It's because music helps develop memory.

[Rsachi]

Click the picture to read why musicians are SO different.

[Nick H]

I'm sure that it is true. It seems to me to be one of the skills that is required for music, so musicians either develop it, or have it to begin with.

However, it might be selective memory. I have know people to have exceptional memory for music itself, but to be rather poor at remembering other stuff in life.

[Rsachi]

Nick I will forward you another article which says people can TRAIN themselves to forget things! Particularly inconvenient and unpleassnt stuff

[Nick H]

I could say that what I need is the opposite, but I know that is possible, it just requires me to be lazy. I had a colleague who used to do such training, and he would remember those nonsense key strings for licensing software --- just because he could.

Indian music is particularly memory heavy, for the obvious reason that generations of students have been encouraged, if not forced, to memorise stuff rather than write it down or record it, but I have always been in awe of all pro music stuff like how do they remember how many times to play that? And, even when they have a score in front of them with the number on it, how do they keep count? In a way, these things are even more astonishing with the other kind of music I sometimes listen to, because those rock musicians were not exactly kind to their brain cells.

Post the link about forgetting: I'd like to see it. It might help me to remember!

[VK RAMAN]

I know for sure I never remember any of negatives in my life, I for sure remember to pay off my loans no matter it is friend or relative.

[rshankar]

Nick I will forward you another article which says people can TRAIN themselves to forget things! Particularly inconvenient and unpleassnt stuff

Too bad this young lady did not have it handy when she needed it...

[vasanthakokilam]

Sachi, thanks for brining this to our attention. This thread can shape up to be a very useful thread.

Ravi, great reference/connection to that great song for this thread.

[Rsachi]

Here is the link to the recent Guardian article on how to erase bad memories :
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... ies-forget


My own view is that it's important to retain or develop a perspective on what happens to me, what I don't like. If I am able to see that I am only a small part of a big picture, it mitigates the blow.
And rising above the situations, people, and things, that come and go. "This too shall pass".
It is NOT easy.

[arasi]

I also like it when they say that good memories are retained well when you drink in the experience of an event (moment), rather than when you get busy recording it (endless selfies)

[VK RAMAN]

Make the best of every single day and stack up those for next day. Live Life

[shankarank]

Googling on relationship between rhythm and memory – you will find some nice research articles.

The rhthymic meter that is known as the chandas did its bit to trasmit the hymns that are also referred to as the chandas by memory via the oral tradition for millennia. Even as taitrIya Upanishad venerates the Omkara as the amRta that sprung up from the chandas ( meaning the verse or hymn) – we can do a reflexion on it by using the later meaning of the word chandas, by deducing that the chandas the rhythmic meter, to begin with, provided amRtatva to the chandas the hymn (manifest) before the Omkara (unmanifest) can spring forth amRtAt.

So to provide an interesting story line, the moon bestows amRtatva on all the herbs – which in turn bestowed amRtatva on the rishis even to the end sometimes. During praLaya ( the great floods) the sAma vEda rishis apparently perished in great numbers. The yajur vEda rishis held on to or floated on the dharbha or kusa grass ( as you might have read darbha for ritual purpose is harvested after the full moon day) which got it’s amRtatva from the moon ( ask the cult that practices lunar phase planting). They utilized the chandas the meter to pass down the chandas the hymn immortalizing it – so we could all have a shot at the immortal experience of Omkara as it springs forth.

Again I am not sure about the preponderence of darbha in Yajur vs. sAma. Somebody knowledgeable can throw light on it. If that is not accurate just relish the story nevertheless!

To conclude it with a twist: When Anantakrishna Iyer ( http://guruguha.org/wp/?p=1265 link referred to in this thread http://www.rasikas.org/forums/viewtopic ... 13&t=27523 ) renounced amRtatva in the form of dharba grass , he hopped on to the amRtatva that is dIkshitar sahitya which exploits the chandas, the amRtam, for his own sustenance.