Neural Advantages of Older Musicians Involve the Cerebellum: Implications for Healthy Aging Through Lifelong Musical Instrument Training

This study compared 30 older musicians and 30 age-matched non-musicians to investigate the association between lifelong musical instrument training and age-related cognitive decline and brain atrophy (musicians: mean age 70.8 years, musical experience 52.7 years; non-musicians: mean age 71.4 years, no or less than 3 years of musical experience). Although previous research has demonstrated that young musicians have larger gray matter volume (GMV) in the auditory-motor cortices and cerebellum than non-musicians, little is known about older musicians. Music imagery in young musicians is also known to share a neural underpinning [the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and cerebellum] with music performance. Thus, we hypothesized that older musicians would show superiority to non-musicians in some of the abovementioned brain regions. Behavioral performance, GMV, and brain activity, including functional connectivity (FC) during melodic working memory (MWM) tasks, were evaluated in both groups. Behaviorally, musicians exhibited a much higher tapping speed than non-musicians, and tapping speed was correlated with executive function in musicians. Structural analyses revealed larger GMVs in both sides of the cerebellum of musicians, and importantly, this was maintained until very old age. Task-related FC analyses revealed that musicians possessed greater cerebellar-hippocampal FC, which was correlated with tapping speed. Furthermore, musicians showed higher activation in the SMG during MWM tasks; this was correlated with earlier commencement of instrumental training. These results indicate advantages or heightened coupling in brain regions associated with music performance and imagery in musicians. We suggest that lifelong instrumental training highly predicts the structural maintenance of the cerebellum and related cognitive maintenance in old age.

CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF SELF-EXPRESSION DURING PREPARATION FUTURE TEACHERS OF MUSICAL ART

The article discusses the issues of self-expression of future teachers of musical art in the process of their preparation for further professional activity. It was determined that self-expression is associated with cultural awareness and creativity of future music teachers. The paper analyzes different approaches to determining the characteristics of self-expression in the future musical and pedagogical activity of applicants. On the basis of scientific achievements, the structural components of self-expression of future teachers of musical art have been determined. This structure includes a motivational-axiological component (stability of motives of creative self-realization; readiness for successful creative self-expression in the process of performing and instrumental training); cognitive-search component (demonstrates the effectiveness and consistency of musical and instrumental knowledge); communicative and interpretive (students have the ability to interact with the audience and with their results of creative musical and instrumental self-expression, the ability to express themselves, to carry out creative self-disclosure and self-presentation in the process of performing and instrumental training); reflective-productive component (the ability of future teachers of musical art to realize their intentions for artistic self-expression in the process of performing and instrumental training, their creative qualities, as well as their importance for professional development, self-perception skills when performing creative musical and instrumental activities). The experience of self-expression of music teachers in different regions is analyzed. Attention is focused on the possibilities of digital means of communication in the process of self-expression in different conditions.

Development of the professional culture of a music teacher among foreign students in the process of musical and instrumental training at a Russian pedagogical university

We examine some of the problems of the process of developing the professional culture of a music teacher among foreign students from the Chinese People’s Republic in accordance with modern trends in Russian pedagogy of music education; the concept of “culture of piano performance-intonation” is revealed as a necessary component of the professional culture of a music teacher. The goal is to substantiate the need to study the features of the development of professional culture among Chinese students, future music teachers, in the process of musical and instrumental training at a Russian pedagogical university. In the course of the research, the concept of “professional culture of a music teacher” is clarified; the features of the development of the professional culture of a music teacher, and, in particular, the culture of piano performance-intonation among Chinese students, as its separate component, are investigated; the conditions for the upbringing of the culture of piano performance and intonation among foreign students in the process of musical and instrumental training in a Russian pedagogical university are determined. The research methodology is based on the systematization of scientific and pedagogical knowledge in the field of musicology, pedagogy and psychology of music education, as well as the results of experimental work carried out over the past three years on the basis of the “Special Piano” Department of the Tambov State Musical Pedagogical Institute named after S.V. Rachmaninov and the Music and Methods of Teaching Music Department of Penza State University.

Sketching music: Exploring melodic similarity and contrast using a digital tabletop

In this article, we investigate the effectiveness of a purposely built Digital Tabletop Musical Instruments (DTMI) in helping novices and casual users to explore music composition. Our participants explored how melodic similarity and contrast can convey narrative through musical structure in sessions involving one participant and one tutor to guide the session. We structured the sessions as a combination of open-ended discussions and increasingly open-ended music-making exercises, culminating in the main task: Invent a short story and compose a melody to describe it. We found that the combination of a structured tutor-led activity and an approachable technology allowed our participants to explore the relationship between their ideas of similarity and contrast, the ways these concepts are manifested in melody, and the ways they can help describe a narrative. The hands-on activities provided adequate scaffolding for discussing the concepts and contextualizing them within music. Lastly, by not requiring any formal musical or instrumental training, the DTMI allowed the participants to make music while discussing similarity and contrast in a comfortable and continuous way.

Instrumental expertise and musical timbre modulate the spatial representation of pitch

Humans show a tendency to represent pitch in a spatial format. A classical finding supporting this spatial representation is the Spatial–Musical Association of Response Codes (SMARC) effect, reflecting faster responses to low tones when pressing a left/bottom-side key and to high tones when pressing a right/top-side key. Despite available evidence suggesting that the horizontal and vertical SMARC effect may be differently modulated by instrumental expertise and musical timbre, no study has so far directly explored this hypothesis in a unified framework. Here, we investigated this possibility by comparing the performance of professional pianists, professional clarinettists and non-musicians in an implicit timbre judgement task, in both horizontal and vertical response settings. Results showed that instrumental expertise significantly modulates the SMARC effect: whereas in the vertical plane a comparable SMARC effect was observed in all groups, in the horizontal plane the SMARC effect was significantly modulated by the specific instrumental expertise, with pianists showing a stronger pitch–space association compared to clarinettists and non-musicians. Moreover, the influence of pitch along the horizontal dimension was stronger in those pianists who started the instrumental training at a younger age. Results also showed an influence of musical timbre in driving the horizontal, but not the vertical, SMARC effect, with only piano notes inducing a pitch–space association. Taken together, these findings suggest that sensorimotor experience due to instrumental training and musical timbre affect the mental representation of pitch on the horizontal space, whereas the one on the vertical space would be mainly independent from musical practice.

Musical local lore as a resource for patriotic education in the professional instrumental training class

We consider the aspect of students’ patriotic education in the professional instrumental training class on the basis of a selection of the most relevant for the pedagogical process meaning of the concept “patriotism” and the use of information from the field of musical local lore. The need to include in the pedagogical process intellectual conversations on patriotism as a subject of philosophy, political science is justified by a brief analysis of the existence in the Russian cultural environment of a popular quote from the heritage of S. Johnson. The concept of “patriotism” is comprehended in accordance with the definition of the German philosopher M. Merton, as well as in accordance with the works of I. Vernadsky, B. Chicherin and others. The main thesis being proved is that patriotism is not only a goal, but also a mean of education. The declared pedagogical position is based on the experience of patriotic education in domestic pedagogy, presented by the works of K.D. Ushinsky, V.P. Vakhterov, N.A. Korf, N.I. Pirogov, L.N. Tolstoy, P.P. Blonsky, P.F. Kapterev and others. Intellectualization in the “teacher-student” dialogue space is used as the main technique for the implementation of patriotic education. A selection of works recommended for inclusion in the repertoire of an instrumental musician is presented. The theoretical attitude is confirmed by examples of musicians’ works, whose names are cultural symbols of the Tambov Region: A.N. Verstovsky, S.V. Rachmaninov, F.I. Chaliapin, V.I. Agapkin, I.A. Shatrov. Particular emphasis is placed on the theme of the Great Patriotic War in the work of the modern Tambov composer – O.I. Egorova.