April 16, 2012 at 4:31 PM
Apparently there is a specific place in the brain, a group of a few thousand cells that pulsate and are responsible for our feeling of time, so that we have an inner sense of time regardless from what is happening outside us. In specific situations however – dangerous situations for instance – the brain is capable of “slowing down” time so that it manages to process more images than usually, so that we see more detail and so that we have “more time” to make a decision, react and avoid danger.Whereas this is very practical in daily life, it is not so practical when playing music. Fooling around with time is still handy however when playing for instance fast passages, as by slowing down time one can prepare much better and yet in reality play at a high speed. But the concept of a piece as a whole might get disturbed. When playing through it becomes very hard to base anything you do in the present and your decisions for future actions on an unambiguous knowledge of the past.
So the solution seems obvious: practice with a metronome! I always thought that a metronome is to be used by people who have an underdeveloped sense of time, whereas it seemed that I had an “overly developed” sense of time, being able to master my inner chronometer and all that. But the truth is, I have only used that inner chronometer to fool myself. So: metronome!
What does this all have to do with Michio Kaku? Not much... I watched a documentary “Day Time” on YouTube and that’s where the idea of the pulsating cells in the brain came from, that’s all. If you want to check it out, it’s quite enjoyable.
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