This was a fascinating book more so because I am a deafened adult. I had my memories when I lost all hearing in 1977. Experiences I've had since seem weird to me because I remember. Now I understand why. This is a very informative book from both the music lover and indifferent listener points of view.

In the first chapter, he made some statements about music that I know to be wrong, so I was tempted to quit, but I thought that perhaps he may still have something interesting to say--I think of the difference between a "satellite view" map and a "street view" map. He has had many interesting things to say, and I am even suspicious that his "errors" at the beginning were an intentional simplification. Even though written for the "layman," it's still pretty heavy reading--and much more focused on the brain's processes than on how music works.
A bit heavy on name-dropping (he started out as a producer), and more "don't know what's happening here" than I hoped for (but I appreciate the honesty). Interesting--but perhaps specialized: it could easily be a different book than you're expecting.

This book was found, as many of my great finds, on the shelves of a used-book store. The book has traveled around in my car with me as I go from school to my job as a voice teacher. It has been loaned out to music professors, and is now very well worn.

I strongly recommend this book for musicians and music lovers alike. It is beautifully written in a way that nearly anyone can understand, with common examples of music from classical to popular music styles.

An excellent introduction into the technical side of how the brain processes music.

The story about Petr Janata and the barn owls is worth the price of the book alone.

Thanks for a great resource Mr. Levitin.

One can't expect a thorough look into the interplay of phychology, mind-body mechanics, and music in a shory popular book. That being said, this was an entertaining romp through the field.

The first seventy or so pages was essentially an introduction to music theory and how the mind can proces music as, well, music. For those with a music background it will be tedious and won't tell you much that you don't already know, but for someone who has only touched on it it will be like drinking from a firehose with all the information in the pages.

The rest of the book deals more directly with why certain music is liked, how it most likely evolfved, and the practical utility of music in society and individual survival. If you're ever wondering why there are still oldies stations around, it's because of all the boomers who have an emotional attachment to music of their youth, the time when music tastes are most aggressively defined.

One annoyance was the infantile critique of mind-body interplay, where he ascribes to the opinion of Dennitt that the brain creates the mind. There's not enough room in the review to state why that is incorrect, but it shouldn't have even delved on this weighty topic. Overall though, there wasn't much blanket overgeneralization that plagues many popular science books, though the meanderings of the authors was at times tiring.

Overall, pretty good, and a quick read for someone interested in the topic.

I, too, found the endless name-dropping endlessly irritating. As to the rest - I leave it to the more knowledgeable among us. However, I do recommend reading ALL the reviews before reading the book.

As a professional musician and a medical doctor, I must say it is the best book on music - in all its facets - that I've ever read.

The author is very experienced in both the relevant science, and the real music industry. I have a strong sense that he knows what he's talking about and is highly credible. The writing style is excellent. There were all kinds of facts in here that ranged from novel to amazing. This really does tell you important things about how psychoacoustics works, and has a lot of ideas and speculations (it's hard to prove) about the meaning and function of music in the human experience. I've been recommending this one to lots of my friends.

Like many of the negative reviewers, I found that *This Is Your Brain on Music* didn't enhance either my knowledge of music or of cognitive science. It's not without any substance, but that substance has been spread pretty thinly, and it offers one of the weakest evolutionary explanations for music as a human phenomenon: it demonstrates fitness because it indicates abundant amounts of free time. Perhaps this is true of the drive to perform, but what about the millions of people addicted to listening to music? Isn't music in some way *special* ? No one gets a painting "stuck in their head" for days as happens with music, and there doesn't seem to be a visual corollary to those stroke victims who can no longer speak--but who can still sing. To be sure, Levitin doesn't seem particularly interested in this, but this is part of the problem with the book. I also have to agree with reviewers that felt the book was disorganized and not compellingly written, but I never found Levitin to be particularly egocentric--I think he's making the case that he's well-qualified to discuss both the brain and music. Unfortunately, he doesn't convincingly do either, and the book's most memorable element is probably the title.

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!

And fails. Two main problems:

1) Levitin can't write worth a darn. His organization is a mess both on the chapter level and in organizing his paragraphs. I keep hearing about how the publishing industry has largely stopped editing books and I think this is a case in point. Simply editing and asking for re-writes might have substantially improved Levitin's lazy effort. The author also name-drops like crazy, plopping in the names (and university affiliations - like who cares?) of his scientific researchers for no reason frequently throughout the book. This is a popularization of a scientific field so of course researchers conducting studies on specific subjects should be discussed. But Levitin instead swerves from one (vapid) anecdote to another with no structure or objective in sight and no organized discussion of a particular researcher or research school's motivating idea or aim. The most painful example of these instances is his lunch with Francis Crick - the point of that extended anecdote seems to be that Levitin met a world-famous scientist. Good for you, Dan.

2) I would conclude from this book that psychological research into musical perception has yielded no interesting results, not even any moderately interesting ones. Now "Your brain on music" occasionally perked my interest here and there. But those observations don't explain research results - they make critical observations about music that aren't reliant on psychology. I'm frankly not sure whether music psychology deserves better than this - maybe it has yielded fascinating insights into the mind. But you wouldn't know it from this work.

Poor content, poor style, poor effort.

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.

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.

Think about earworms, you know, those tunes that you can't stop playing back in your head.

Now we'll play a little game. We'll take some ordinary English sentences but dress them up in smartypants neuroscience language. So instead of saying "in your head" you say "in your brain". And instead of saying "idea" you say "neural pathways representing a concept". You can probably make up your own rules for converting English to Neurospeak. "I have a headache" might become "a neural excitiation in my brain is causing the my pain sensors to represent pain in my cerebral area" or "I remember that book" might become "signals from my optic nerve are analysed and compared with prior stored representations of books until a match is found" and so on. Anyone can play, it's easy.

Dan Levitin knows how to play. Here's what he has to say on earworms: "Our best explanation is that the neural circuits representing a song get stuck in `playback mode'". Cute eh? But here's the weird thing. He doesn't realise this is just a game you can play with language. He thinks these are actually scientific explanations. In fact he spends 300 pages writing trivial things about music in Neurospeak, presenting it as science. It's like Moliere's joke about explaining how opium works by saying it has "soporific virtue".

It's not completely content-free however. For example he has a quote from Newton pointing out that you can't see the colour of light waves, rather that light waves are what you use to see things in colour. Bizarrely Newton made no such claim because he believed light was made of particles, not waves. The point still stands, but how did a completely fictional quote like that get through? Is it acceptable to make up quotes from scientists to make your point?

At one point Levitin tells us all about the mistake of Cartesianism - the idea that the things we sense in the world are just encoded in a new representation that some inner self can view, as if the external world is presented on an inner screen in our brains. That, of course, leads to an infinite regress. Who watches the inner screen? This is all well and good, but throughout the book Levitin describes a model of the brain that is 100% Cartesian. For example, he says that when we hear a sound, the end of the journey is a mental image of that sound. He seems to have missed the point that the philosphers he quotes, Wittgenstein and Dennett, devoted much of their lives to demolishing such a silly picture.

I did find the discussion of the roots of Joni Mitchell's chords quite interesting however, not that I like Joni Mitchell. But that saves the book from one star.

Oh, and Levitin does know a lot of famous people, if you're impressed by that sort of thing.

Daniel J. Levitin is a hack. He is a living embodyment of the term used in the title of this review. There is no science here, only opinion and second hand knowledge that anyone with any amount of musical education already knows. He should read Debussey's essay "The Dilettante in Music"
and go re-invent himself. There is more to being an expert on any subject than being interviewed on CBC.

Gordon Boothe

I'm very surprised by how many negative reviews this book is getting. I just finished it, and I love it.

Are you considering reading it? Then, do!

I think the problem many people have is essentially that the book isn't written only for them. In other words, let's say you don't give a fig about jazz--say you couldn't tell the Bird from Benny Goodman. That's no problem: every time he uses an example from jazz to illustrate a point, he uses a famous rock example as well. If you don't get the jazz one, you'll probably get the Rolling Stones reference. I would think everyone could live with that.

Or, let's say you are not at all interested in knowing why Joni Mitchell prefers a certain bass player. You only want to read about the neurology. Or vice-versa: all that neurology stuff is boring; you want to know more about what Neil Young thinks about music.

Unfortunately, there's a little of everything in here. Good solid multi-disciplinary science (neurology, genetics, evolutionary biology); a nice thorough introduction to music theory (explaining terms like pitch, octave, scale, dissonance, beat, timbre); anecdotes from his personal musical experience (what Joni Mitchell told him about her favorite bass player, why he didn't get to take guitar lessons when he was a kid).

UN - fortunately?

Well, I loved this book. I learned a lot about music (in general, as well as specific genres), a little about neurology and evolution, a little about various musicians. I couldn't have been more pleased.

The only reason I can find that anyone didn't enjoy the book is that they didn't want to read about all that other stuff (whatever was not the thing they did want to read about). If you can overlook that, of if you look forward to all of it, I guarantee this book will prove an entertaining, enlightening experience.

The one caveat I have is that, if you really do not know anything about music, pay good attention in the opening chapters when he introduces concepts like chord and scale. Or, be prepared to go back and reference those chapters. I do not see how a detailed book about music could avoid this situation (he cannot talk about music without talking about rythyms, melodies and harmonies). But he does a very good job of introducing and explaining them.

So, enjoy!

Book was purchased as a gift (a teacher) and they tell me it is most interesting. Thye plan tobuy several copies to give to students to understand the rythym of music.

and apparently this book is aimed at me, a member of the general public who, the author asserts, is an expert at listening to music, if not a musician. well, i am a biologist, so the neuroscience isn't new to me, and i have to say that i was hoping for deeper insights. in a nutshell, this would be a good book to browse at the library rather than to buy.
though perhaps to non-scientists the book is more interesting. i actually bought it for my boyfriend who, like the author, spent his adolescent years jamming (while i was reading). according to him, the author is trying a bit too hard to show off his music-cool, and he while the book is interesting, tales of adventure of wildlife biologists like alan rabinowitz are much more so . so, we'll stick with the three stars = browse before you buy.

As a musician I find this topic fascinating. The book does cover many interesting points and brings up ideas about how and why we react to music in the ways that we do. However, the authors errors in analyzing some of the music examples and forms throughout the book are flawed and drive someone like me nuts. If the author isn't an educated musician he should have spent more time with musicians researching some of the technical details of the music he examined. The book might try too hard to be all things to all people, and satisfies none. Too technical for the non-scientist, not technical enough for scientists, to musical for non-musicians, not deep enough for musicians.

I'm guessing that this book holds more interest to musicians than non-musicians. At least I'm hoping it does, since I gave it as a gift to a musician friend based on reading the cover jacket and 1st chapter.

I thought this book would be a more informative read that it turned out to be. As a non-musician, I hoped for more "everyman" insights, but mostly I just stumbled through the book. While I learned a few things, I didn't completely understand many of the concepts and examples presented.

This was a gift. The person who received thought it would be good reading.

I found the book interesting as well as informative. Very helpful to a fledgling musician!

There is enough self-indulgent auto-biographical dribble in this book to ruin whatever interest the reader might have had for brain science. If you want to learn about how the mind works there are many excellent popular brain science books, stay away from this book. If you want to learn about the musical tastes of Daniel J. Levitin and how important his friends are, this is the book for you. Barely tolerable.

Daniel J. Levitin's "This Is Your Brain on Music" is a book that combines an interest in music with an interest in the brain, the mind, and how they work together. It wasn't written with his scientific colleagues in mind, nor was it written for musicians with advanced concepts of harmony, but anyone with an interest in music and the mind can benefit. He kind of renders unto Caesar what is Caesar's as it were, but I imagine his fellow scientists would think he had oversimplified some of the science, just as I did with the rudimentary musical explanations.

I kind of skimmed over parts that explained things I already knew about chords, scales and keys. But he did a pretty good job. I think you can't really explain music like that with just words, but if you explore harmony with a piano or guitar, and then read about the theory, you will start to see how certain chords almost have gravitational fields that pull them towards resolutions with other chords. At one point, in the appendix, Levitin prints the chords to I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin, but for an AABA form song, he only prints the chords to the first two A parts, and leaves out the B section, which is what really made the song such a perennial favorite of jammers. Also, he transposes them to the key of C, while "Rhythm" is more often played in Bb. For the musician who wants to understand music theory I recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine or The Jazz Piano Book, also by Mark Levine.

But TIYBOM is THE book to read if you want to take a layman's tour of the latest scientific theories about how the brain and mind function in performing or listening to music. He describes fascinating experiments with EEG, electroencephalogram, which monitors the electrical activity triggered by musical, or other, thoughts. To further refine the process, they use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which not only monitors the electrical activity, but can pinpoint the exact location by tracking oxygenated hemoglobin which flow into the regions where the synapses are firing. Though Levitin was biased against mapping the brain for its own sake, the mapping did provide insight into how musical thoughts were processed. For instance, the hippocampus, not a college for hippopotami, but rather a part of the brain, seems to be involved in musical memories, experiences and context. The left and right hemispheres have different functions, but how this differs in left and right handed individuals is still being studied. The cerebellum, the most primitive part of the brain, one that is present in reptiles, also seems to have a role in rhythm, rhythmic motor functions, such as walking, and emotions. Perhaps emotions are triggered by music, completely bypassing the later more evolved portions of the brain, and going straight to the cerebellum. Like the snake charmer with a basket of cobras, except that cobras are deaf and it is a trick, involving kicking the basket, and then swaying to distract the snakes.

There are lots of interesting stories about patients with various brain trauma, lesions, and injuries, which had interesting effects on how they perceived music. For instance, one case had someone who suffered from hypermnesia, which was the opposite of amnesia, and instead of forgetting, he remembered everything. If he looked at a person, he remembered every image of their face, but he had trouble knowing that they were all the same person. He couldn't sort out the connections. Another case was a man with Williams Syndrome, a chromosome deficiency similar to Down Syndrome, but a quarter as rare. This individual was severely retarded, and he had trouble even tying his shoes. Yet, he was able to play the clarinet, and remembered several complicated pieces by heart. If, however, he made a mistake, he would ask if he could do it again, but he would have to go back to the very beginning of the piece.

Another section of the book deals with the phenomenon of Absolute Pitch, or AP. People with this can hear a note and instantly tell what pitch it is. Willie Nelson has this, and in his autobiography he describes how he can even tell what pitch the buzz of a fly is, which he claims to be F. A friend of mine who had AP once heard a blimp overhead, and claimed the motor was humming in E. He struck the chord on the guitar, and I was surprised to find that he was right. Levitin himself does experiments on average people, and he finds that they will most often sing a familiar song in the right key and close to the tempo, so somehow average people can remember pitches, but they don't seem to be able to just name the pitches like people with AP. Also, those with AP seem to have an enlarged area of the brain that might account for this ability.

And did you know that the Germans actually have a word for the tunes or snippets of catchy jingles that can get stuck in your mind and play over and over? They call them ohrwurms, or Ear Worms. Perhaps this condition is similar to obsessive compulsive disorder. I find that if you get one, it helps to think of Ravel's Bolero, because it is a stronger ohrwurm and will slay the other one. Like the theme to the "I Love Lucy" show. Have you ever had that stuck in your head? At least Bolero changes timbre, with the motif being orchestrated differently, as it builds and builds in intensity. Did you know that William Burroughs has the boys in his novel The Wild Boys use them as weapons, making up "idiot songs" that would get stuck in their enemies minds and drive them insane. And I thought he was prophesizing about Hip Hop.

Daniel Levitin has a lot of interesting takes on music and science, and he sometimes describes his scientific experiences in terms of his musical ones. For instance, he is invited to a seminar at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and he feels like a girl backstage at an Elvis concert. One of the chapters is titled "After Dessert, Crick was still Four Seats Away" and in it he wants to meet Francis Crick, who along with James Watson was the scientist who mapped the structure of DNA. He frets that it will turn out like an earlier meeting when he was invited to a tea party at the Automat recording studio, and wanted to meet, and possibly work with Ron Nevison, an engineer who had worked on recording sessions with Led Zeppelin and The Who. He breached protocol, introduced himself, and never heard from Nevison again. But luckily this time a sympathetic colleague introduced him to Crick, who perks up at the mention of music, and they have a great chat, but they never meet again as Crick dies a month later.

He had wanted to meet him not because of his work on DNA, or even because of his recent work entitled The Astonishing Hypothesis, but rather because of an autobiographical book he had written called What Mad Pursuit. Francis Crick wrote that because he started so late, he was able to approach science with an open mind, and he hadn't invested countless hours in a particular discipline or hypothesis that might have blinded him to alternate views. This particular passage inspired Levitin because he, too, had come to science late in life.

Inspiration takes many forms, and some of the other scientists propose theories that Levitin disagrees with. For instance, Steven Pinker, who had just completed a major work of cognitive science called How The Mind Works, thought that music was completely useless, and that it had developed solely by piggy backing on the language function. He described music as mental cheesecake. Levitin obviously disagrees with this opinion, and makes a compelling case for music being an integral part of who we are as humans, something that exists in all cultures, and has for as long as time is remembered. Another work he doesn't agree with is The Mozart Effect, which proposes that music can make you smarter. While he agrees that music could make you smarter, he turns the idea around, and for instance, asks if educators and parents would be so anxious to push math on kids because it was discovered that it would make them better musicians? He thinks music is worthwhile for itself alone. He also thinks the experiments were poorly designed.

From his contacts with the musical world, there is an interesting encounter with Joni Mitchell, who likes to use alternate tunings in her music. She told Levitin that she never found a bass player who could support what she was doing until she played with Jaco Pastorius. The bass prodigy who played with Weather Report and was later killed by a bouncer had an obnoxious personality, but she put up with him because he understood her music, and contributed just what she wanted. With her alternate tunings, the songs were built on unconventional chord structures, and also incorporated pedal notes, open strings that would drone throughout a piece. Bass players kept asking her what chords she was playing; wanting to know what was the root. She didn't really know the root, but more important, she wanted the harmonies to be a little ambiguous, without them having a specific root.

It is personal anecdotes like this one that made This Is Your Brain on Music such an fascinating read, and if ever I am at a scientific conference, I hope someone will have the good grace to introduce us, observing proper protocol, of course.

Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul Francis Crick wrote this.

What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Sloan Foundation Science) Francis Crick wrote this, too, and it inspired Daniel J. Levitin in his scientific pursuits.

The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (Burroughs, William S.)

The Jazz Theory Book, or The Jazz Piano Book, also by Mark Levine.

Shadows and Light Joni Mitchell live with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius, who Joni felt was the first bassist to "get" her.

The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit Daniel J. Levitin has a bone to pick with The Mozart Effect, but it is interesting if taken with a grain of salt.

Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within Kenny Werner has excellent advice on how to get to Carnegie Hall. Yes, it takes practice, but it is effortless.

Fantasia (Special 60th Anniversary Edition) This Disney animation has a segment devoted to Beethoven's 6th Symphony, the Pastoral. It is mentioned as one of Daniel J. Levitin's favorite pieces of music.

Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score

The Older Stuff: Best of Michael Nesmith (1970-1973) Joanne by Michael Nesmith is listed as one of Daniel J. Levitin's favorite songs. It is the opening track of this "Best of" from the former member of The Monkees. He was the one who always wore a wool cap.

Boring... The author takes a very interesting topic and simply fails to keep it interesting. The book is highly theoretical with very little concrete fact, offering little substance for the reader.

I'm a musician who's been thinking about reading this book since seeing it favorably reviewed. I read it after receiving it as a gift this Christmas, and unfortunately found it to read like an extended Wikipedia entry. Opinions and speculation are stated as facts, claims are not justified with evidence, the author frequently oversteps his expertise, and the writing is otherwise amateurish, lacking direction and leaving loose ends. It seems as though the author wrote it off the top of his head without researching his points or his examples, and a number of statements are false. Other reviewers have listed their pet gripes (some of which have been fixed in the paperback copy), here are a few of mine that haven't been mentioned (and that still exist in the paperback):

-The detailed discussion of the Haydn's Surprise Symphony theme (p92-93) is flawed at every turn: He uses the term parallelism (a term reserved for describing a particular harmonic device) incorrectly to refer to the melody. He describes the melody as going up "just a little" when what we have at that point is the *largest interval leap* anywhere in the theme. Then, "the highest note we've encountered so far" in the melody is incorrectly identified as the fifth. We have already (just two notes ago) heard the C above the G he is referring to. (The highest note is the tonic, not the fifth). Finally, the "surprise" in the Surprise symphony, is identified in the wrong place--eight measures too soon. Why so much detail about something the author hasn't researched? Not only that, but the misunderstandings lead him to bad analysis.

-In one of the book's stupidest sentences, the author claims that "A schema for Dixieland includes foot-tapping, up-tempo music, and unless the band was trying to be ironic, we would not expect there to be overlap between their repertoire and that of a funeral procession" (p117). Dixieland bands playing funeral processions is, of course, an important and well-known New Orleans tradition.

-Beethoven's Ode to Joy theme from his 9th symphony is used as an example of violating expectations (p 119). He describes that we expect the first phrase to end on "do" and we are surprised to hear it end on "re." In the second phrase we are surprised to hear it end on "do" after hearing the first phrase end on "re." Most musicians would disagree with this analysis. This phrase structure is so common, in fact, that there are terms for paired phrases such as this. (The first phrase, typically ending on a member of the dominant chord as happens here, is called the antecedent. The second phrase ending on the tonic is called the consequent. Together the pairing is called a period, or informally a call-and-response.) What is described here as Beethoven's clever violation of expectation is a very good example of the very most common phrase structure in all of music.

-Later, in describing how jazz musicians play over AABA song form (p238-239), Dr. Levitin explains that the "B" section is the "chorus." I think you'll find that by far the most common term for the B section is the *bridge,* the term "chorus" being reserved for one entire iteration of the form. He goes on to describe this as a point of confusion, but it's not if you use the usual terms. Confused himself, he also says "Some songs have a C section, called the bridge." One of his own examples, "All of Me" is ABAC. However, most musicians would say that this song has no bridge, and certainly the C section of "All of Me" cannot be considered the bridge.

I don't have the time or the space for a line-by-line critique of the entire book, but suffice it to say that my examples are not cherry-picked (rather the positive aspects in some reviews seem to be cherry picked, and some of the positive reviews are not so positive). The writing throughout the book is imprecise, inaccurate, misleading, and interspersed with nonsense. The anecdotes make up a conspicuously large portion of the book, and are conspicuously self-serving (dropping the names of rock stars and famous scientists). He has an entire chapter on meeting Crick (of the DNA-discovering pair Watson and Crick). According to the author's account, he was nervous, and had a past memory that kept him from introducing himself. What a relief to find that after finally meeting, Crick enjoyed his company and found his research fascinating! ("Crick's eyes lit up. He sat up straight in his chair. 'Music,' he said. He brushed away his lepton colleague.") On reflection, the topic of music and the brain seems less the main point of the book, and more a jumping off point for a superficial, glowing autobiography. I was disappointed.

As a musician, author and music teacher, I love and recommend this book. I love how it is written, and I love how it makes me think about music, and listen to music, and play music. It helps me understand why playing with my band gives me a rush, and why I love my bass player so much, and why music makes us want to dance. I understand sound as never before. I am on this site preparing to buy copies for my friends and bandmates.
Jon Gindick/Blues Harmonica Jam Camp Seminars


Rock n' Blues Harmonica: A World of Harp Knowledge, Songs, Stories, Lessons, Riffs, Techniques and Audio Index for a New Generation of Harp Players (Includes ... book and 74 minute stereo CD Jamming Buddy)

When a rock musician, a sound engineer and a neuroscientist combine their talents to explain how we think about music, it promises to be interesting. When those three individuals are present in one man who also writes well, the result is compelling. With a strong scientific foundation - no little of that from his own work - from which to build, coupled with his production experience, Levitin has launched a new phase in the understanding of how the mind deals with the outside world. In the manner of colours we think we see, sounds are simply vibrations of air until our brain identifies and translates them for us. Without descending into arcane terms for either the brain or music, he skilfully guides us through the process of "music appreciation" - and why we do.

Musicians enter our lives more intimately than almost anybody else. They can inspire us, influence our lives in innumerable ways, and they are available at any time - virtually at our command. We welcome their presence even when we haven't consciously sought them out. Music is always a personal relationship, sometimes very intense, generating emotions perhaps hidden or suppressed. How can the movement of air molecules generate such reactions in us?

In answering that question, Levitin takes the reader on describes the path sound takes from its entry into the ear. Nerve impulses from sound have a number of paths open to them. Widely dispersed areas of the brain process the signals, further triggering a variety of reactions. Much new information about sounds and the brain's reaction to them has come to light in recent years. When the sound is music, the brain actually goes through mathematical calculations to register timbre, pitch and other musical elements. Familiar music activates responses in the brain's temporal lobes, working with the hippocampus to retrieve memories and formulate new, integrated ones. Areas in the brain, particularly the cerebellum, display increased activity when listening to music, far less so when hearing simple or incoherent noise. Recent studies also point out the influence of the cerebellum in emotional response, a find challenging long-held views of that part of the brain's role. Music's generation of feelings is non-specific - we don't necessarily associate it with those around us. When we do take neighbours into account, it generally enhances the feelings - so long as those folks aren't interrupting our listening.

Lest the reader think all this neuroscience is lofty, obscure and "soul destroying" analysis, take heart. Levitin introduces his book with a discussion of "what music can teach us about the brain, what the brain can teach us about music - and what both can teach us about ourselves". The range of music he uses as examples is clear indication of the breadth of his interests and research. At one point, he visits John Pierce, the founder of "psycho-acoustics" who sought the six tunes best exemplifying rock and roll. The choices are illustrative, but Pierce proved more interested in how sound was manipulated by the performers than in the songs. Although the limits of the research preclude detailed analysis of classical pieces, Levitin examines Bach's flute cantatas to explain how variations in sounds stimulate emotional reactions. Mahler's music brought innovation to the symphonic format in ways that made his compositions particularly effective in evoking listener response.

Providing a wealth of information, this book is a treasure. You needn't be a musician or a critic to gain from it. Any listener, and all of us are that irrespective of our "taste" in music, will be impressed by what is going on in our minds when hearing music we adore or which repels us. In fact, even "new" music which may not attract us on first hearing it, can become another trigger for positive emotional response. Read this book and listen to it again. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

As a leading researcher in the field, Levitin supplies many interesting facts. Overall, though, I found the book a chore to get through. As a musician with a greater-than-average interest in science, my eyes glazed over at all the brain anatomy details. They would have been OK if the book had been better organized, but it was divided into a small handful of rambling chapters.

Some important topics were not addressed at all. After defining absolute ("perfect") pitch, he digresses immediately to a discussion of his research demonstrating that most people have the ability to remember a song in its original key, never to return to absolute pitch, surely a major topic in the neurology of music.

The musical examples are mainly from 1980s pop music; if unfamiliar with or don't like that genre, you will be left scratching your head much of the time.

The concluding chapter concerns whether music served an evolutionary purpose, or instead came along as a side benefit of something else. The author argues for the former, speculating that, like a peacock's tail feathers, being a good musician made one a desirable mate. He may or may not be right, but his arguments range from unconvincing to ludicrous: he points out that Jimi Hendrix got lots of women, as does Mick Jagger, who in fact does so in spite of being unattractive!

Read Oliver Sacks's "Musicophilia" instead. A far more interesting book by a much better writer.

As a person who had given up on ever understanding music, and as an aficionado of books on cognitive neuroscience (Pinker, Hofstadter, Sacks, et al), I felt a certain obligation to read this book, but no real enthusiasm.

It is easily one of the ten most important books I have read. Thoroughly enjoyable, referencing every genre from rap to rock to classical, accessible (to use an overworked word). Even if you know nothing about music at all, there is a good chance that you will find this book hard to put down. His arguments for music being a fundamentally important activity for us humans are compelling.

Although it becomes apparent that there is a bit of, umm, tension and disagrement between Levitin and my very favorite author, Steven Pinker, this only serves to make one pay even more attention.

W. L. Prichard, Jr. MD

Lots of fluff and name dropping.

And then this..

Wagner "has always disturbed me profoundly, and not just his music but the idea of listening to it. I feel reluctant to give into the seduction of music created by so disturbed a mind and so dangerous (or impenetrably hard) a heart as his, for I fear I may develop some of the same ugly thoughts."

Seriously?

A very interesting explanation on what makes music sooo attractive to the vast majority of us... the first two chapters are in my opinion, heavy to read (I had to go back several times to try and get the idea); actually, in this regard I found the first statements of the author a little bit contradictory, since as he somehow explains, science (technical facts) should be explained "easily"... well, it wasn't in my opinion for the most of the beginning. After that, the book gets much lighter, much friendlier and "simple" to understand.

The way -Daniel Levitin explains- how our brain rather than "concentrate" certain functions or types of information in particular parts of our brains (as it was thought), rather "distributes" them in several to be first accumulated and then processed between all of those (and others) I found new and fascinating. Also, the property that our brains have to adapt and learn new things (tricks!) is overwhelming too... (There's hope then!), contrary to the ancient believe that as we grow old, new knowledges are difficult to learn (assimilate). Then he explains how these and other characteristics add to make music sooo enjoyable... (it is possible to live without TV, but not without a radio!).

Good book. I'm glad I ordered it!

By: Pam Stockwell
The bestseller "This is Your Brain on Music" by Daniel J. Levitin combines music and science for a delightful perspective on the importance of music to humankind. The book offers a scientific, yet lovably compassionate, view on music's influence and why and how it has a substantial impact on our lives.

The book offers practical information on music, such as explaining tempo and timbre, in a simple way that is accommodating for someone new to music lingo while still compelling enough for the music virtuoso. For example, many music experts know about tempo, but few know a four percent change in tempo is inaudible to the average person. The chapter called "Anticipation" is especially entertaining in its analysis of how our expectations of rhythm build our musical preferences. "Anticipation" also reveals the exhilarating affect of broken rhythmic expectations, and how it has propelled the success of bands like The Police.

I thoroughly enjoyed the numerous pop culture references, such as Bob Dylan getting booed off stage in 1965 for using the once taboo electric guitar. The examples of real musical events tied to Levitin's points make the book relevant to me, and anyone else who might feel far removed from the inside of the music industry. Levitin's ability to lure us into the intimate details of music, from its basic components to the looming industry itself, is charming and provocative. The book glorifies music, making me wish I did not quit those guitar lessons, but simultaneously invokes a new appreciation for music. Levitin reminds us of music's omnipresence in society that is often taken for granted.

One might ask what makes this book different from any other book about music and its societal affect. After all, there is a plethora of books with similar subject matter crowding bookshelves, such as "The Business of Music" by M. William Krasilovsky. But "This is Your Brain on Music" has the unique ability to give an interesting, thorough, and educational account of many aspects of music, while always keeping content upbeat and surprising. One can find an infinitesimal array of books about the music industry, but there are very few that address, appreciate, and portray the history and influence of music quite like Levitin.

I would recommend this book to anyone because it is a worthwhile read capable of making someone think, a commendable characteristic for any knowledge cravers such as myself. Levitin's latest tops my list as an absolute "must read" for music lovers. While countless bestsellers can only rave about polarizing issues and taboo subjects, "This is Your Brain on Music" analyzes a lighthearted issue offering much to contemplate, and even more to learn. This book will make people reflect on why music continues to be a vital part of so many peoples' lives for days after finishing the last page.

Although this book was recommended I found it a little disappointing. It was interesting and the stories were fun, however he lacks the color and concrete imagery that I expected. I purchased this book for my 14 year old son who is working toward being a professional Classical musician and I don't believe he would get much out of it as there are so many references to popular music that he has never heard that he would have no reference point. I did enjoy the story about meeting Crick, but I though overall it was tough so stick with the book until the end. Overall I know there are better reads out there concerning music and our understanding of such.

Let me first say that I enjoyed reading this book. It helped me better understand both music and neuroscience. Music's influence on us is a fascinating and powerful subject.

That having been said, however, I do need to make at least one criticism. Levitin's evolutionary explanation for the development of music is egregiously one-sided. He suggests, with others, that music may be an outward demonstration of intelligence and physical prowess - look at me, I can afford to waste all this time and energy - akin to the male peacock's tail. THIS IS ALL WELL AND GOOD FOR MALES, BUT WHAT ABOUT FEMALES!? I read not one sentence in Levitin's book explaining what evolutionary theory would have to say about female singing. I'm willing to accept adaptive explanations for many things.. but in this case Levitin does little to ward off the inevitable criticism that his book features a number of very half-based "just so" stories.

A background in music that goes beyond light listening is required to follow parts of this book easily. Or time and effort could be necessary for many readers. But that would take you away from listening to your favorite music unless you can read about music and listen to it at the same time.

For a musicican, for one trained as a musician, this is a heady intellectual book. However, it often misses the point - entirely, aesthetically, and in practical terms. For instance, a piece practiced a 1000 times, according to the author, should be peerless. Obviously, this is not true. The native talent of the performer is paramount, and, most of all, the piece may be practiced WRONGLY 1000 times, of which, as a non-performer, the author is clearly unaware. The author also almost completely ignores the influence and insight of professional classical performers. The author is an administrator and impressario of rock and probably rap bands. The author has no training in musicology, and probably never talked to a musicologist. I admire the intent, but there are no breakthroughs here in understanding, or enjoying music, and no great insights into music's magic.

Certainly well documented and written for those in the know. It tends to be somewhat boring on some occations but you have to continue on the read to hear the music!

Being a musician, I was suprised at how little I actually knew about sound. The book was very interesting and well written. If you're at all curious about the phycology of sound, check out this book.

This was an amazing read that I absolutely could not put down. This is exactly the book I have been waiting years for. It is written for people with a deep interest in both science and music; I believe that many "engineer/scientist by day and musician by night" types will love this book. Best of all, it does not require a deep understanding of music, psychology, or neurology (although one of Levitin's premises seems to be that we ALL have a deep understanding of music, whether we know it or not!)

Levitin starts out with a chapter or so on his background and music theory. As many reviewers have mentioned, the music theory presented here (and throughout the book) may not be new material for practicing musicians, but it does lay a good groundwork for many of the definitions and ideas that Levitin uses throughout the text.

Moving on to the rest of the book, Levitin has an interesting style that I found riveting. The book is not highly dense with ideas - it is not a textbook. It often takes several pages to come to a point. However, in these pages, Levitin is either giving historical information about how the current theories have come about, telling anecdotes related to the topic, or explaining laboratory results that have shed light on the topic.

Please do not misunderstand the intent of this book . . . it is not a thesis, a textbook, a journal article, etc. It should not be used as a primary source for information on any of the topics presented. And Levitin lays this out in the forward. This book is geared toward a much broader audience.

Although i was personally quite disappointed with the book, I have given it a rating of 3 stars because it perhaps serves a role educating younger readers looking for a few interesting ideas or a general overview of music psychology.

As for me, I found myself skimming the pages as rapidly as possible, occasionally saying out loud in frustration, "Get to the point!" The few interesting ideas (such as that professional musicians tend to transfer activities from the right brain to the left) I had already picked up elsewhere.

I have nothing against the author. He seems friendly and nice enough, and has obviously spent a lot of time and effort researching the subject, coming to reasonable and well-supported positions. However, I do think a lot more (or better?) editing was called for, so that ideas were presented in a more organized way, and a lot of fluff and unnecessary repetition removed.

In summary, this could be an introduction to the subject if you have never thought about it before, but if you are a musician, and have thought at all about the psychology and evolution of music, even casually, and especially if you have kept up with the general media's coverage of new scientific research, this will not have anything to offer you. In addition, if you like writing to be dense with ideas and information (Oliver Sacks is a good example), this will be particularly frustrating.

For musicians of any genre, any level of involvement, who wonder how they do what they do and why they can sing their favorite song on pitch and in tempo even if they can't sing, this book is a fascinating read. Oh, if you wonder why that stupid ad jingle just won't get out of your head, find out here!

You have to have enjoyed your science classes in school, but you will find out why you have this obsession with making music. Levitin is eclectic in his definition of music and uses examples from Bach to Led Zeppelin and beyond. He was a rock musician and producer before he became a scientist.

The book is dense, a few pages will provide food for thought for a week, but if science and music are part of your life this book will be on the hot shelf for months.

J'Carlin

I had heard much about this book on radio, and seen features about the author on TV and in the news. As a practicing musician I would love to know more about what actually happens physically when one performs, hears or otherwise experiences music. For all these reasons I began this book with pretty high expectations.

To begin with, two long chapters--eighty pages, or almost a third--of "This is Your Brain on Music" are devoted to explaining the basics of music, pitch and rhythm, for what is assumed to be a non-musician reader. While Levitin's efforts in this area are certainly considerate, they are unnecessary for anyone with even a modicum of previous training and moreover, not all that clear, in my opinion, to anyone who hasn't had that training. Subsequent chapters on the perception of music, the role expectation plays in a listener's perception, and recognition do go on to topics of considerably more interest. It is fascinating, for example, to try and figure out why people can recognize transpositions and variations of a familiar melody, for example. Such perception has been impossible to duplicate mechanically. The penultimate chapter grapples with a question that other scientists and educators have debated for eons--does musical "talent" really exist? Levitin mulls this over and arrives at this result: "The best guess that scientists currently have about the role of genes and the environment in complex cognitive behaviors is that each is responsible for about 50 percent of the story." How's that for hedging one's bets?

This parsing of material that has real interest, only to arrive at a lame or non-committal conclusion, unfortunately happens all too often in "This is Your Brain on Music." Moreover, the rambling and uneven tone of the text itself, which veers between self-consciously non-technical (using nonsense syllables to convey pulse, say) and densely scientific terminology, at times on the same page, further tends to obscure Levitin's intermittently illuminating observations. Long digressions to relate important moments in the author's life (famous people he met and worked with, mostly) and frequent quips impart a rather chummy tone (see, I'm not really a cold, analytical scientist, but just like you) but again lead the reader away from rather than toward the central points the author wants to make. There is worthwhile information to be gleaned, ultimately, from "This is Your Brain on Music:" but I finished the book feeling like I'd had to work too hard to dig it out.