Neuroplasticity, Explained:

How Your Brain Actually Learns

As we speak, the technology of artificial intelligence is making shockwaves in nearly every element of our lives; from dating, to work, to pet care…it can be difficult to get a grip on what exactly it is, and how it can (or can’t) benefit us. We here at MuseFlow saw the potential in AI to revolutionize music education and we have done just that. Keep reading to read more about how AI is revolutionizing music education.

MuseFlow approaches AI as a tool to support our sight-reading first philosophy, so that you can not only play songs you love on our app, but at a party with friends, at a concert or in your living room with a four-legged audience - wherever your musical aspirations take you. AI analyzes your progress and playing style to generate constantly new, progressively structured music. We focus on sight reading to make you an independently proficient player.

MuseFlow is certainly not the first piano app; how many have you downloaded before being met with rote memorization, boring jazz standards and plunky exercises? We combine our expert pedagogical philosophy with a meticulously designed curriculum, supported by AI to implement our approach adapted uniquely to you.

So far we’ve discussed how AI plays a part in the sight reading first philosophy and our adaptive learning approach. That’s just a preview into not only how AI supports our state-of-the-art features, but how we aim to improve the way you study music. Let’s dig a bit deeper.

Why AI?

MuseFlow uses AI in its unique adaptive learning structure, incorporating AI’s capability to accommodate a diverse range of learning styles and tailor instructions to where a learner currently is, whether they’re a beginner or a teacher brushing up on your skills.

As an example: let’s say, as you’re practicing, you’re really struggling with d7 chords but you intuitively pick up complex rhythms. MuseFlow will note that and continuously give you music phrases with that chord included until you’ve mastered it. It’s smoothly incorporated into your individualized practice, all while giving you real-time feedback.

What makes this different from a static method book or a one-size-fits-all curriculum is that MuseFlow’s AI is always listening and learning alongside you. It doesn’t just track right and wrong notes, it recognizes patterns in your playing over time. Maybe you tend to rush through fast passages, or you consistently hesitate before a key change. MuseFlow picks up on those nuances and adjusts your practice material accordingly, creating a feedback loop that keeps you growing without overwhelming you.

This Makes Learning Fun!

When you reach a point where something is perfect for you - not too challenging and not too boring - this is called the flow state. Learning feels effortless and time flies by. Some major elements of achieving flow state are balance between skills and difficulty, immediate feedback, and intrinsic motivation.  

We make it easy to track your progress as you go and maintain control of your education. Practice feels like play. And when practice feels like play, you actually do it, on your own terms. That consistency is what separates the students who stick with piano for life from those who quit after a few months.

A Replacement for Music Teachers?

We prefer to think of MuseFlow as your personal AI tutor. We don’t believe the future of piano education is about replacing the very real human element in music education, but about building on a teacher's presence and giving students a leg up.

While MuseFlow handles the technical instruction, your teacher can carry you forward with the craft and musicianship. When you arrive at your lesson having already internalized the mechanics of a piece, your teacher is freed up to focus on the deeper artistry. Expression, dynamics, storytelling through music. That’s where the magic happens, and MuseFlow helps you get there faster.

We here at MuseFlow are passionate about music education and have worked hard to build an app that is not only revolutionary, unique, and effective, but one that honors the fun that inspired music learning in the first place. If you’re curious to see how AI can help your own journey, click below to try MuseFlow for free.

There are perhaps few things scarier to a musician than focal dystonia. I recently had lunch with a friend who is a professional clarinetist for the San Francisco Ballet, and she mentioned she personally knows about one hundred classically trained musicians who have developed this neurological disorder!

In the sports world this is commonly referred to as the yips, and this disorder affects around 1% of professional musicians across all genres. However, 95% of those cases come from classically trained musicians. Let’s discuss why this happens, and what mitigation efforts you can be put in place so that focal dystonia never presents itself in your performance.

Focal dystonia causes a loss of voluntary motor control in extensively trained movements. The brain develops overlapping neural maps, and musicians can experience cramping, tightness, fatigue, and involuntary muscle contractions. This can make it hard to perform complex instrument movements that musicians have been practicing for years.

Focal dystonia is idiopathic, meaning that “experts can’t point to one factor that causes it.” But some risk factors have been determined. According to Medical Problems of Performing Artists:

• There are higher risks for musicians who play instruments with maximal fine motor skills…like the piano.
• Musicians with anxiety and perfectionist tendencies tend to have higher rates of focal dystonia.
• Genetics is thought to be a contributing factor.
  

Because there’s a strong association between anxiety and perfectionist tendencies and focal dystonia, we should look at the ways piano teaching and training can either contribute to or alleviate those risk factors.

Extreme Repetition

Many traditional teaching systems can encourage students to repeat certain bars and passages over and over again in order to perfect their technical skills and repertoire. But that can actually be detrimental to your fine motor skills.

Extreme, precise repetition can lead your brain to reorganize its neural connections in a process called cortical remapping. This is understood to be a major risk factor for focal dystonia. Variation is important for keeping your neural maps from overlapping.

Perfectionism

The perfectionism that many musicians are taught can directly lead to major risk factors.

• Too much internal monitoring, or being overly detail-oriented and controlling, can mess with the brain’s necessary automatic motor programs.
• Too much practice of isolating and controlling your fingers can lead to co-contraction and a stiff and overly controlled system. This actually hurts fine motor control.
• A mentality of pushing through the pain for the sake of perfection can teach the body not to warn you when it needs to do so.
• Specializing at a young age in a high-pressure environment can shape your nervous system towards narrow movement constraints.
• Perfectionism contributes to anxiety, and both “may be aggravating factors during the development of musician’s dystonia.”
  

What Can We Do?

To avoid these potential risk factors, we need musical education that reduces the repetitive, overly controlled, anxiety-inducing perfectionism that is far too prevalent in classical training. We can do this by:

• Teaching with a wide variety of music rather than hyper-repetition.
• Teaching holistic, whole arm music education rather than isolating and micromanaging your fingers.
• Reducing external pressure and listening to your body when it’s in pain or when motor control is degrading.
  

How MuseFlow Fits In‍

MuseFlow is a piano education program that encourages Flow State and sight reading through constant music variation. The system offers an alternative to the high-pressure classical training that can be healthier for your nervous system and reduce the risk factors associated with focal dystonia.

• Variety: The focus on sight reading means that you’ll be playing songs on first sight. MuseFlow generates an indefinite amount of music so you’ll always have new-to-you pieces to play. This helps your brain build flexible motor programs and strengthen generalizable coordination.
• Flow State: This is antithetical to overthinking and micromanaging. Encouraging a constant state of creative flow with MuseFlow’s gamified system will help reduce the cognitive motor supervision common with musicians with focal dystonia.
• Clear, Attainable Goals: MuseFlow sets clear, attainable goals through incremental learning and continuous music at your skill level. High-pressure perfectionism is replaced by progress-oriented practice  and positive reinforcement to create a more sustainable, low-stress improvement. There’s no incentive to push yourself past your skill level and take on more than your nervous system can handle.
  

Conclusion

If left unchecked, focal dystonia can threaten to derail musicians’ careers. So it’s worth considering how we can reduce the possible risk factors in our music education.

It’s important to note that specific training methods can’t treat focal dystonia or guarantee you won’t develop it. Some people have genetic predispositions and prior injuries that make them more vulnerable to developing the disorder than others. But by focusing your music education around variation, flow, and positive reinforcement, you can support healthier motor learning principles.

And here’s the cool thing about ditching repetitive perfectionism…it can also make learning the piano a lot more fun.