Helding Course Prep 2022

Instructions from Lynn Helding for Block 3 Participants

Dear SVI Enrollees:

            I am so looking forward to speaking with you all about the application of cognitive science to the singing voice! We have been able to provide you with a *30% discount to apply toward the purchase of the book, The Musician's Mind: Teaching, Learning, and Performance in the Age of Brain Science by Lynn Helding (*please note: even though The Musician's Mind  is available on Amazon and select bookstores, this code-provided to you in your student handbook-will only work if you order it directly from the publisher, Rowman and Littlefield; this is the link).

* Update for Summer 2022: some people have reported a long wait time (2+ weeks) when ordering directly from the publisher; no such wait times have been reported via Amazon.    

Of course, while I encourage you to read the entire book, I have listed the chapters and subsections below and noted which ones are “required” for the course I will be teaching, which ones are “strongly encouraged” and which ones are “not required.”  Please note what each category means:

• “Required” = these topics will be central to the course.
• “Strongly encouraged” = these topics will be covered, or referred to, in this course.
• “Not required” = there will probably not be time to cover these topics in this course.

 

Introduction: A New Enchantment

Required: pages xix-xxv:

• A New Enchantment
• The Brain on Music
• The “Mozart Effect”
• Music and the Mind

 

Chapter 1: Science, Art and The Missing Mind

Required: All

• What Revolution?
• Mindless Behaviorism
• The New Science of Mind
• Music as a Weapon
• Science and Art
• P. Snow’s “Two Cultures”
• The “Third Culture”
• The Theory of Multiple Intelligences
• The Rescue of Emotion
• The Other Half of the Truth
• The Mind-Body Problem
• Neuroaesthetics
• Cautious Enchantment

 

Chapter 2: Groundwork: at the Foothills

Required: All

• Neuromyths and Brainscams
• In the Shadow of the “Mozart Effect”
• Tracking a Scientific Legend
• Exposure Is Not Learning
• The Left Brain | Right Brain Dichotomy
• Brain Personalities and Learning Styles
• Real Brain Gains
• What is the Use of Music?
• The Big One
• Know-That and Know-How
• How the Thing Works

 

Chapter 3: How Learning Works

Required: All

• Two Basic Modes of Information Processing
• Learning Defined
• The Triumvirate of Learning
• Step One: Attention
• Attention Aides: Emotion and Desire
• Attention Aides: Motivation and Rewards
• Attention Aide: Goal-Setting
• Attention Aide: Sleep
• Step Two: Learning
• Chunking
• Constructed Memories
• Step Three: Memory
• Neurogenesis and Neural Plasticity
• The Plastic Paradox
• Back to the Body

 

Chapter 4: Learned Movement: Motor Learning

Required: All

• The Question is How, Not What
• Motor Learning and Performance
• Differences Between Learning and Performance
• Performance Shifts: Upsides and Downsides
• Negative Performance Shifts and ‘Unlearning’
• The Path to Carnegie Hall
• Three Rule of Practice
• Motor Imagery: Thinking About Doing
• Controlled versus Automatic Processes: Learning/Have Learned
• Feedback
• Inherent Feedback
• Vision
• Singers’ Alternative Facts: Cognitive Dissonance
• Proprioception
• Augmented Feedback
• Concurrent Augmented Feedback
• Terminal Feedback
• Feedback Frequency
• Knowledge of Performance and Knowledge of Results
• Too Much Information?
• Hands Off
• The Theory of Attentional Focus
• Attentional Focus in Music
• Novice Learners and Internal Focus
• Challenges to “The Maxim” and “Just-do-it”
• Flexible Attention
• Planning for Disruptions: Training How to Think
• Training Embodied Cognition

 

Chapter 5: Performance Studies

Required (the underlined sections)

• Deliberate Practice
• Cognitive Demands of Deliberate Practice
• Emotional Demands of Deliberate Practice
• Grit
• Beyond Deliberate Practice
• Early Starts and Caring Mentors
• Tiger Moms and Helicopter Parents
• The Inverse Power of Praise
• Building Motivation
• Self-Esteem Theory
• Nature/Nurture
• The Talent Account: So What?
• Toxic Talent and Social Justice
• The Good Enough Musician

 

Chapter 6: Mind Games: Not required

 

Chapter 7: the Digital Brain

Not required, but strongly encouraged

• Digital Heaven
• Trouble in Paradise: The "Screen Invasion”
• Multitasking: “Dumbing Down the World”
• Interruption Science and Acquired ADD
• Zebras Don’t Multitask, Either
• Internet Addiction
• Who is Minding the Store?
• The Plastic Paradox and Digital Technology
• Who Cares if You Listen? The Problem of Audience Attention
• Dialing Down Empathy

 

Chapter 8: Emotion, Empathy and the Unification of Art and Science: Not required