The idea that musicians might be somehow more attuned to the emotions of others really isn't all that surprising. Ever have that feeling where a piece of music strikes you in a way you can't articulate but can certainly feel? So you know that a musician can, at times at least, reach you on an emotional level.
It seems unlikely that that sort of communication would just go one way. A good musician will often say he or she can "feel the room" - and a great performance usually happens when the musician is riding the wave of what he or she is feeling from the audience. I wonder if a poor musician "feels the room" too, but just doesn't understand what to do with that emotional energy?
This sort of study usually makes people wonder whether musical training can have other-than-musical benefits. I'm not sure it'll make your kid a math genius if you force him/her to play the piano, but I'd be willing to bet there are benefits in things like concentration, discipline, and eventually, yes, an ability to recognize patterns and ratios. But what I wonder about is whether this study would show different results for people who speak so-called "pitched" languages, like Chinese. If the same word can mean drastically different things depending on how it's "sung" - even if that just means low, middle, or high voice - then I'd expect native speakers of those languages to have a pretty clear idea of the emotional content of speech.
Tell us: Musicians, do you feel you're more sharply attuned to emotions because of your training?
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John Schaefer has hosted Soundcheck since the show’s inception in 2002. He has also hosted and produced WNYC’s radio series New Sounds since 1982 (“The No. 1 radio show for the Global Village” – Billboard) and the New Sounds Live concert series since 1986.
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