Today’s Fox Foundation Facebook post “notes” that music can provide powerful medicine for the mind, especially the mind of a Parkie. The post links back to an earlier Fox Foundation blog that “notes” the following:
“The emotional experience of hearing music can increase the release of dopamine — the brain chemical lacking in Parkinson’s disease. People with musical training have better memory, executive function (planning, problem solving, organizing, etc) and visuospatial perception (ability to determine the relationship of objects in space). While playing music, multiple different areas of the brain are activated and in the long run, this leads to an increase in the volume and activity of the corpus callosum — the bridge that allows communication between the two sides of the brain.”
With this “in mind,” I’ve decided one of my summer projects will be to regain my skills on the kayagum, a traditional stringed instrument from Korea. I want to get back to playing folk songs (see video from 2011, below) as well as the more difficult kayagum sanjo, a 20-minute classical standard that starts out slow, sad and meditative, and ends up furious, fast and exhilarating.
I studied the kayagum when I lived in Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. I resumed playing it about ten years ago, when I began my charter school’s Korean language and culture program. Whenever our children performed in public, I accompanied them for the traditional folk songs. However, it’s been a few years since I’ve done this with any degree of competence.
I foresee two technical challenges:
- My right hand, which is affected by Parkinson’s, needs to pluck and flick the strings precisely and accurately. Can it do so now that PD has set up shop?
- My left hand has a more demanding job with the classical sanjo: bending the strings, after the right hand plucks them, to produce all kinds of sound effects: vibrato, chirps, moans, cries, sharps and flats, slides and glides.
Please “note”: I’ll keep you “posted”!
In this video from 2011, my right hand is able to pluck the notes OK, and all my left hand has to do is provide vibrato. Where will I end up this August after I try to regain my ability to play folk songs and the more technically demanding kayagum sanjo?
