Performing Music

Performing music is a horse of a different color, as my father used to say. It engages almost all areas of the brain simultaneously—especially the portions that process and decode visual, auditory, and motor activity. Brain scans have shown that performing music actively lights up almost the entire brain. Anita Collins, in a 2014 TED talk about music and the brain, compared playing an instrument to a full “brain-body workout.” Both complex and amazing, think of it as a party going on inside the brain—complete with exploding fireworks. In fact, music may be the only known medium that at once activates, stimulates, and engages the entire brain. If you are interested in this genre, you may enjoy the book that Michael R. Hudson and I co-authored: Music on the Brain.