So, how many of you are musicians?

[AMKersh]

Hey everyone!

 

This might seem like a random question, but from my own experience I have found that many people who are interested in speech and language are also somehow involved in music (vocal and/or instrumental).  They are certainly related in a number of different ways!  Practically speaking, both of them involve very specific attention to details of sound production and perception, both involve a somewhat arbitrary, rule-governed system with different types of conventions across styles/cultures, and I always felt there was a similarity between phonetic and musical transcription!

 

This is definitely a research area that I'm very interested in, so I figured I'd start here and see how many of you were musically involved!    I play mainly fiddle/violin, but also some cello, mandolin, guitar, piano.  And I'm ALWAYS singing.  I come from a very musical immediate family as well - we are all multi-instrumentalists.

 

Also, additional question - how many of you are bilingual?

 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Edited March 27, 2014 by AMKersh

[caterpillar]

Yes to both, for my husband. Spanish bilingual. He plays guitar, piano, drums, (electric) bass... He was in several rock bands in high school and into his early 20s, so he played whatever needed to be played.

[tchris]

I'm bilingual but have absolutely no musical talent 

[LuxAurorae]

I play piano and I love, love, LOVE to sing! I've been playing for a long time, have performed at a number of places (for classical) though now I don't play that often. I tried to learn the guitar for a little and then stopped. Sometimes I'll get together with one of my friends who is also musically inclined and we'll record songs. My mom also plays an instrument...she plays one of those traditional Chinese instruments and she used to win competitions and stuff.

 

I'm sort of bilingual. Haha. My vocabulary is really lacking, and I'm definitely not as good as I was before, but I used to think in Chinese as a child. Throw me back in my home city/country for a month and I should be able to regain fluency to the level of an almost native in the language

 

I think it would be soo much fun to incorporate music into therapy xD. Have you heard of MIT (Melodic Intonation Therapy)? It's used for aphasia patients and makes use of the still intact right hemisphere (prosody). 

 

I'd imagine that beyond just very basic tones and general rhythm, it might be hard to use music with someone with less of a music background because they wouldn't be able to distinguish across as many different tones. I wonder if such studies would be more effective on those with musical training or greater musical exposure.

[AMKersh]

I play piano and I love, love, LOVE to sing! I've been playing for a long time, have performed at a number of places (for classical) though now I don't play that often. I tried to learn the guitar for a little and then stopped. Sometimes I'll get together with one of my friends who is also musically inclined and we'll record songs. My mom also plays an instrument...she plays one of those traditional Chinese instruments and she used to win competitions and stuff.

 

I'm sort of bilingual. Haha. My vocabulary is really lacking, and I'm definitely not as good as I was before, but I used to think in Chinese as a child. Throw me back in my home city/country for a month and I should be able to regain fluency to the level of an almost native in the language

 

I think it would be soo much fun to incorporate music into therapy xD. Have you heard of MIT (Melodic Intonation Therapy)? It's used for aphasia patients and makes use of the still intact right hemisphere (prosody). 

 

I'd imagine that beyond just very basic tones and general rhythm, it might be hard to use music with someone with less of a music background because they wouldn't be able to distinguish across as many different tones. I wonder if such studies would be more effective on those with musical training or greater musical exposure.

 

I incorporated melodic intonation therapy into some of my application essays (based on certain professors at the schools that use it/are researching it)!  It's super interesting!

 

And yes, I do imagine that musical experience does play a major role in whether a music-baed treatment would be effective for therapy.  I imagine that rhythmic (as opposed to melodic) strategies might have a wider application in general.

 

Do you know the name of the instrument your mom plays?  Is it an erhu? Pipa?  (I love traditional Chinese music. )   Seriously, if I weren't set on become a SLP, I would definitely be pursuing a career in ethnomusicology!

 

Also, very interesting that you used to think in Chinese!  I tend to think in English, but I'm also fluent in Hebrew and proficient in Spanish.  Depends on the amount of exposure - if I'm in a Hebrew-speaking environment for a while, it definitely becomes more natural for me.

[sayjo]

I've played piano since I was 7 years old and flute since I was 12.  I played flute in my university's band, as well.  I've also briefly dabbled in clarinet, which I played in high school when my band teacher was short on clarinet players.  I'm not sure if any of my instruments have directly contributed to my interest in SLP, though...

[pomeranian]

In college I was a vocal performance major and my voice professor was the one who told me about SLP! 

[Sunny1234]

I'm super into music as well. I guess there is some similarity between music and SLP. I play guitar and piano, and played violin through middle and high school. I played in a band throughout highschool. I think my music background helped me a lot in my phonetics course, especially with everything about syllables, stress and breaking down sounds. I really want to learn about incorporating music into speech therapy. Not bilingual though!

[twinguy7]

I am tri-lingual(almost).  I am fluent in English and Portuguese and almost fluent in Spanish.  I learned Portuguese in Brazil after high school when I lived there for 2 years on a church mission and since have learned Spanish by conversing with people around me in Southern California.

[LuxAurorae]

You are all such an impressive bunch! I wish I could play multiple instruments and speak multiple languages!

 

My mom plays the Guzheng. (It's interesting how all Chinese words are translated phonetically based off of Mandarin..which is probably annoying for exclusively Cantonese speakers. My mom speaks Cantonese but my grandma used to speak Mandarin to me. When I first read that question, I immediately started thinking in Cantonese but had to translate to Mandarin. It's "goo-tzun" in Cantonese.)

 

I've always wanted to be fluent in at least 3 languages. I want to learn Korean and Spanish too but it's too hard without an actual class and lately, I've had no time I feel like I won't be able to actually do it until I'm done with grad school and out working. So many ambitions and so little time! 

 

I don't think I'm interested in SLP because of music, but I do think that I might like phonetics because I like music. And I do appreciate the foundation music has given me in distinguishing sounds of a new language. 

[AMKersh]

These responses are all so interesting!!  Thank you guys for responding!!

 

@LuxAurorae - I love the guzheng (/goo-tzun)! It's a really beautiful instrument.

 

 

Also - just to clarify for everyone - I wasn't necessarily implying that being interested in SLP is necessarily due to musical involvement, but rather that it might a natural choice for those who are particularly talented at or have specific training in paying attention to nuances of sound.  Basically, I'm more interested in the correlation than any sort or directional causation (though for some, there may be causation!)!

 

Hope this makes sense! 

[sarahsahara]

I play violin. I've played since I was six but I don't play it as often anymore. I really wish there was more time in the day! I also sing...in the shower. I minored in French. I don't know if I would consider myself fully bilingual but definitely proficient!

[Papaya91]

Great thread! I did one of my undergrad papers on prosody, and I read a lot of cool (though not entirely related) articles about music during my research.

To answer your questions - I played the piano as a kid (but stopped because I didn't like it). Now I play the harp.

I'm not bilingual, but I've been working on Japanese for a long time. I'm probably halfway to being fluent, but I'm not there yet.

[combustiblecake]

I'm multilingual (Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Italian) and I'm more of the music appreciation type (in all of these languages and almost any genre). Although the piano and the guitar have always interested me (haha... I can only play really loud güiro)...

Edited March 28, 2014 by waitwhichgaby

[nata25]

I took guitar lessons for five years and then was a guitar teacher myself for beginners and children! 

[emmmyd]

I got my undergrad in Musical Theatre and have been performing full time professionally (mostly musical threatre) since I graduated five years ago. I have always loved the human voice and thats what led me to working to become an SLP.  I am currently working on my post-bac and would love to hear from some of you who may know about grad schools that do a lot of work with voice/ voice disorders or the trans-gender community.  I really have interest in working with professional voice users, or possibly trans-gender voice feminization.  If anyone knows of programs that have any sort of focus in these areas I would love some leads on where to start looking for grad school.  

[Love the Sun]

Ooh, ooh!  *raises hand*  I played flute seriously and dabbled in lots of other instruments, including alto sax in the high school jazz band.  I started off college as a music ed major but then eventually settled on linguistics for my bachelors degree.  And now, here I am about to start a masters program to be an SLP!

[Love the Sun]

Also, I took Russian in college and my Russian professor could tell who the musicians were usually because they tended to sound more like native speakers.  She once told me I sounded native and should major in Russian, which was pretty much one of the biggest compliments I've ever been given!

[AMKersh]

Super interesting answers!!

 

@emmmyd - My sister is currently a musical theater major, and we've been talking about vocal health a lot lately!  I firmly believe it should be a part of any singer/actor's education, because their voices are such an investment.  Did you find that it was part of your education (i.e. a "musician's health" type of course, or unit within a course?

 

@Love the Sun - Love the username!  Yeah - music...education...linguistics...SLP.  It all lines up!!

 

 

For everyone - do you know of any good books regarding music and language connections?  Here are some that are on my list for sure!

 

Musicophilia - Dr. Oliver Saks

This is Your Brain on Music - Daniel Levitin

Music, Language, and the Brain - Anirrudh D. Patel

The Singing Neanderthals:  The Origins of Music, Language, Mind, and Body - Steven Mithen

 

Also, some SUPER cool music/language research is happening at these places:

 

http://www.musicianbrain.com/#index

http://musictherapy.imnf.org/

[slpslidingaway]

I started playing piano when I was 7 and singing in choir at around the same time. I'm also working on teaching myself to play the acoustic guitar. As far as languages go, I speak French as well and did my study abroad in France. I've actually found the musical background to be helpful in my courses! So interesting to read everyone's background. 

[Sammehh]

I'm a musician, too! I have played the flute since the 4th grade and picked up the alto saxophone when I was a senior in high school. In high school, I was in the Macy's Great American Marching Band twice, and got to march in the Macy's Thanksgiving parade! It was incredible. I was in the marching band for my first two years at Towson, and I also enjoyed playing at the basketball games with the pep band! I was hoping that we would get to go to the NCAA tournament this year, but we were upset in our conference tournament.

I also love to sing but I'm awful so I keep it to myself... I think it's awesome that so many of us are musically inclined!

Edited April 2, 2014 by Sammehh

[LifeJourney]

I play the Ocarina and Skinflute.

[PsycD]

English and French, the latter not as well as I thought as shown during my recent trip to Montreal.

Instruments: Oboe, Piccolo, Violin, Flute, Bassoon. LOVE music of all kinds.

Edited April 3, 2014 by PsycD

[emmmyd]

Super interesting answers!!

 

@emmmyd - My sister is currently a musical theater major, and we've been talking about vocal health a lot lately!  I firmly believe it should be a part of any singer/actor's education, because their voices are such an investment.  Did you find that it was part of your education (i.e. a "musician's health" type of course, or unit within a course?

 

 

It was always something that was talked about.  There was not a specific class but we did focus on some of the basic anatomy in a Voice for the Stage class.  My voice teachers were probably the most the most vocal (no pun intended) in talking about vocal health.  Most of the students, myself included, were pretty obsessive about vocal health.  That certainly continued on into my career and it is certainly one of the things that led me to wanting to be an SLP.   

[CaitlinAudrey]

I am a singer and I also have a degree in Portuguese. I can understand and read some Spanish, though I don't really speak it. I also studied French for about 6 years (though my abilities in that language are diminishing lol Pretty much everything I try to say in another language just comes out in Portuguese!)

 

I took voice lessons for a while and have done a handful of performances.