After reading this article, check out our Halo Sport for Musicians page!
Neuropriming with Halo Sport 2 has proven to be an effective way to accelerate musical training and take musicianship to the next level. Performing music is the same as any sport, neurologically speaking. The key is learning how to properly control your muscles to achieve the proper action; in this case, notes, chords, and rhythms. Neuropriming with Halo Sport 2 improves the rate that the brain acquires physical skill, technique, and motor sequences and facilitates the transfer of rhythmic motor patterns involved in music into more efficient neural circuits. Through the use of Halo Sport 2, musicians can learn to be more precise and consistent in their movements, allowing them learn musical pieces faster. Note Halo Sport 2 does not help you memorize sheet music; rather, it helps improve the physical aspect of music training.
Halo Sport 2 is a valuable training tool for musicians because the headset can accelerate gains in any physical skill, including playing an instrument. In fact, one of our early laboratory studies on the efficacy of Halo was done using a piano-like task and involved evaluating the speed at which specific finger configurations could be made (Halo significantly improved performance at this task). Now, many musicians are adopting Halo as a training tool. We recommend checking out our Musician Stories page to read some success stories from musicians who have integrated Halo Sport 2 into their training. You can also view out the following video, made by a pianist who used Halo Sport 2 to learn a Bach piece and saw a really amazing improvement:
If you have more time, click here to see the extended video case study that features an interview with acclaimed cellist Pablo Fernandez.
A bit more about how Halo Sport 2 works: The headset puts your brain's motor cortex into a temporary state of hyperplasticity, which optimizes the connection between your brain and muscles. This helps to accelerate gains in any physical skill, especially when the neurostimulation is paired with focused repetitive training. We have stimulation sessions for both the right and left hands, so depending on what you want to work on (like fretting versus picking on a guitar, for instance), you can select the corresponding Neuropriming session. Regardless of which of these sessions you select, it will have a positive effect on both hands (just more of an emphasis on one or the other). There is also a setting for Legs, Core & Arms, which is useful for when you are working on larger muscle groups (such as when dancing or playing a drumset).
Did you know? We sell acoustically transparent ("open") ear pads in our store, which are compatible with Halo Sport 2 and are designed to let outside sounds in. This allows musicians to simultaneously play their instruments and Neuroprime.
tags: music, playing, guitar, piano, keyboard, violin, musical, trombone, trumpet, drums, drumming, flute, viola, oboe, violin, cello, bass, saxophone, tuba, french horn, percussion, brass, wind, clarinet, strings, harp, pipe organ, xylophone, recorder, electric guitar, banjo, ukelele, didgeridoo
Comments
8 comments
Will it work for vocalists? They have to work their core muscles as well as their vocal chords.
Hi there, while there may be applications towards the core muscles in vocalists as you suggest, we have not tested such applications and therefore do not know if Halo Sport would be beneficial or not.
I'm a pianist and often practice up to eight hours a day, can I use halo sport more than once per day? If not, at which point during the day should I use it?
Hi Nina, great question. We recommend using Halo Sport only once per day. This is not a question of safety, rather effectiveness. Like other training tools, if you 'overuse' them you will start to see diminishing returns. This same concept applies for Halo Sport.
We recommend starting your Neuropriming session in the beginning of your practice. When the 20 minutes is complete, you can take off Halo Sport and continue practicing. After the 20 minutes, you will have 60 minutes of added benefit from Halo Sport. You can continue to practice afterwords, but the added benefit of Halo Sport will not be there.
When using HS prior to dual-handed instrumental practice, such as piano, what is the recommendation on deciding whether to choose the right-hand vs left-hand setting?
Hi J — in this scenario, people often choose to alternate between the right- and left-hand emphasis programs each day. Both settings will hit the areas of the motor cortex responsible for controlling both the right hand and the left hand, but they have a slightly stronger effect on one side versus the other. If there's a particularly tricky part that challenges one hand, you may also want to choose that program in particular!
What about an instrument like the organ. How can I use halo to support my practicing of feet and the combination of feet and hands?
I would like to hear from any musicians who have tried Halo Sport for a month or more.
Thanks,
Dan
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