I'm a professional music theorist and musician, so here are my two cents:
Regarding the "Mozart Effect" - The results of that study have never been replicated, so it cannot really be regarded as a proven hypothesis at this point. That said, there is a connection between music and mathematics, but only in that they utilize overlapping areas of the brain. In other words, music is not math and math is not music. Presumably that applies to all three areas: music, math and chess.
Even though they utilize the many of the same areas of the brain, there are some excellent musicians who are severely deficient in math and I'm sure that there are excellent mathematicians who are severely deficient in music. Skill in one area is no guarantee of skill in another.
Regarding the question of whether listening to music while playing chess will be helpful, the "Mozart Effect" study cannot possibly address that question. The subjects in the study listened to different types of music BEFORE taking cognitive tests, not DURING the cognitive tests. They scored highest when the music they listened to was from the Classical era. I would guess that if any type of music was playing during the tests, the subjects would have done worse.
Speaking personally, when I listen to music that is all I can concentrate on. I couldn't play chess and listen at the same time - I just wouldn't be able to concentrate on the game...
Originally posted by Hanoverthanks a mil...
I'm a professional music theorist and musician, so here are my two cents:
Regarding the "Mozart Effect" - The results of that study have never been replicated, so it cannot really be regarded as a proven hypothesis at this point. That said, there is a connection between music and mathematics, but only in that they utilize overlapping areas of the brain. ...[text shortened]... hess and listen at the same time - I just wouldn't be able to concentrate on the game...
thats what i wanted...
if i understand you correctly, you are implying that listening to music could train the brain to think more in tha part of the brain, much like excersing new limbs as a newborn
Not exactly. If I recall the details correctly, in the "Mozart Effect" Study the subjects listened to three types of music (Classical, New Age and Heavy Metal, I think) for a short time before taking cognitive tests (about 20 minutes, I think). The subjects who listened to the Classical music tended to do better than the others.
Importantly, the "boost" was only temporary. So it seems as if the Classical listening stimulated those areas of the subject's brains that would be called upon a few minutes later in the tests. The fact that they had been stimulated prior to the test seems to be comparable to a runner "warming up" before a race - the warmup just gets everything ready to work really well. It didn't make them geniuses, it simply prepared their brains to work well.
Again, to my knowledge the results of the study have not been duplicated.
Originally posted by HanoverThe 'warm up' analogy is a good one, certainly.
Not exactly. If I recall the details correctly, in the "Mozart Effect" Study the subjects listened to three types of music (Classical, New Age and Heavy Metal, I think) for a short time before taking cognitive tests (about 20 minutes, I think). The subjects who listened to the Classical music tended to do better than the others.
Importantly, the "boost" ...[text shortened]... work well.
Again, to my knowledge the results of the study have not been duplicated.
My personal use of music for 'effect' has been as a study aid. Writing summaries for law exams always seemed more achievable if I was listening to my favourite recording of Haydn string quartets. I certainly wouldn't suggest that it would have been a good idea to have the cassette playing during the actual exam.
Personally I also found it important to have familiar music on. The radio would be useless for instance, because some part of my brain would too busy listening to find out what the next song would be. I always used recordings I knew intimately.
Which brings to me another comment about any 'effect'. As a person thoroughly obsessed with music, I suspect that in my case part of the role of recorded music is to remove other distractions. If I don't have recorded music playing, my brain tends to be playing or making up bits of music, so having a CD on actually frees up some thinking capacity that would otherwise be 'wasted' on replaying random bits of pieces of whatever music comes to mind.
End ramble.
Originally posted by rubberjaw30I'm a professional musician, classically-trained, but working in R&R. I can't concentrate with music playing; not even reading the paper. I have to have silence. However, the correlation between maths and music is well-known. Music is pattern-based, highly mathematical in its structure, and some forms of music (i.e. improvisational, jazz etc.) require very high rates of processing.
i may be entirely wrong, of course, as this is just an idea
I have heard that music and math are closely related in the manner that music can help a person's understanding of mathematical concepts
I also have heard (and strongly believe) that a firm understanding of math principles can improve a person's general understanding of chess principles
...[text shortened]... game?
im new to the forum, so if i left any holes in my question, please ask
rubberjaw
One of the other posters said something about 'baroque' music. (Not baroake - that would be lots of Japanese people, singing along to Bach! 🙂). Most baroque music is based on counterpoint, which is where several seemingly independent melody lines are woven together to produce a whole. One form of counterpoint, the 'fugue', is the most obviously mathematical form of music, and for me and many others, really makes your brain feel 'mathematical' when listening to it ... a combination of the predictability of the patterns set out in the themes, plus the texture of of the result.