The benefits of interpretation

• Most people exposed to music are able to audiate
• Playing (any) instrument means expanding your body to produce sound.
• However, what’s embodied in a physical instrument vs developing a musical software one is different (not necessarily better or worse).
• Interpretation of a given piece forces oneself to focus on how the body and mind produce sound. Improvisation can happen, because the feedback loop between audation and muscle memory is instantaneous.
• Software (VSTs) forces longer intervals between audiation and auditory feedback (unless an instrument facsimile is used)

Satisfying sound producing requires way more time though

The instruments are bound by physicality (of course), a highlevel of mastery is needed to create instantaneous improvisation of quality and sometimes there is joy in both the unexpectedness and the planning-ahead of DAWs, synths and such.

On cognitive benefits of music interpretation

Playing instruments has been proven to be beneficial to many cognitive domains. I wonder if producing music in a DAW is as benefitial in terms of cognition as general instrument playing - and, if so, what is actually benefitialabout music playing? Cognitive processing of sounds? Focused attention, sort of controlled improvisation being “exercise for the brain”?