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Joined: May 2000
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Scott-
You said
"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."
I think that the Kansas study shows this correlation because the better the school music education system, the better the scores. It wasn't just the 'music students' as a whole, it quantized a difference between the quality of music education and the results.
Just my thoughts
I do not work here, but the benefits are still awesome
Make your sound your own!
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>>>...but do not equate correlation with causation....>>>>
Good point. I will be the first to shout this most basic premise of the scientific method - if you will let me. I don't think the article posted by RHARV made that mistake. It seems to be a reduction of a very large set of statistical results presented in a way that allows the reader to draw her own conclusions. Am I wrong about that?
I am a scientist on one side of my brain. On the other side, I am adamant in my belief that music is an indispensable component of a well-rounded education. If there were proof of a cause-and-effect relationship between music study and test scores - whether positive or negative - I don't think it would change my mind that much.
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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A very wise man once wrote: "Creative success is ten per cent inspiration, forty per cent perspiration, and fifty per cent masturbation." Brad 
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Apprentice
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Apprentice
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"So what do you think, do you have an innate musical ability or learned the hard way by practice?"
I don't think it matters as long as one maintains the curiosity of a child who enjoys tinkering and playing with things trying to understand how they work. This can be applied to math, music, literature, art, computers, as well as many other subjects.
JBlatz
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For me it all started with an innate deep desire to be able to make music because to me that still remains a wonderful thing.
That deep desire is still as strong or stronger than it ever was.
Many like to call the end result of that deep desire, "talent". Perhaps it is at the root of what we call talent.
The realization that it was up to me to work at realizing the result of that deep desire started somewhere around the age of three.
Which gives the credit to parents and teachers who already knew how to start a youngster (or three yougsters in my family) off on the right musical feet.
I am constantly amazed at the number of people of my generation who have decided to be musicians yet have never decided that taking any serious amount of formal lessons or training should be a large part of the endeavor. The many always resort to citing the one who didn't have -- or perhaps didn't appear to have -- those formal lessons and training yet succeeded.
The good news for all is that it is never too late.
Govern yourselves accordingly.
--Mac
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"Argue for your limitations, and sure enough, they're yours." - Richard Bach
"Open your mind, Luke." - Obi-Wan Kenobi
I saw a bumper sticker just yesterday which said, "The most common way people give up power is by believing they don't have any." The topic of creativity has not begun to be addressed here, except by one or two individuals who have said "they don't have any."
I was freed of limiting creativity as a quality unique to the arts when I was in, of all things, sales. It was pointed out that selling is inherently creative. At that point the job became more than just a place to go each day, but a challenge to discover new ways to approach customers. Taken broadly, it is impossible to escape creativity--unless you believe you don't have any, in which case you are deceiving yourself.
If you have composed and written a new song, of course you have demonstrated creativity. But: if you have contributed a thought here--you are creative. If you have ever changed a recipe--or simply followed one--you are creative. If you have taken a photo, figured out how to fix something, parented a child, done homework, varied the telling of a joke, read a book and had a new thought occur to you, or done anything the end result of which was a construct which did not exist before--you are creative. We are all inescapably creative.
Truly creative people embrace this in all areas of their lives. What will you do today to claim the power which exists within you?
R.
"My primary musical instrument is the personal computer."
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Expert
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Expert
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Posts: 1,815 |
Quote:
Personally, I just happen to have a gift for poetry (which I use to write lyrics) and a voice that many consider to be first class (for country / ballads - which is what I write and sing).
Dang, how does one hear your tunes? I went to your sam hacker site --> songs, but nothing will play.
Kevin
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Journeyman
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Journeyman
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I heard a quote, there is nothing being done that has not been done before. When I apply that principle to music it is also true. We will never play a note that has not been played even in the fashion and series in which it has been played.
What I find so fascinating about the creative process is how we try to put something together that does not sound like something already out there. Every artist will speak of those who influenced them. And if you have been exposed to that artist referenced you can begin to see traces of their influence within the artist being questioned.
To answer your last question, in my life it was seeing guitarists like Al Dimeola, Carlos Santana, Larry Carlton, Stanley Jordan and what they did with the instrument that did two things to me: one, caused me to hang out with the guitar because I had to know how they did what they did. Two, develop an appreciation for what they did because no matter what I did in those days I could not touch what I had heard. From there, it became an endless cycle from appreciation bringing about practice and back around again. It still happens to this day. What drives me to practice is the excellence of another. That is why I am kind of confused as to your friend not liking to play with other musicians. When you think of how iron is sharpened it is by rubbing against another piece of iron, I do not have any idea how your friend improves in his progress.
Cheers,
RickeG
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Quote:
Quote:
Personally, I just happen to have a gift for poetry (which I use to write lyrics) and a voice that many consider to be first class (for country / ballads - which is what I write and sing).
Dang, how does one hear your tunes? I went to your sam hacker site --> songs, but nothing will play.
Kevin
Yup! That's my website - from the fact that you couldn't listen to anything I KNOW you were there. That website was and is a 'work in progress'. If you really want to hear me sing, try here (Blue Christmas concept 3 tracks) or here (re-written version of Auld Lang Syne). Please bear in mind that these tracks were sung for my ex-g/f as a Christmas & New Year present and were never actually meant for public consumption...
Follow That Dream Sam Karaoke King -------------------- Turning that corner again - I have to keep following that dream, no matter what
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- MIDI Styles Set 92: Look Ma! More MIDI 15: Latin Jazz
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