The Smiley Smile Message Board

Just like our hands, the right ear is connected to the left brain hemisphere (logic, language), while the left is connected to the right hemisphere (visuals, music, harmony). Since Brian relies on his left ear, do you think this could have played a role in his musical genius? I wonder if listening to music with only the left ear can develop people's musical skills.

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Gonna go jam a screwdriver into my right ear. I'll be back in a few months to let you know how things went. Leaving this page open, as if something horrible happens (death, mental retardation, writing songs that sound like Korn instead) my family can view this page and see to it that you were held accountable for this.

Or you could use only one earbud. Yup, definitely go for the earbud.

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Over the last few days, a very bad head cold left me virtually deaf in one ear for a (mercifully short!) period of time.

First of all, I would say this is a more serious handicap than many realize, because you can hear sounds but you don't know their point of origin. Imagine hearing gun shots and having no idea in what direction they are coming from!

I was listening to music at one point during this spell, and I thought about BW, because without the benefit of spatial hearing, the quality of the sounds took on a more prominent role. For instance, I felt like I was perceiving the pitches and their relationships (i.e. harmonic content) more clearly than i would with two ears. The right brain thing is an interesting hypothesis, but i would definitely say that hearing out of only one ear invites the brain to perceive qualities of sound more acutely than it would otherwise, in the same way (albeit less dramatically!) that the brain is able to hear more clearly when deprived of sight.

I'm from LA originally, so I know that experience quite well.

John Lennon was known for using a single headphone while recording his Beatles vocals, but that may actually have had more to do with the desire to hear his own voice more clearly.