Product Description: In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it—and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals: • How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world • Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre • That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise • How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our heads
And, taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This Is Your Brain on Music is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.
Several reviewers with considerable expert knowledge in the area have - it is fair to say - excoriated this book on this site. Levitin may be a clever experimentalist, and possibly a good music producer. That did not qualify him to attempt a project of this nature. The musical errors are elementary, and at times close to maddening, as several reviewers have pointed out. For example, as alluded to in one of these reviews, p. 238 shows that Levitin has never actually played with a real jazz ensemble; the "chorus" is indeed the whole form, not the "B" section. Or is it the old adage in bad jazz - "if you make a mistake, be sure to repeat it" that obtains here as in his playing?
Levitin's work is an example of why cognitive science in progressing only slowly. On P. 180 the cat is out of the bag; "Crick's own search had encouraged me to take my lack of experience as a licence to think about cognitive neuroscience differently than other people" Quite. Regrettably, then, even when the discussion on the neuroscience of music shows signs of competence (eg 227-228), I am disinclined to follow anything up.
One cannot enter an established academic field - or two, in this case - with a gragbag of techniques and less than fully-baked ideas and hope to get away with it. For those who want a solid grounding in a generative theory of music, try Jackendoff and LerdahlA Generative Theory of Tonal Music. Our own edited collection Language, Vision, and Music: Selected Papers from the 8th International Workshop on the Cognitive Science of Natural Language Processing, Galway, Ireland 1999 (Advances in Consciousness Research)features writers at a much higher stage of competence than Levitin
Seán O Nualláin Ph.D. 4u Meitheamh 2009
Great Book This is a great book. I play Tabla and this book just further enhances my practice.
The X Factor Well written and informative, but Mr. Levitin is apparently unable to recognize the X factor that is the indescribable, innate quality of an artist that cannot be taught; that does not need years of training to release--and is the reason why some highly trained people are brilliant technicians, but not artists. This inability marred his conclusions and misdirected his studies/experiments. As a musician, it is also my opinion that Mr. Levitin has no idea what "groove" is. Again, being a player, does not make one an artist. Also, I would have appreciated a diagram to illustrate the areas of the brain discussed. This is fast read with a few nuggets to enhance ones understanding of how the brain works, but fortunately for the author, there's more work to be done.
Fantastic Book! This book does an amazing job of introducing the reader to how the brain works, how it develops in the human, and how it responds to various stimuli including music. Combined with the works of Damasio and Leonard Meyer (U of Chicago), the book immerses the reader in a wonderful sea of information and opens new areas to explore.
I can't recommend the book highly enough.
Science for the rest of us Well written science about our brains and music that we can understand. Levitin uses humor and what we know to explain our obsession with music.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
