Whoo Boy - lots of stuff in here.

There are many sociological theories and studies regarding this topic - many of which contain confounding results.

For example, with the studies showing that students of music score higher on standardized tests - what conclusions can actually be drawn. Lot's of supposition on why the correlation exists, but do not equate correlation with causation. What about the background reason(s) for why some students have access to music education? What about the parents and/or community nurturing, etc. etc. etc. Each of these could be the REAL causation based reason for the correlation, not that music in and of itself re-orders the synaptic behavior of the brain for memory and/or skill.

There's another theory that is a key concept of Malcom Gladwell's most recent book "Outliers" called the 10,000 hour rule.

The premise is that one has to spend at least 10,000 hours of active pursuit of any particular skill to truly excel at the skill. It is not a scientific book - but refers to many studies - some scientifically conducted, some just heuristic observation (for example, the Beatles 10,000+ hours in the cellar bars of Germany as a performing band before they really nailed it) to support this premise.

I do believe that the 'handedness' of a particular person can set them up for exercising their brain in different ways. In a world that seems set-up for right-handed folks, the sheer nature of having to 'make do' with right-handed equipment for left handed persons may cause their brains to flow information in a different way than those who do not have to do this. It is almost like having to function effectively in a foreign language environment causes one's brain to think differently than normal. This may help creative behavior. Who knows? Those of you that speak at least one foreign language fluently know what I am talking about. There was likely some point in your past when all of a sudden you realized you were THINKING in the 2nd or 3rd or 4th language.

I studied German for about 4 years in a traditional sense, with very little immersion in the language. I never fully grasped the rhythm of the language in that time. I could handle the rules of grammar - I'm an engineer after all! Then I was sent to Germany for work and had to function in the language. The first 3-4 days were torture and mind-numbing. Then sometime on the 4th or 5th day, something snapped into place and I found myself thinking ahead in the language during conversation. It was an exhilarating moment. I realized I could actually do something that I had for so long only observed others doing.

Most of my fellow Americans never really get this kind of an opportunity - with English being so ubiquitous in the USA, and throughout the world. Those from smaller countries are somewhat 'forced' into the situation of being required to speak English.

I don't think I would have pursued learning Tarzan Swedish(and by way of association Tarzan Norwegian and Tarzan Danish) and recently Spanish, had that one 'aha' moment with German not happened for me back in the day in 1993.

I think the same thing happens with the study of Music and the tipping point of those 'aha' moments when you get that chill up and down your back when all the stars align, the glassy lead from your buddies strat chimes right there with the ride cymbal, and the P-Bass growl is just right - the B3 is spitting underneath, etc. etc. etc. Or when you nail 'Moonlight Sonata' the first time, or when that hair-raising vibe happens in your drum circle.

Once those moments happen, the drive learn more turns on from drudgery to desire. Everyone reading this probably has that fire burning. You can probably point back to someone, sometime in your past, that pushed you over that edge - and you can probably recall when it happened.

I think all learning - when put to some kind of effective, demonstrative use - follows this pattern.

End of sermon.

-Scott

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