Here is a good history of music that is created from human EEG data. I've written previously about a recent competition of this type of composition, but the history goes back to the 60s.
Also showing my ahead-of-the-pack-by-a-year posting style, I wrote about beta blockers and stage fright nine months before the New York Times. (I also gave a presentation on it in 1995 as part of a graduate Brass Pedagogy class.) I'm concerned about the firing of Ms. McCain, unless she is lying about only directing her students to a physician. If she handed out the drug herself, she should have been fired. Propanolol can be very dangerous for anyone with asthma or liver problems. Thus it should only be used under the supervision of a doctor. But if she only suggested the drug and properly directed the students to a doctor, this is completely within the purview of a studio teacher. The exception I could see is if she required her students to see the doctor, which was not suggested in the article.
(via Mind Hacks)
5 comments:
Um ... isn't the NY Times article from 2004? I read that quite some time ago. It's dated October 17, 2004.
Maybe I'm not understanding your post, though.
Just thinkin' ....
I spoke with a woman who knows McCain and what you read is correct; she never required her students to see a doctor. My understanding, in fact, was that she only said it worked for her or something like that.
I didn't look at the date, just assumed it was a recent one based on Mind Hacks' description. Sigh, I'm not as cutting edge as I thought.
Sorry to burst your cutting edge bubble. (But, then, I guess a cutting edge bubble would burst on its own.) I hope you get over the heartbreak soon -- I'm guessing it'll take a few days, but a beer and some good munchies might help you recover. ;-)
I always tell my students that they suffer from stage fright because they don't perform often enough. It used to be the same way for me, until I just started practicing performing as much as I practiced technique. After a while, I became comfortable doing it, a while longer and I was confident. Now, I absolutely love to perform and look forward to each and every gig (I play three or more gigs per week). Looking to some substance to help you is profoundly lame in my estimation. It is simply not necessary.
It's dangerous to generalize from one's own experience. It's true that many musicians experience stage fright because they don't practice enough. Others of us can experience tremendous stage fright no matter how much we've practiced, no matter how well we play. My former cello teacher, Leonard Rose, suffered horribly from stage fright and took Valium before almost every performance. He practiced a great deal.
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