The Relationship Between the Central Nervous System and Playing an Instrument

Beyond its aesthetic and artistic values, the complex nature of piano performance involves a demanding combination of mental and physical activities. The mind reads notes written on two different staves in two different clefs, understands and absorbs the musical idea, and carries it out by directing the whole body, especially the parts involved in playing, from the shoulders to the fingertips, in the correct way. The feet also operate the pedals, and this activity is often performed from memory, in front of others and under stressful conditions.

This complex process has a developmental effect on certain areas of the human brain, and scientific studies on it have been conducted by teams consisting mainly of neurologists and other scientists. One recent study produced striking findings: Krista Hyde and her team used neurological imaging techniques to show changes in the mental development of children who had received just 15 months of instrumental instruction. Revisiting a subject studied many times before, they used newly developed imaging techniques to demonstrate a substantial increase in the children’s mental capacities and visual evidence of physical changes. An activity as complex as piano playing is goal-directed and relies on automatic processes. The musical goal initially set out in the written score is realised through motor skills coordinated by the mind and made automatic or reflexive through long periods of practice. While playing the piano, there should be no disconnect between the brain and the fingers as a musical phrase is conveyed to them. The transmission of commands from the brain through the nerves to the muscles requires individuals to understand their own physiology.

Instrumental training is primarily the process of turning psychomotor behaviours arising from the cooperation of brain and muscles into skills, supported by cognitive, affective and movement-related behaviours. For psychomotor behaviours to become skills, they must be performed in coordination, at an appropriate speed and automatically. This depends on having a sound piano technique. Technique is essential to making music.

There are two important stages in acquiring piano technique:

1. Becoming aware of how the fingers, arms and hands move.

2. Learning how the muscles and nerves control this system.

For technical ease:

1. Muscles that are not needed should not be used.

2. The required muscles should be allowed to do their own work.

Although effective use of the motor systems needed for piano performance relies on long practice and continual repetition, it depends even more decisively on the ability to realise musical thoughts quickly. A nervous system that cannot process musical elements quickly will also be unable to activate the motor systems at the same speed and will fall behind. Technical shortcomings can have many causes, but the underlying problem is that the central nervous system has not been trained well enough or brought to an adequate level of efficiency.

Finally: “A performer’s fingers cannot move faster than the thoughts that direct them across the keyboard. The speed of performance is therefore proportional to how fully the written music is understood mentally and how well the fingers are coordinated by the mind.”

Gülden Şair
Rekor Sanat – Piano Teacher