Women better multi-taskers?

Question

But one interesting thing comes from this. If women are better at multi-tasking overall wouldn't women be better drummers than men as well? I think that is more of an individual thing and neither sex have the better ability but rely on one being musically talented. But if anyone knows anything about music is that very good drummers have quite the multi-coordination ability and are definitely multi-tasking. A very good drummer has to be able to hit the bass drums with either left or right drum stick or both while stepping on the floor drum in beat and in sync while hitting the bass drums. And also alternating over to the snare drums while doing these other things in harmony and rhythm or while keeping the beat going or changing it up but still keep the beat going in sync with the song.Then don’t forget the crash symbols and all this multiple coordination without losing rhythm and keeping the hands and feet to be in sync all together.

And while this goes on, a good drummer listens to the bass guitarist as they both play off each other and stay in sync as the melody of the song or core it comes from the bass guitar and drum beats. Each instrument requires different difficulties and skill set, but as other musicians I know have said, playing the drums is one of the most multi-tasking instruments and requires quite the ability as I described. But yet, I don’t believe there is any evidence of women being better drummers than men or vice versa.. Does anyone have any explanations to this? Are women better drummers and if women are better multi-taskers, why wouldn’t they be better than men overall as drummers as I described very good drummers are quite the multi-taskers, along with having a great ear for music and musically talented as well of course.

Edit-Barry motor and handedness of neorolgical sets for many things, like guitar playing, sports, etc. But this drumming is especially required and different with a person needing and using mutlitple coordinations and focus's in coordination, so in this sense it is multi tasking even if in the unconventional way.

Answer 1

Not necessarily. Men could be good at multi-tasking also. Each person, male or female has their own little quirks and talents and most people can't really be put into a neat little box.
I can multi-task, but get quite ansty about having to do so many things at one time, would rather focus on one job and do it well. Edit, I'm too unco-ordinated to play drums,haha.

Answer 2

You make a good point and I like the way you think. But to answer your question in a word: no. What you are referring to is more of a neurological question. And although playing the drums is defitely complex and requires talent and practice, it is not necessarily the hallmark example of multitasking. Handedness, motor cooridination, sense of rhythm, etc etc are determined in large part by how an individual's brain is put together. And men and women as a whole have some nuerological differences. Basically the differences are related to verbal ability versus spatial and mathmatical ability and the relative size of the bundle of nuerons connecting the two hemispheres. However, although women are commonly credited as multi taskers and men chided as not being able to chew gum and think at the same time - in general this is not supported by the research. Actually, as a whole right handed people are better multitasker, whereas left handed folks generally have better focused attention. The difference accounts for why left handed people generally live 11 years less on average than right handed people. Because of car accidents etc requiring more multi-tasking.

Answer 3

And yet I have often heard people say that men make better musicians and that this is an explanation for the smaller number of women employed as professional musicians. As a musician, apprentice woodwind repair technician, and reedmaker, I must say that neither the men as musicians nor the women as multitaskers stereotype plays out in the field of music performance. This could mean that the stereotypes are wrong or it is possible that music simply attracts a very specific subclass of men and women which isn't representative of the larger population. In the latter case, perhaps musicians already have a different sort of brain and musical study further hones skills like multitasking. I vaguely recall a study that suggested that adults tested for multitasking ability were found to have more of it after raising young children irregardless of the parents' sex. I do agree that musical ability isn't stronger in one sex or another. Research into music and the brain has shown that music requires a high percentage of the brain to perform. It has also shown that trained musicians process music differently than untrained people. Musical training encompasses a lot of abilities, patterns of thought, and technical skills. There is a vast difference between someone who hasn't learned to read music looking at a piece of sheet music and someone who has learned. There's also obvious differences in the thought processes between someone who has developed relative pitch and someone who tunes each note (or someone who just puts fingers down in certain combinations). I used to work with a marching band and the teaching methods used were specifically designed to accustom new participants with many different learning styles to very different ways of doing and thinking so that the variety of things that must happen at once can all be done well. I can say that there were some students that just never managed to learn (both males and females) and so dropped out. That around 90% of these students were already trained musicians throws the generalizability to a larger population off but it does seem that most young musicians, at least, were capable of learning multitasking regardless of their sex. I would suggest that increased ability to multitask is a matter of necessity (not simply desire, but perhaps contextual study and practice). The application of ability however, may well be gendered. To quote the character Dr. Winchester from M*A*S*H, "I do one thing at a time, I do it very well, and then I move on." Some people say this is a typical male style.

Answer 4

I've long been convinced that the purported innate multi-tasking skills of women are an invented myth.
Drumming is a skill, and though it takes some co-ordination to even get started, it is a learned motor skill. Once a person is a drummer, they don't think about it.
The multi-tasking claim is bigger than this, it claims women can do multiple tasks that are NOT learned neuro-motor skills. Not only this, but that it is also an innate ability. There are just too many contrary examples, women without the skill and men with it, to make any general rule.

Answer 5

Is this a woman multi tasking question or a drummer evaluation? Perhaps its a comparison between the two??

As far as woman being good multi taskers I think if they are mothers, most things done through out their day is done with a baby on the hip, or while shuffling occupying entertainment to children while managing common daily task. Perhaps its merely a learned skill?? Our visuals of woman may more so go in this direction offering the higher percentage just in picture.

On the drummer, with enough love for it and cordination to back it, I think either sex can give a good competetion for the other to match.

Answer 6

Here is the funny thing about 'multi-tasking', have you ever noticed that a woman's brain seems to switch off the moment that she puts herr hands on a shopping trolley? Hands up all those who were brave enough to go shopping during Christmas. How many times did someone (of the female gender) bump into you with a shopping trolley/cart, stop dead in their tracks in front of you with no sign of a warning, block a passageway or an exit whilst holding a conversation (with no apparent awareness of other people), or bump into you and say the 'mandatory', "Sorry", before blithely going back to creating a path of chaos and destruction in their wake?
I went shopping. I have the bruises to prove it. I lived to tell the story! Over a period of 5 days I had two toes on my right foot run over by a shopping cart, I had to avoid 'female ruminants' (women talking {gossiping} and getting in the way of others). I was stabbed in the back with the 'pointy' end of an umbrella by a woman who did a 'U' turn with it under her arm. I had my shins grazed by carts, elbows bumped and tummy prodded. This litany of mind-numbing stupidity culminated when I had my (R) Patella subluxed (disolated kneecap) by a hit and run/drive by grocery cart. So much for Christmas.
I work with women. I have the highest regards and greatest respect for them. But.....what I want to know is this: 'At what point upon entering a mall does your brain switch off and you become blind and stupid'? And, shouldn't the insurance industry be funding research into this debilatating phenomomon. Trust me when I say, it is only a matter of time before lives are lost. One of them could be yours!

Answer 7

I am multi-talented, i can breathe, blink, talk, listen, smell all while holding a drink. Nah seriously if we all want to get serious i am an excellent multi-tasker, as is my friend. When he's in school he can listen to anyone whilst reading a book, now you try doing that.

Answer 8

Are blue-eyed people better at basket weaving? I'm so tired of this. It just digs another foot in the ditch.

Answer 9

Men are more varied than women. So while even though on average women are better multi-taskers, the best multi-taskers will always be men.

Answer 10

It would be interesting to determine if the theory had any validity in that context. I will say this, though: when I briefly tried drumming on my trip to Seattle, I was pretty good.

EDIT ABOVE: I was talking about actual drums, sir.