Re This Is Your Brain On Music | |
There's nothing in the book about healing properties, rather it is about how your brain processes music. And why music even exists for us.
Why should people evolve an interest in music? Some plausible ideas are given. That is part of the book. But I enjoyed the refresher on music theory as well.
Especially fascinating is which parts of music are innate and which are cultural. How much do we learn vs. are we born with?
He makes the point that every one of us is a music listening expert at a very young age because our brains are being trained every time we hear any music. Of course, that's not formal expertise, but we become experts in the ability to enjoy music.
Another interesting point in the book is how our culture at this point in time has moved away from people becoming music performers. It's not that there aren't people who sing or learn an instrument. But it is no longer commonplace to gather together and perform music habitually as amateurs for entertainment unless we feel we have reached some acceptable level of skill.
Music is not only for the skilled, it's available for us all to enjoy -- even the tone deaf among us. But so many of us enjoy it by listening to professional recordings, we're often embarrassed to _make_ music with others. And so this very enjoyable experience is often limited to people who spend lots of time studying music.
Experiencing music is more than just listening to it, and there are many benefits in that experience. | 
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