hi

i'm wanting to find websites, research papers & hear any opinions on how the brain & hand are synced when musicians use musical instruments. someone mentioned to me that, in certain circumstances, hand movement can happen before the brain makes the decision. almost as if the hand has its own independant brain, does anyone know anything about this?

this validates in my mind because when i play an instrument, i feel like i can play faster with more rhythm without thinking, if i start overthinking it just breaks down. you could say this is because i have learnt a piece of music but this happens with music i havent played before or even when improvising.

thanks for any input/pointers

Hmm, I have a similar effect with touch typing on the keyboard. I find that I can type faster and more freely when I don't pronounce the words in my head, however it's rather complex and I usually get out of sync and start typing gibberish after a few words.

Still, I'd be interested if there were studies done on the matter.

you still need to use your brain... you dont use your brain if its a reflex. when you think you dont perform better - i think this means that you are just exerting too much cognitive control from prefrontal cortex.

I can play the skin guitar.

Ahh I am a skin flute player myself, but I only have slightly more than an octave range

erm... lol.

My previous topic on a hand-eye co-ordination game 'guitar hero' may be of interest: http://brainmeta.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=18375&hl=

Additionally, my 8 year old daughter just completed the song Free Bird (10minutes, 6 minute fast guitar solo) - something which I was well impressed with when I did. It seems that age has no bearing on skill in this game, and younger players could possibly have an advantage over age because of suppleness.

Another interesting thing about it is my daughter failed at the exact same parts I did, and learned them in almost exactly the same way, again age and experience giving no advantage.