The Creative Drummer: An EEG-Based Pilot Study on the Correlates of Emotions and Creative Drum Playing
The Creative Drummer: An EEG-Based Pilot Study on the Correlates of Emotions and Creative Drum Playing
The Creative Drummer: An EEG-Based Pilot Study on the Correlates of Emotions and Creative Drum Playing
Article by Rafael Ramirez published in Brain Science magazine
While previous research had focused on examining the impact of music in certain moods (melancholic, sad, happy music...) on neuronal frequencies, this study focuses on measuring the impact of musical improvisation on the performer's emotions.
The study is the result of a collaboration between Rafael Ramírez (MTG) and Xavier Reija, a professional musician and teacher graduated from the Berklee College of Music in Boston. For more than six years, Reija had been exploring and working on the potential of music both with his students in class and with people with mental health problems in music therapy workshops. The collaborative work studied a sample of drummers performing different exercises, including mechanical rhythms and improvisation, while measuring brain activity through an electroencephalogram (EEG).
The results seem to indicate that positive emotion is associated with the creation of original ideas in drum playing and that the freer the creative process, the greater the positive effect. The implication of these results may be of particular relevance in the fields of music-based therapeutic interventions and music pedagogy.
Ramirez-Melendez, R.; Reija, X. The Creative Drummer: An EEG-Based Pilot Study on the Correlates of Emotions and Creative Drum Playing. Brain Sci.2023, 13, 88. https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13010088
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