Music and Photography

[unpopular]

I have recently taken on music again, and I am finding that music and photography are for some reason related. Every time I put music down to focus on photography, my photography gets better - and every time I put photography down, my music gets better. A lot of times I feel the same when I am attempting to compose a track, as I do when I am attempting to compose an image. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the two activities always seem related to me.

Any thoughts?

 

[Derrel]

Music has some of the same "qualities" that some photos do, like repetition, harmony, dissonance, variation, pattern,etc. Perhaps similar zones of the brain are activated when doing either music or photography. As for putting one thing down, doing something else, and then returning and finding yourself "better"--maybe there's a valuable lesson there. I do not know your accomplishment level in either field, but perhaps what is helping is time for your brain,mind,spirit,and soul to process, to synthesize,to brew, to germinate,to gestate (you get the idea!) what you have learned during intense periods of study. Sometimes pushing too hard and working too hard, or trying too hard, impairs the final output. Perhaps the periods spent away allow you to more naturally, and less "forcedly", approach your art?

 

[ann]

Music, cooking and photography, have similar qualities as Derrel is suggesting. It is interesting that there seems to be a relationship and perhaps Derrel has put in to words what that might be.

 

[KenC]

I find that for me there's cross-fertilization between all mental activities. Part of it is what Derrel suggested re further processing what you've done/learned in one field while your mind is busy with another. Another part may be that whether or not the parts of your brain activated by two different activities seem to be related, once exercised they come into play in the other activity in unexpected or unconscious ways. It's also possible that the extent to which the part of the brain that processes spatial relationships comes into play in activities that wouldn't seem to require it is under-appreciated, and so almost anything you do will affect how you do photography or other visual arts.

 

[EchoingWhisper]

Music, cooking, drawing, photographing and inventing.

 

[Joey_Ricard]

I have recently taken on music again, and I am finding that music and photography are for some reason related. Every time I put music down to focus on photography, my photography gets better - and every time I put photography down, my music gets better. A lot of times I feel the same when I am attempting to compose a track, as I do when I am attempting to compose an image. I can't quite put my finger on it, but the two activities always seem related to me.

Any thoughts?

An artist is an artist -
When creativity flows, it goes down through every crack and valley finding it's own way.

corny, but true - I know what you mean. I play guitar, build models as well as photography

 

[KmH]

A lot of mathematicians and physicists are also accomplished musicians.

Einstein played the violin.

When I played golf competitively and went into a slump, I knew it was time to take a break and leave it alone for a while. At least a couple of weeks.

I figured that during the break my sub-conscious mind kept working away on my game in the background, because I usually came back an improved player.

 

[Derrel]

Who here has NOT heard this famous golfer's saying? "Lay off for three weeks, then quit for good."

I used to have a problem with burn-out with steelhead fishing...after stints away from the river, I found I was more refreshed and better able to concentrate and make better presentations, so my success rate tended to spike after every layoff. When the bulk of a run would come in in the summer,at the end of say a 10 day stretch, I would be tired, both mentally and physically.

 

[KmH]

They called it golf, because all the other 4 letter words were already taken.

Wife - "Hi hubby! How was your golf game today? You sure are late."
Golfer - "Jeez, just as we were teeing off on the 3rd hole, Charlie had a massive heart attack and died."
Wife - "OMG! How horrible. No wonder you're late."
Golfer - "Tell me about it. For the rest of the day it was - hit the ball, drag Charlie, hit the ball, drag Charlie, and it really slowed us down."

Jesus and St Peter come up to the tee of a 180 yard par 3 that is over water the whole way.
Jesus pulls a 9-iron out of his bag. St Peter says to Jesus, "Jesus, you can't hit a 9-iron 180 yards.'
Jesus says, "If Tiger Woods can hit a 9-iron 180 yards, I can hit a 9-iron 180 yards.'
St. Peter tees off with a 4-iron and hits his ball onto the green, 20 feet left of the hole.
Jesus tees off with the 9-iron and sure enough hits his ball only 70 yards and into the water.
Jesus starts walking across the water towards where his ball splashed, just as the next 4-some approaches the tee.
One of the guys, seeing Jesus walking on the water asks St Peter, "Who the hell does that guy think he is - Jesus Christ?
St. Peter says, "Nah! The guy thinks he's Tiger Woods ."

 

[HeatherClemons]

The whole case for music education is that it improves so many other areas of our lives. As said before, it obviously encourages creativity, mathematic expertise, reasoning, problem solving, hand/eye coordination, and many other things! There is a reason why pregnant women play music for their children in the womb. Some people say it's a hoax, but it stimulates the brain in ALL KINDS of amazing ways.

If you haven't read the book Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks, you literally MUST. It's a huge eye-opener about the effects of music on the brain. I was a photography major and music minor in college, which seemed unrelated but I'm slowly realizing were the perfect combination.

Heather Clemons~
Save the Artist - a creative community (join our community!)
heather@savetheartist.net