Musicroom

Music and the brain

Posted on Saturday Nov 15 0:00:00 UTC 2008

A friend recently recommended I read Daniel Levitin's book, 'This Is Your Brain On Music', which, aside from the terrible title, I found to be an excellent and enlightening read. Today I listened to Music Matters on Radio 3, which also touched on many of the same subjects, reminding me of the profound importance to musicians of understanding the psychology of music.

Both book and radio programme raise more questions than they answer, but nonetheless this seems like a fascinating area to explore further.

Some of the big questions are:

Why is it that some music affects us emotionally?
Do we have an instinctive response to music?
Do we inherit our musical preferences?
Why (and how) do some performers connect so well with audiences?
Is there a part of the brain that we use for listening and responding to music?

Watch this space for more of the current thinking on music and the brain.

Find out more...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/musicmatters/ (Programme available until 22 November 2008)

This Is Your Brain On Music: understanding a human obsession. Daniel Levitin.