mandolin and mental health

[billkilpatrick]

in a "yahoo" health related item called "4 exercises to sharpen your brain" a dr. maoshing ni suggests we move our fingers more and try to memorize something new every day. he suggests we take up a stringed instrument - "...engaging the fingers stimulates nerve endings that go directly to the brain, increasing circulation."

http://health.yahoo.com/experts/drmao/19035/4-exercises-to-sharpen-your-brain/

so there you have it ... ffcp and "song of the week" group membership will keep you from getting ... you know, that illness that ahhh ... makes people - you know ....

[man dough nollij]

I'm not crazy! You're the one who's crazy! (All I wanted was a Pepsi.)

[Potosimando]

billkilpatrick: Surely working on your Italian must also help with...ahh...now what were we talking about? Hmmm. Strange. Must need some...oh yeah, there it is...some of that brain circulation.

[journeybear]

I dunno ... in my case I'm too far gone ... :crying:

Hopefully, some advances have been made in the field and in its attitude toward mandolins since this article first appeared in the NY Times in 1897. Of course, this article concerns the effects of listening to the mandolin, not playing it. ;)

I want to believe what Dr. Ni says is true. But I have to wonder - is he related to the knights who say "Ni?" :confused:

[Dan Hoover]

quote..."...engaging the fingers stimulates nerve endings that go directly to the brain, increasing circulation." end quote..
tell that to my pinky

[Denny Gies]

I have said for years that playing bluegrass mandollin has been my mental health. The jury seems to be still out on the results.

[gregjones]

quote..."...engaging the fingers stimulates nerve endings that go directly to the brain, increasing circulation." end quote..
tell that to my pinky

I dare not add a thing.:whistling:

[mandroid]

Having my mandolin as companion thru a long bout of Clinical Depression has helped,

.. but I still don't feel like singing.

took it to my father's funeral , not to the memorial service, itself,

but to help me cope with the empty house full of ghosts and memories.

[Laird]

Before I latched onto the mandolin, I picked up a guitar (after almost twenty years of not playing) to help fill the emptiness in my house after my partner of many years moved out. Playing music was definitely the most therapeutic practice for that hard time.

[Jill McAuley]

My chosen profession (animal sheltering) is underpaid and stressful. Playing the mandolin is the perfect way to relax for me and not fall into the trap of bringing the job home with me. Definitely helps keep my life in balance...

Cheers,
Jill

[Coffeecup]

Nice find Journeybear!

[D C Blood]

Journeybear...was that NY Times article by chance written by a banjo player?:(

[Ted Eschliman]

Great article, but I'm not surprised by Dr. Mao's findings. Working the FFcP on the mandolin the last 10 years has succeeded in raising my intelligence level up to average.

[Steve-o]

Great article, but I'm not surprised by Dr. Mao's findings. Working the FFcP on the mandolin the last 10 years has succeeded in raising my intelligence level up to average.

:)):))

[journeybear]

Journeybear...was that NY Times article by chance written by a banjo player?:(

Ha! No way of knowing - no byline - but I doubt it. The writer seems not too enamored of nor knowledgeable about music in general. OK, maybe then he could have been a banjo player! :))

It does seem as though he had an axe to grind, as attested by these quotes:

> Few noises are so disagreeable as the sound of the picking of a mandolin ...

> But no well-informed person ever called the picking of the mandolin music.

> ... the mandolin really is no more closely related to musical instruments than a xylophone or a comb wrapped in a bit of paper.

Fortunately, The NY Times has grown to be a lot more dispassionate since then, and this sort of diatribe would never make it past an editor these days. ;)

[Ivan Kelsall]

Exercising your 'mind' by doing something entirely new is always a good thing to do & helps to stimulate mental agility.That was one of the 2 reasons i began playing Mandolin.Other than the fact that i've loved the sound of the instrument for over 40 years,i decided that as i got older,i needed something to stimulate my mind.
Playing an instrument can be wonderfully theraputic as well. I went thorough a really bad patch in my life 15 years back,& playing my Banjo helped get me through it. Here's one for JB - up-front,full on un-ashamedly BANJO !!
Ivan :))

[journeybear]

What a beautiful instrument! I'm sure it has brought you much joy and enjoyment. My duo partner made an offhand comment the other day that the banjo is a persistently happy instrument, that it's darn near impossible to get a sad or bluesy sound out of it, and while I don't completely agree, my experience with a banjolin tends to bear this out. But I'm sure in the hands of a master any instrument can express about any human emotion.

I don't really hate the banjo, just like to have a little fun at its expense. Sort of an outlet for expressing the kind of humor that political correctness has killed, which used to be directed at certain demographic designations. ;)

BTW, the most expensive string instrument I've ever held and played is a banjo owned by Charlie Daniels, which happened to be in my luthier's during a visit in the mid 90s, valued at $50,000 at the time. Curious how a banjo could be worth that much, he let me play it, and let me tell you, that thing could ring!

[billkilpatrick]

banjos!?! ... what about "auricular" health?

played delicately or at a distance, they are beautiful instruments - but up close they make it seem that my ears are being stabbed by notes ... "like man, like ooo - piercing, too piercing."

[Ivan Kelsall]

JB - If you do a search on the I'net for jokes re.musical instruments,you'll find jokes about ALL of them - most are interchangeable. Regarding Banjos being 'persistently happy' instruments - it all depends on who's behind it at the time.
Pre-war Gibson Banjos aren't 'quite' in the price bracket that their Mandolins are,but $125,000 to
$180,000 US,should get you a half decent one. That's one of the main reasons why many of the top players leave their pre-wars at home & play Stellings,Hubers etc.
After 22 years,i still get a buzz out of playing that Banjo & i never learned so quickly as the time after i got it,same as Mandolin right now.
BTW - I know of Key West,but wasn't quite sure where in Florida it was - i just had a look,you're just of the coast of CUBA,:))
Ivan

[mandocrucian]

There's a difference between neurologic fitness and (psychological) mental health. While there is the neurobic (http://www.neurobics.com/exercise.html) benefits of playing an instrument, playing a "novelty instrument" can have detrimental effects in the latter (via The novelty instrument glass ceiling)

Morpheus: This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill - the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.

And Dr. Mao's first recommendation: 1. Use your non-dominant hand
actually is to extend things to include your non-dominant side, not just the hands. i.e. Use your other foot to tap out rhythms, or to kick the soccer ball. Get a set of lefty golf clubs. Snare drum rudiments (sets of basic sticking exercises can be practice with the hands, or with the feet, or a combination of hand and foot (i.e sme side RH/RF, LH/LF, or cross: RH/LF, LH/RF). Ditto for basic drum kit patterns (and then mirror image whatever snare/Kick/hats hand-foot function assignments).

(However, most folks will opt for the blue pill.)

NH

[journeybear]

Pre-war Gibson Banjos aren't 'quite' in the price bracket that their Mandolins are,but $125,000 to $180,000 US,should get you a half decent one. That's one of the main reasons why many of the top players leave their pre-wars at home & play Stellings,Hubers etc.

I think most people have a hard time believing that the basic design of a banjo doesn't lend itself to the rarefied level of craftsmanship that figures into the pricing of vintage instruments - me included. It still looks like a drum with a neck and strings. :confused: I don't understand what exactly it was that made Charlie Daniel's banjo worth 50 grand, but it sounded great. It's like the old saw about the lavish sums spent producing movies - you want to be able to see it on the screen. This was the auditory equivalent of that. Seeing, or in this case, hearing was believing.


BTW - I know of Key West,but wasn't quite sure where in Florida it was - i just had a look,you're just of the coast of CUBA

As people here are fond of remarking, we're closer to Cuba than Miami - 90 miles versus 150 miles. Heck, it's 108 miles just to the mainland!


(However, most folks will opt for the blue pill.)


I'll take two. Get me back. Get me back!!! :))

[Randi Gormley]

Does that make left-handers naturally superior neurologically and physically? They are constantly using their non-dominant side just getting by.... I'm just askin' ....

[journeybear]

Does that make left-handers naturally superior neurologically and physically? They are constantly using their non-dominant side just getting by.... I'm just askin' ....

Ha! Nice try! Left-handed people are using their dominant side, it's just the one that right-handed people think is non-dominant. But since they are often forced to deal with objects and practices designed for righties, this process may lead to increased development along these lines. Hmmm ... that's what you meant, isn't it? OK ... :whistling:

I've known some left-handed musicians, and they are pretty amazing. I don't just mean Hendrix, but there's a folk singer named Kate McDonnell. As a kid she picked up a guitar and turned it around so she could play it, but never changed the strings around. So she plays melody with her thumb and bass lines with her index and middle fingers. :mandosmiley:

[mandocrucian]

Does that make left-handers naturally superior neurologically and physically? They are constantly using their non-dominant side just getting by....
There is a high percentage of lefties in the "all-time genius" category, far exceeding the percentage in the general population. DaVinci, (a born lefty) cultivated ambidexterity ...a balanced body = balanced mind. The more ambidexterous one is, the better the cross hemispherical neuorlogical wiring. If your mental matrix is well above the norm, your thought patterns will be faster and expanded. What do you want, the old phone party line or the internet?

LHers, culturally, are almost forced to become ambidextrous to a much greater degree, either through machinery designed for RH use, or "Jimmy, put that crayon in your 'right' hand!"

Kids with learning problems often have poor cross-lateral coordination, and having them do movement exercises addressing that tends to improve their mental functioning. Read Smart Moves: Why Learning Is Not All In Your Head by Carla Hannaford (http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Moves-Learning-Your-Head/dp/0915556375)

NH

[journeybear]

If you've been following this thread, you might be interested in a show on PBS tonight called 'The Music Instinct: Science and Song' - How and why music penetrates the brain and the emotions. Check your local listings! I usually use http://www.zap2it.com (http://tvlistings.zap2it.com/tvlistings/ZCGrid.do)