Very interesting

books:


	• This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession Daniel J. Levitin Plume, 2007 - 336 pages average customer review:based on 98 reviews view larger image
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Engaging...

I absolutely love this book. It discusses all the parts of music that I have ever wondered about (being a musician myself.) I enjoyed this book so much because it's easy to read but also extremely engaging. David Levitin is so brilliant and intuitive. It's like having someone type out my exact thoughts and put them in a book.

Plenty of detail

The most striking feature of this book for me is that it blurs the line between music as an aesthetic experience & the study of the brain as a scientific exercise.

So while it does a great job of defining the various parameters we appreciate music by ( notes, pitch, timbre, meter etc), it also delves into the way memory is organized in the brain, how musical appreciation is connected to our emotions, what makes a great anything (10, 000 hours of practice, apparently) etc.

The chapter on memory is tiresome & is far too academic for general readership. The initial chapters on musical parameters is very helpful to somebody with no training on music. The connections to emotions, & the music we like are very interesting reads.

Overall, a more than moderately good book without being exceptional because of the insufficient sieving out of unnecessary detail.

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Very interesting

I am a musician and although I have not yet finished the book it has captivated me and helped me realize why I am the way I am and maybe why others are the way they are as far as music choices. God made us incredible!

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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.

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