{"id":753,"date":"2010-05-31T21:07:08","date_gmt":"2010-06-01T02:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/?p=753"},"modified":"2016-03-18T21:39:46","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T02:39:46","slug":"more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Understanding Human Obsession: Music"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This Is Your Brain On Music: understanding a human obsession
\nDaniel Levitin\u00a0 BUY HERE NOW<\/a>
\nISBN 978 1 84354 715 0<\/p>\n

“With a neuroscientist\u2019s conviction that the as-yet inexplicable is just shadows and dust and cryptic meaning, Daniel Levitin sets out to explain why collections of easily-recognisable sounds have such a profound impact on our emotions, revealing for us the mechanisms behind the magic.<\/p>\n

He has been publicly lauded in his endeavour by serious backers, from the polymath Brian Appleyard in The Times<\/em>, to philosopher (and now also music author) Oliver Sacks, to David Byrne of Talking Heads. And it\u2019s obvious why.<\/p>\n

Levitin himself achieves the almost-impossible, discussing the ultratechnical \u2013 in two<\/strong> subjects \u2013 in the least affected manner imaginable, using music to tell us about the brain, and the brain to teach us more about music.<\/p>\n

A record producer \u2013 with Stevie Wonder, Santana, Clapton and others \u2013 before he turned to science, Levitin takes evident delight in pairing off Mozart and Madonna, Liszt and Ludacris, to demonstrate the fundamental truths underlying all<\/em> music. And in case any of those names is unfamiliar, every example cited is generously made available for audio-reference on Levitin\u2019s site: www.yourbrainonmusic.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

From his incisive definitions of music\u2019s building blocks to his differentiation between music as science and music as human experience, a clear elegance runs throughout Levitin\u2019s writing, whether he is discussing how the number of potential thoughts in a brain is greater than the number of particles in the universe (enabling us to make such varied music from only 12 notes), or illustrating his arguments with wonderful trivia: a tree falling in an empty wood actually doesn\u2019t<\/em> make a sound (it merely creates vibrations, which aren\u2019t sounds until someone \u2018hears\u2019 them).<\/p>\n

Many questions in musical neuroscience haven\u2019t been solved, like why a perfect fifth sounds so \u2018perfect\u2019, or why loud music creates such a physical thrill. But in this book Levitin isn\u2019t trying to answer every question; he\u2019s attempting to narrow the (popularly perceived) gap between regular Joes and musicologists.<\/p>\n

In Africa, there are professional musicians, sure enough; but people think you\u2019re very odd if you say you can\u2019t<\/em> sing or (trust me!) won\u2019t<\/em> dance. They believe these functions to be intuitively the same, and hardwired, from deep evolutionary\/sexual and cultural origins.<\/p>\n

Levitin does too, and says the average person has more musical ability than is often believed: even the minimally-trained ear expects the 7th to resolve to the 8ve, and can immediately distinguish between Dylan acoustic and Dylan electric. Most people are at least expert listeners<\/em> of music, and they should be: Americans spend more money on music than on prescription drugs.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, contrary to the notion of musical \u2018gift\u2019, Levitin argues that, even for the likes of the young Mozart, genetic propensity only gets you about halfway; the rest is environment and hard work.<\/p>\n

Very few people could have written this book at all, let alone so deftly. A relaxed blend of arts and science, This Is Your Brain On Music<\/em> is no quick read, but it is certainly a very enjoyable one. How often do you get to say that about a book on neuroscience?! ”\u00a0BUY HERE NOW<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n
    \n
  • Music Teacher Magazine , England , December 2007<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This Is Your Brain On Music: understanding a human obsession Daniel Levitin\u00a0 BUY HERE NOW ISBN 978 1 84354 715 0 “With a neuroscientist\u2019s conviction that the as-yet inexplicable is just shadows and dust and cryptic meaning, Daniel Levitin sets out to explain why collections of easily-recognisable sounds have such a profound impact on our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,423,9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nUnderstanding Human Obsession: Music - Healing Music Enterprises Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Understanding Human Obsession: Music - Healing Music Enterprises Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This Is Your Brain On Music: understanding a human obsession Daniel Levitin\u00a0 BUY HERE NOW ISBN 978 1 84354 715 0 “With a neuroscientist\u2019s conviction that the as-yet inexplicable is just shadows and dust and cryptic meaning, Daniel Levitin sets out to explain why collections of easily-recognisable sounds have such a profound impact on our […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Healing Music Enterprises Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2010-06-01T02:07:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-03-19T02:39:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dr. Alice Cash\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dr. Alice Cash\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Dr. Alice Cash\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582\"},\"headline\":\"Understanding Human Obsession: Music\",\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-01T02:07:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-19T02:39:46+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\"},\"wordCount\":544,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Announcements\",\"Brain and Music Cortex\",\"Music and the Brain\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\",\"name\":\"Understanding Human Obsession: Music - Healing Music Enterprises Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2010-06-01T02:07:08+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-03-19T02:39:46+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Understanding Human Obsession: Music\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Healing Music Enterprises Blog\",\"description\":\"Tune Your Life with Music\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582\",\"name\":\"Dr. Alice Cash\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Alice.ProPhoto.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Alice.ProPhoto.jpg\",\"width\":224,\"height\":300,\"caption\":\"Dr. Alice Cash\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\"},\"description\":\"Trained as a classical, concert pianist, I stepped into the world of music as medicine in 1990. It is a fantastic adventure! It has taken me around the world and I'm eager to keep traveling! Free sample of healing music: www.healingmusicenterprises.com\/Sample_Healing_Music.html\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com\"],\"url\":\"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/author\/hmusic\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Understanding Human Obsession: Music - Healing Music Enterprises Blog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Understanding Human Obsession: Music - Healing Music Enterprises Blog","og_description":"This Is Your Brain On Music: understanding a human obsession Daniel Levitin\u00a0 BUY HERE NOW ISBN 978 1 84354 715 0 “With a neuroscientist\u2019s conviction that the as-yet inexplicable is just shadows and dust and cryptic meaning, Daniel Levitin sets out to explain why collections of easily-recognisable sounds have such a profound impact on our […]","og_url":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/","og_site_name":"Healing Music Enterprises Blog","article_published_time":"2010-06-01T02:07:08+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-03-19T02:39:46+00:00","author":"Dr. Alice Cash","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dr. Alice Cash","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/"},"author":{"name":"Dr. Alice Cash","@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582"},"headline":"Understanding Human Obsession: Music","datePublished":"2010-06-01T02:07:08+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-19T02:39:46+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/"},"wordCount":544,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582"},"articleSection":["Announcements","Brain and Music Cortex","Music and the Brain"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/","url":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/","name":"Understanding Human Obsession: Music - Healing Music Enterprises Blog","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2010-06-01T02:07:08+00:00","dateModified":"2016-03-19T02:39:46+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/more-praise-for-this-is-your-brain-on-music\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Understanding Human Obsession: Music"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/","name":"Healing Music Enterprises Blog","description":"Tune Your Life with Music","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/851116d0ae7e38e4488e6165ebc03582","name":"Dr. Alice Cash","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Alice.ProPhoto.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Alice.ProPhoto.jpg","width":224,"height":300,"caption":"Dr. Alice Cash"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/"},"description":"Trained as a classical, concert pianist, I stepped into the world of music as medicine in 1990. It is a fantastic adventure! It has taken me around the world and I'm eager to keep traveling! Free sample of healing music: www.healingmusicenterprises.com\/Sample_Healing_Music.html","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.HealingMusicEnterprises.com"],"url":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/author\/hmusic\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2080,"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753\/revisions\/2080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/healingmusicenterprises.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}