This is yesterday's post - and it didn't seem to get out of the queue so here it is today.
There's an article about the oldest verified instrument - a sort of flute made of bone and ivory. My guess, though, is that the oldest instrument would be the human voice singing - us. Singing likely predates spoken language. It is a physical capacity for pitch control. And we had this up to a million years ago.
Singing looks like a complicated skill right away. I wondered what it means when they talk about the neurological and physical architecture to sing.
The neurological architecture integrates language processing in the left hemisphere and pitch/melody control in the right hemisphere, utilizing both dorsal and ventral pathways to connect auditory perception with vocal motor execution. I had no idea that something seemingly simple, is not.
Another summary says that singing demands coordination across the prefrontal cortex (planning, decision-making), temporal lobes (auditory processing) hippocampus (memory and cerebellum (motor control). That sounds even more involved.
The brain likes singing - it triggers the release of "feel-good" brain chemicals endorphins and serotonin and lowers stress hormones. It is a light aerobic workout as well. In terms of medical therapeutics it can help restore lost speech for conditions like Aphasia, Parkinson's, Demential and Alzheimer's and for Autism. It is a recovery technique for breathing and lung issues.
There are so many health and therapeutic benefits that I wonder if music is more popular than sports. Music has high engagement - over 90% of people listen to music every day so scores high on engagement, accessibility and the global scale. It is more passive than sports, which has strong, energetic emotions and participants and fans dedicating active time and attention to games.
There's some common ground - in the last 30 years music concerts have taken on the characteristics of sports games - high prices of tickets and vast crowds watching a live event in a stadium like the soon to be with us FIFA World Cup.
Think of the size of audiences: the FIFA World Cup will be at BMO Field, currently rebranded as Toronto Stadium and holds almost 50,000 people. That's considered intimate. I guess so, given the largest stadium in the world in North Korea can hold between 114,000 and 150,000 people, depending on the event. At FIFA 2026, the largest event will be at the Dallas Stadium which holds 94,000 people. There have been numbers like this for choirs singing in a single venue or stadium. The largest choir was 121,400 people in a venue in India - I wonder what they sang.
This is the Skydome stadium which holds almost 40,000 people.
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