Chess and musical instruments

Sort:
Redserpent2000

I wonder how many chess players on this site play a musical instrument. I play electric, accustic and classical guitars (not all at the same time!).  

There seems to be a corralation between chess players and instruments that was found in a study that someone did.

Red

Alex_M
I play Piano, Trumpet, French Horn, and Recorder. Are you saying people who play chess are more likely to play an instrument, or less likely?
Sprite

There's probably a corralation between chess players and any sort of intellectual activity, as intellectuals are drawn to chess....

Although it's been proven that being good at chess doesn't always mean having a higher than average overall IQ.

I played Piano and Oboe.

guitar_man_03
electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute
Alex_M

I've always wanted to learn how to play a woodwind.

In most cases though Sprite, there is a direct cooralation between chess and mathematical ability, even if it has been proven that there is not.

batgirl
I play the radio, the CD player and my Martin 000-18 flattop.
darkmage2007
I play the piano and the violin.
Redserpent2000

 I'm not sure that the correlation is with IQ but more to do with being creative. So artists and mathematicians would be good candidates too for playing chess.

I have never seen the relationship between high IQ and chess ability or mathematical ability. I know of at least on person who has a degree in maths but is not a very good chess player.

I also know quiet a lot of people who have less than average IQ but are very good chess players.

One other thing, I can't see the connection between math and chess. The calculating we do in chess is completly different in chess, unless the math connection is probability.

Red

 

lochness88
I study saxophone and recorder at uni.
LuigiBotha
I play air guitar.
sotyguitarist

i play electric guitar,acoustic,classical,bonjo,violin,piano and flute

 

i believe that there is a connection between mathematics and chess....predicting the moves and the possibilities all derive from a mathematical backround... but still i cant figure out how "ITS IS PROVEN THAT CHESS HAS NO CONNECTION WITH MATHEMATICAL LOGIC.."...if anyone can help me find the biological reason why chess has no connection with maths i would be glad...

 


Randalpants
i play electric/acoustic guitar,bass and a little bit of piano
FTW

I play electric,acoustic and bass if needed.

My favorite guitar is my 72 Telecaster custom (not a re-issue) but to shread on i will use a Dean ML. I like all types of music except for country (too twangy) and Rap (because there is no guitar in rap).Frown Well there is bass in rap but too much IMO.

NinjaBear

Piano, violin and FFR (I consider this an instrument now).

Note that there might be a statistical difference here of people answering. Those who don't play an instrument(s) may not bother to answer... so don't use this as a poll by any means.

LuigiBotha

I did a bit of googling on the subject of chess, music and maths.

I quote from the following web page http://www.edutechchess.com/whychess.html

 "Many parallels have been drawn between mathematics, music, and chess. Lasker (1949) states:

Mathematical thinking is generally held to be more or less closely related to the type of thinking done in chess. Mathematicians are indeed drawn to chess more than most other games. What is less widely known is that very frequently mathematicians are equally strongly attracted to music. Many musicians do not reciprocate this attraction, but I firmly believe that this is mainly due to their lack of acquaintance with mathematics, and to the widespread confusion of mathematics with “figuring.”

An intriguing phenomenon that links mathematics, music and chess is the fact that child prodigies have been known only in these three fields. That children have never produced a masterwork in painting, sculpture, or literature seems only natural when we consider their limited experience of life. In music, chess, or mathematics, that experience is not needed. Here, children can shine, because native gifts are the dominant factor. Aesthetic sensitiveness and ability to think logically are certain inborn qualities. How, otherwise, could Mozart have composed a minuet, and actually written it down, before he was four years of age? How could Gauss, before he was three years old, and before he knew how to write, have corrected the total of a lengthy addition he saw his father do? How could Sammy Reshevsky play ten games of chess simultaneously when he was only six?

The reasoning ingredient in a chess combination is always of prime importance, even though a vivid imagination will make a chess player think of possibilities that will not occur to a less imaginative logician. (p. 142)

The above passage indicates abstract reasoning, a generally accepted quality inherent in both mathematics and music, is of prime importance in chess.

El_Piton

Piano, classic guitar, voice

Was that quote from Edward Lasker?

LuigiBotha

The references at the end of the lengthy article ;

Lasker, E. (1949). The Adventure of Chess. Garden City, NY: The Country Life Press.

yip I think it's our Edward Lasker

El_Piton
I should have known. I used to have that book, it was one of my favorite non-instructional chess books.
halloween_INACTIVE
I have a strange story first I played recorder then I started playing clarinet that got stolenCry and I started to play the sax thats all I got because Im in 6th grade.
shawthing
My guitar playing is almost as bad as my chess,poor openings,and dreadful endings.I can only play with white on my piano......