Jazz touches the most different sides human life: from the deep emotional feelings of an individual listener to a culture of thinking on a large scale. As one of the brightest directions in art jazz music for many decades has inspired people to numerous historical musical studies, to progressive methods in composing jazz improvisations, to educational activities, and this is where the great influence of jazz lies.

Taking into account the fact that, according to the most common description of the concept of “culture of thinking”, it is a kind of synthesis of acquired and improved qualities of a person, we will single out the most important of them and trace the relationship between the influence of jazz on their development.

Influence of jazz scientifically

According to the doctor Robert J. Zatorre from the Montreal Neurological Institute, jazz is a natural and comfortable part of everyday human activity, but at the same time, one of the most complex and demanding deep analysis music for the brain.

In other words, thanks to the complex movements in jazz, especially such as avant-garde, mainstream, bebop, hard bop, our brain works several times more actively in order to understand changes in musical harmony, instrumental solo improvisations. Along with the above, these jazz styles require excellent speed of reaction and constant performance control, and as a result, the neural connections of the brain improve, which is researched in their scientific papers Dr. Robert Zatorr:

We consider the musical influence on the cognitive property of the brain and auditory areas, with particular attention to the study of the interactions between these systems in a musical context.

Candidate of Cultural Sciences Konstantin Ushakov created a whole dissertation, in which a significant part is devoted to the direct influence and evolution of jazz itself and, accordingly, the change in the cultural thinking of people.

The scientist describes in detail and talks about jazz from the time of its formation to its current state, at the same time analyzing each turning point. historical moment. Jazz in its influence is able to combine several accents at once, improving mental capacity human: learning ability, speed of reaction, innovative approach and development of logical thinking.

The problem-logical method was chosen as the methodological basis of the study. It allowed us to consider the features of jazz as a cultural phenomenon, to identify the elements that characterize it. musical language and aesthetics, explore the patterns, mechanisms of jazz dynamics and the direction of its evolution, determine the features of the transformation of jazz in Russia and explore the possibility of updating the national musical culture, through jazz innovation.

Perhaps one of the great "achievements" of jazz is what a powerful spiritual power it has! Jazz revolutionized racial segregation, reconciling people of different races and colors and uniting them without belittling the merits of both sides. Rooted in its origins, jazz music owes its existence to black people, whose talents helped to create this direction, and creative power was able to overcome most human weaknesses and passions.

So, we realize that in addition to everything else, jazz helps people get rid of their moral shortcomings, which in turn leads to the next step. personal development- calmness. Many things can be meant by this concept, but it is worth highlighting factors such as moral stability and a predominantly positive attitude.

Of course, not all people who listen to jazz music are calm and balanced. However, the mental endurance of such individuals is much higher than that of those who prefer, for example, heavy music.

This explains a large part of the people listening to jazz complex professions that require increased concentration: surgeons, directors of large corporations and enterprises, researchers. In conclusion, I would like to note that jazz music in general has a positive effect on many factors of the human psyche and culture of thinking, but from an artistic point of view, this direction inspires most listeners to expand their preferences, which also leads to the development of good taste.

Brain on Jazz

Brain on Jazz

When jazz musicians improvise, areas of the brain responsible for self-censorship and inhibition of nerve impulses are turned off, and instead areas that open the way for self-expression are turned on.

A companion study conducted at Johns Hopkins University, involving volunteer musicians from the Peabody Institute and using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), shed light on the mechanism of creative improvisation that artists use in their daily lives.

Jazz musicians create their own unique riffs by improvising by turning off inhibition and turning on creativity.

Scientists from the Medical University, National Institute of Deafness speak of their interest in the possible neurological basis of the trance-like state that jazzmen fall into when starting spontaneous improvisations.

“When jazz musicians improvise, they often play with eyes closed in his characteristic style demonstrating the traditional rules of melody and rhythm,” says Charles J. Limb, Professor of Medicine, Assistant Professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at Johns Hopkins Medical School, who is also an accomplished jazz saxophonist himself.

“This is a special mood of the soul,” he adds, “when suddenly, suddenly, a musician creates music that he has never heard, never thought about and never played anything like before. What comes out is completely spontaneous.”

Many studies recent years concentrated on trying to understand what parts of the human brain are activated when listening to music, and, according to Limb, too little attention was paid to studying the activity of the brain in the process of spontaneous music composition.

Wanting to understand what was happening to his own brain when he was in a jazzy state, he and colleague Allen R. Braun, a professor of medicine, developed a plan to monitor brain function during real-time musical improvisation.

To participate in this study, they invited six experienced jazz pianists, three of them from the Peabody Institute, a music conservatory where Limb is also a professor. Other volunteers became aware of this study through word of mouth in the local jazz community.

The researchers developed a special keyboard that pianists could play inside the functional magnetic resonance imaging apparatus; a brain scanner that highlights areas of the brain that respond to various stimuli, such as identifying which areas are active when a person is engaged in some kind of mental activity.

Since the functional magnetic resonance imaging machine uses powerful magnets, the scientists developed a custom keyboard that does not contain metal parts that could be attracted by a magnet. They also used headphones compatible with this unit, which allowed musicians to hear the music they created while playing.

Each musician participated in four different exercises designed to distinguish brain activity while playing from simple memory. piano pieces and brain activity observed during improvisation.

Sitting inside the fMRI instrument with the keyboard in their laps, all pianists began playing on the C major scale, the well-remembered series of notes that every aspiring musician learns. The metronome built into the headphones was designed to ensure that all musicians play the same scale - in the same order, at the same time intervals.

To perform the second exercise, the pianists had to improvise. They had to play the quarter notes of the scale, but they could play them in any order they wanted.

Further, the musicians had to play in the original blues melody, which they had learned in advance, while a jazz quartet played in the background to complement the melody. In the last exercise, the musicians had to improvise with their own melodies using the same jazz quartet recording.

Limb and Brown then analyzed the recordings taken from the brain by a scanner. Since the areas of the brain that are activated during memory playing are the parts of the brain that are normally active during any kind of piano playing, the researchers excluded them from the brain picture obtained during improvisation.

Working further with only brain regions specific to the process of improvisation, the scientists saw strikingly similar patterns, whether the musicians performed a simple improvisation with the C major scale or performed a more complex melody, improvising with a jazz quartet.

The scientists found that a part of the brain known as the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex - a broad frontal area of ​​the brain that expands from the center to the periphery - showed a slowdown in brain activity during improvisation. This area has been found to be responsible for planned actions and self-censorship, such as careful choice of words in an interview.

Disabling this area can lead to a decrease in braking processes, Limb concludes. The scientists also found an increase in activity in the middle prefrontal cortex of the brain, i.e. in the center of the frontal frontal part of the brain. This area is responsible for self-expression, activity that expresses individuality, such as telling a sincere story about yourself.

“Jazz is often described as an extremely individualistic art form. You can easily define the game jazz musician, because every jazzman's improvisation sounds like his own music,” says Limb. “As we see it now, when you ‘tell’ your own musical history, what happens is that you shut down impulses that can stifle the flow of creative thought.”

Limb notes that this type of brain activity can take place in other types of improvisation that are an integral part of life and artists, and ordinary people. For example, he notes, people constantly improvise, choosing words in conversation, as they improvise with the solution of unexpected problems. “Without this type of creativity, man would not be able to develop as a species. It's an integral part of who we are,” says Limb.

All people, almost without exception, love to listen to music. The younger ones always wear headphones in the subway, the older ones rarely turn off the radio in the car. Both those and others are guided by personal tastes, habits and psychological state at the time of listening to music. But few people are fully aware of how rhythms and melodies affect the psychological, moral state.

After all, music can have both a relaxing, calming effect, and vice versa - give strength and vigor, energize. Almost any musical composition– from modern relatively “simple” melodies to classical works influences the mind of the listener.

Researchers and specialists are more precise, while ordinary amateurs in lesser degree, divide music into styles and directions. It is difficult, almost impossible, to calculate and determine all of them. But some common features in different types of music are seen, or rather, heard by everyone. Is it possible to try to analyze the impact different music on the human psyche? AT in general terms- Yes. If you do not take subtleties like different styles contemporary performers and groups that within the same direction are trying to look original, without changing anything in essence. In order to draw boundaries, four directions can be distinguished, which are most different from each other. These are rock, pop, jazz and classical.

What is rock, and why do many people have a negative attitude towards it?

Several decades ago, there was an opinion among psychologists that rock music had a negative effect on the psyche because of its distinctive features: ostentatious aggressiveness or, conversely, gloomy melancholy. It was believed that rock contributes to the depressive tendencies of adolescents, interferes with their socialization and alienates them from the outside world. However, as often happens, researchers have confused cause and effect.

Today it is generally accepted that destructive behavior cannot be caused by music. Rather, rock music is an indicator of life's problems, which in young age are overly emotional. Such a teenager is not drawn to cheerful rhythms, preferring more "heavy" music. Often, by the way, finding consolation in it or even solving some of the psycho-emotional problems with its help.

That is, problems in the relationship of a teenager with parents or peers, lack of adequate attention from parents or conflicts with classmates, all this can cause a lock in oneself. And as a result, a demonstration of such an attitude to life will be a tendency to aggressive or depressive rock music. She can both answer him psychological state, and, conversely, to give strength, energy, excite and "start".

How does popular music affect the psyche?

Traditionally, pop music is called works, the main attraction of which for the listener is simplicity: both melody and lyrics. Sometimes melodies are called affectionate. This is due to the fact that the authors specifically write pop music in such a way that words and rhythms are remembered as easily as possible. This suggests that pop music does not have a sharply exciting effect on the psyche, but promotes relaxation and distraction from "complex" thoughts. Here lies the peculiarity of the influence of popular music on the psyche.

And we are not even talking about the fact that pop music is "stupid". In any case, it cannot be that important reason why a person can stop or limit his intellectual development. It may rather be that the theme traditionally exploited in pop music is a romantic relationship.

People who lack such emotions in their lives tend to compensate for their lack with the help of pop music. And since the main audience of songs about “carrot love” is teenage girls, the authors of such works do not set themselves the task of waking the listener too much. powerful emotions or contribute to his spiritual growth.

Why does jazz stand apart?

Jazz is one of the most unique and distinctive styles in the history of music. There are a number of reasons for this. Firstly, it is listened to by those who have a fairly large "baggage" of listened to music of various styles. Often such people themselves are not alien to music or vocals. Therefore, no negative impact Jazz cannot affect the listener's psyche. We can say that he is listened to by those trained in musical sense fans and listen purposefully. Therefore, jazz can both relax and invigorate the listener, depending on what exactly the jazz lover wants to achieve with music.

As mentioned above, often listeners of jazz concerts or recordings themselves are related to music. Therefore, sometimes listening to improvisations with musical instruments(and jazz performance is much more often associated with improvisation than other styles) the listener puts himself in the shoes of a musician, experiencing a completely different pleasure than when listening to rock or pop music.

What is good about classical music?

According to many psychologists, the classics have the most "useful" influence on the psyche. It has a beneficial effect on the emotional background, feelings and sensations. With some habit, classical music even helps to eliminate depression and stress. This version is also supported by the fact that obstetricians often recommend V.A. Mozart to young children or even pregnant women.

How does the music we listen to affect us?

The question of how music affects us in general has been of interest to scientists for a long time. Everyone knows, for example, that quiet and melodious music has a calming and relaxing effect on a person, while loud music, on the contrary, excites. But this is in general. And how does a particular style of music affect the human psyche?

How does classical music influence?

It is believed that classical music has the most beneficial effect on the human body and its psycho-emotional state than any other. The works of Mozart are considered the most "healing" music: in some clinics, they even conduct special courses of treatment for various diseases. Classical music has a calming effect on a person. It develops the ability to visualize, giving rise to visual images in the imagination of the person listening to it.

According to research, most often classical music as a favorite genre is chosen by people who feel an urgent need for stability. Such people are prudent and distrustful, constant in their habits, tend to withdraw into themselves.

How does pop music influence?

Perhaps this is the only style of music that does not affect a person in any way. Such music is most often included in order to create a background. What is not surprising - the sense in contemporary texts pop songs are often so few that re-reading the "kolobok" will bring much more benefit, and the music used is a cheerful, unobtrusive motive that does not distract a person from his thoughts and is not stored in memory for a long time.

Most often, lovers of such music are people who are used to taking life lightly. They do not like serious relationships, they strive for freedom and independence. Most of events in their lives is just a backdrop for something more important, like their favorite music.

How does rap and hip-hop music influence us?

According to research by American sociologists, rap is the favorite musical style the majority of juvenile offenders, and 72% of those surveyed in this category admit that music affects their feelings. However, only 4% of them admitted that their illegal behavior was related to listening to rap. At the same time, if aggressive and depressive rap works are excluded from listening, positive rap is able to cheer up, cause to communicate with other people, push for action (in the positive sphere).

The tendency to rap is most characteristic of people in adolescence. Aggressive tracks are perceived by teenagers as a symbol of rebellion, opposing themselves to the world around them. Positive - help to get rid of apathy, bad mood. Very often, people who cannot find a way to express themselves become fans of rap and hip-hop.

How rock music affects

The most common today is the opinion that heavy music has an extremely negative effect on the human psyche. According to this view, over time, rock fans become irritable and memory deteriorates, moral barriers are destroyed and a tendency to violence appears.

The other point of view is completely opposite. According to its adherents, heavy music, on the contrary, has a positive effect on people, especially teenagers, helps to cope with tension and pressure. According to studies conducted among teenagers, most high achievers prefer rock, and this refutes the theory of memory impairment.

Preference for heavy music is often given by people with inner world, in communication. They are quite ambitious, sometimes even inclined to show aggression, but at the same time they value sincere relationships with people and do not hesitate to show their feelings.

How Jazz, Blues and Reggae Music Influences

The music of these styles, like no other, can help a person. Its action is akin to the classics - it allows a person to "drown" in a melody, to give relax brain.

Fans of these areas of music are creative, self-respecting and self-confident, sociable, relaxed, loving social activities. Doing what they love in the company of like-minded people, they tend to fall.

However, scientists have found that all the positive properties of music come to naught if a person does not like this music. As experiments, lovers of this or that musical genre it was proposed to listen to the music for a long time, which, it would seem, should have a positive effect. Thus, rock lovers were asked to listen to jazz, rap lovers to classical music, and so on. It turned out that the subjects appeared, the pressure rose, sometimes there was even a feeling of suffocation.

There is only one conclusion - listen to the music that you love, and you will always be in a great mood!

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