Dragaera

A different Track

David Dyer-Bennet dd-b at dd-b.net
Tue Nov 26 15:01:21 PST 2002

Kat <tsarren at alyra.org> writes:

> I am fascinated with the myriad ways that people's brains process different
> types of data at the same time. For any who wish to share, a query:
> 
> 1. Are any of you musicians? I had a really weird moment at a Renaissance
> faire last spring - I was listening to a pipe & drum band play a lively tune
> along with a non-musician partner; after a handful of measures he turned to
> me and said, "is the snare in any way at all related to what the bagpipes
> are playing?" I was astounded; the snares were playing a rich counter-rythm
> and apparrently he couldn't hear the relationship *at all*; the quantity of
> the difference in cognition was suprising. I am curious to know if being /
> not being a musician affects the types of music that work or don't work with
> your multi-tasking in any predictable way.

Interesting in connection to work music.  

I've seen a tendency for musicians to have broader tastes in music
than their listeners, at least.  And for musicians to have less
critical tastes in stereo equipment than non-musicians (I *think* I've
corrected for the traditional poverty of musicians here, but I could
be wrong).

It makes sense that a muscian might be more likely to be fully engaged
by the music, hence find it clashes with other things.

> > From: Nytemuse [mailto:nytemuse at auros.org] 
> > > I don't necessarily agree.  My b/f had the hardest time understanding why
> > > I couldn't get any work done on the computer or doing homework or
> > > something without the TV on or music or chatting with someone.
> 
> Are you actually processing the TV/music at the same time you're doing work?
> or is it white noise in this case?
> 
> I also have a situation in which I need extra input of a different type -
> lecture. Processing a spoken monologue for any length of time over about 5
> minutes will drive me up the wall and send me deep into my own thoughts in
> search of more stimulation and input, unless a) the person has a great enough
> density of information in their speech such that I'm devoting all of my
> effort to it, or b) I either draw stuff or play a minesweeper-type game. I
> just wish I'd figured this out in high school instead of my last year of
> college... doodling was always frowned upon because it meant you weren't
> "paying attention", so for awhile I kept telling myself I wasn't supposed to
> be doing it.
> 
> If anyone else has extra-input needs, I'd be interested in hearing them.

I survived some audio-cassette courses at one point by playing them at
double-speed on an old cassette recorder (thus playing them at twice
the original frequency, too).  The distortion of the speech added
enough cognitive work that I didn't get bored having to go through
them at only *double* the usual data rate. 
-- 
David Dyer-Bennet, dd-b at dd-b.net  /  http://www.dd-b.net/dd-b/
 John Dyer-Bennet 1915-2002 Memorial Site http://john.dyer-bennet.net
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