (imprésentable), but it is the chance of an event and the condition of history."

[SoNobodyToldYaBaby]

My friend got really upset when i told him he'd never excel on guitar or any instrument for that matter. He said if he practiced enough he could become as good as say Slash, but i told him hes delusional. Am i wrong? I tried explaining myself by using Buckethead as an example. I said Slash could play guitar until hes 200 and he still wouldnt reach Bucketheads level of proficiency because Buckethead was just 'born with it'. but thats not to say he didnt work really hard at it and of course dedication is a big part of it.

[Iron MikeyJ]

Guitarists' Brains Are Different Than Everybody Else's

I know right ? Just look at Dj Ashba : he's fuckin' DEMENTED.

Well it's kind of hard for DJ to improvise when he is playing someone else's music all the time, maybe that's his problem, just saying.

But this article is wonderful!!!! Best news I've heard all day, now their is proof that I'm awesome!!! Well anyone that comes to my shows already knows that, but now I have proof.