The Mind, The Heart and The Hands – Where Does Music Come From?

Ever wondered where music really comes from when an individual plays it? Does it really come from the Heart, the Mind or the Hands (or mouth and other parts inside the neck, in case of vocals and horns)?

The Mind

It’s the mind, or we can say it’s the brain that’s some kind of central (upper central?) controller of everything a person does. Thoughts emerge in this “computing center”, and isn’t music the sum of a bunch of abstractly artistic, creative thoughts? But can the mind, this mobile super computer, create music by itself?

The Heart

As a symbol of emotional response, the heart is almost truly in the center of a human being. Unless, of course, we count the stomach or the genitals, both of which have very strong fanbases. At least when it comes to powerful control of all kinds of human actions. But let’s not go there. Anyway, the heart pumps the whole anemic body with energy, and at the same time, it reacts to emotions in a way that a person can feel the raise or drop of the beat… isn’t it already musical? And music is ideally (and hopefully) an expression of all those elevated emotions. But isn’t the heart just something that responds to music, instead of being the creator itself?

The Hands

With no hands, you need to invent odd ways to manipulate an instrument into producing a sound. And most of these ways are not for the faint-hearted. Maybe the hands, these cocky little fuckers, aren’t where music gets thought of, and they aren’t where the energy for their movement gets generated either. But after all said and done, the hands are the ones that do the job. They are directly in touch with the music (pun!). Other than that, this whole process is a (vicious?) circle, with no beginning and no end. Next week, we’ll discuss whether the chicken or the egg came first. No.