Music and the Brain

by Aniruddh D. Patel

In Music and the Brain, neuroscientist and Professor of Psychology Aniruddh Patel of Tufts University probes one of the mind's most profound mysteries. Covering the latest research findings-from the origins of music's emotional powers to the deficits involved in amusia, or the inability to hear music-these 18 enthralling half-hour lectures will make you think about music and your brain in a new way. "Ani's series of lectures hit all the right notes. A gifted and engaging guide, he delivers an extraordinarily comprehensive and accessible dive into the most fascinating topics in the neuroscience of music. Watch all of these and you'll know what one of the greatest minds in the field has to say about the exciting world of music and the brain." -Daniel J. Levitin, Author of This Is Your Brain On Music and Professor of neuroscience and music, McGill University Designed for music lovers and brain enthusiasts at all levels, Music and the Brain assumes no prior background in the subject. The course is truly interdisciplinary, covering fundamental ideas of music theory, neuroanatomy, and cognitive science, while spotlighting the diverse range of experiments, discoveries, and debates in this fast-changing field.

Genres: Nonfiction, Music, Audiobook, Science, Psychology, History, Neuroscience

Audiobook

Published January 1, 2015

Reviews

[Cav · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a decent course. Professor Aniruddh D. Patel has an naturally easy teaching style and presented interesting content throughout.
The course begins with Patel telling the viewer about a 40,000 year old bone flute that was discovered in what is now Germany, proving that the history of music is much older than we previously thought.
Professor Patel hypothesizes that areas in the brain responsible for language could also be responsible for music cognition. He brings an evolutionary lens to the subject of music and musicality, which is always interesting for me.
The course covers much of the newest research around music and the brain, with lectures ranging from "Music: Culture, Biology, or Both?", to "Perceiving and Moving to a Rhythmic Beat", to "Are We the Only Musical Species?", and many others in between.
I enjoyed this course overall. Professor Patel covers many interesting topics here, and his lectures are entertaining and informative.
I would recommend this course to anyone interested in how music and the brain interact.
4 stars.

[Benjamin Rubenstein]

This is a remarkable production chock full of musical arrangements. It's just too dense for me to listen through. I want to read it--because I think much of the research discussed in this is fascinating--I just can't.

[Yaaresse · Rating 2 out of 5]

A mixed bag on this one.

For me, it started off strong, bogged down in the middle, and only got more interesting with lectures 15 and 16 before bogging down again at the end. I listened to this with my spouse, who knows far more about music theory than I do. My interest was the psychological and physical effects of music. Regardless of those differences, both of us were lunging for the fast-forward button at the same spots and agreed that this GC was disappointing and didn't really live up to the synopsis.

The presenter is an evolutionary biologist, so the material is slanted from more toward looking at the research of music on primates than on musicology. or the effects of specific aspects of music on humans. And the research is...undetermined. For every study that says one thing, he presents another study that refutes it. So, we're left with a lot of "But this is a young field of study and the research so far is inconclusive."

I had hoped the series would be mostly focused on the effects of specific keys/styles or rhythms on the brain, the advantages of musical training in early childhood versus later life stages (although there is a little of this), and the mood/psychological effects of music on listeners and participants.
I also expected more musical examples and of much higher quality. The examples were not only bland and boring, but the sound quality was terrible, as if they were performed on a very cheap synthesizer.

[Tom Walsh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like most of the Great Courses I have listened to, this course was well done. Unfortunately, it only partly addressed what I was looking for. Patel does a very thorough job of addressing the research into the effects of various components of Music on specific parts of the Brain.

I was more interested in the effects of Music on the whole Brain, Personality and Mental Health of the Listener. The last few chapters do address current research on Alzheimer, Parkinson’s and Stroke patients. He highlights some of the positive effects but points out that more research needs to be done.

The course’s emphasis on the arguments for Music as a product of Biological Evolution vs an acquired Human Practice was well presented but it’s more of interest to Academics and didn’t really hold my interest.

So I would recommend this course to Academic readers interested in the Neurological Effects of Music rather than Musicians and Music Lovers just interested in the overall effects of Music on the Culture and the Human Experience.

[Nell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite technical, but a great book if you have time to absorb. Or if you have a passion for what music does to and for humans, or neuroscience

[Nicole (bookwyrm) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a neat series of lectures that go into a little bit about how music is learned, and what it means about our brain. I was especially interested in the sections that touched on how music can help patients after a stroke, or who have Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, as well as the parts that showed how music helped in childhood development. I appreciated having audio samples of a lot of the things the lecturer was discussing as well.

[Silas · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a musician, and know a fair amount about music theory, and have taken academic courses about the physics of sound, but this was an interesting look at something I have a bit less knowledge about, which is how music relates to the mind, primarily dealing with psychology and human development, but with a bit of philosophical ideas peppered in, as well. It also focuses a good deal on cross-cultural comparisons, since music differs quite a bit around the world, which I appreciated. There are quite a few musical examples, which were at times a bit troublesome for me, because I tend to consume audiobooks at slightly more than double speed, but I would make an effort to listen to the examples at normal speed. Despite that hiccup, I feel like I learned quite a bit about a subject that interests me immensely, and which I have spent a good bit of time already learning about. This was definitely worth the effort for me, and will teach anyone interested in music something new.

[C.A. Gray]

I downloaded this course because I wanted to learn what we know about why music intrigues us, based on what we know of neuroscience. That's not what I got by the time I gave up, which was almost halfway through, though. Every lecture focused almost exclusively on evolution as a springboard for massive speculation on such things as survival advantages of music, etc. I do not mind passing references to evolution, even though I think it's a theory and should be treated as such. I wouldn't even mind an entire lecture on this, as if it's properly labeled, I can just skip it. But I cannot believe that *everything*, or darn near everything, we know about music and the brain pivots around that theory.

[Anat · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of this course.
I found some lectures to be too technical (since I know nothing about music theory), but some were extremely interesting. I especially loved the lectures discussing music evolution and music abilities in other species. Personally, I found the more human-cognitive-related-lectures to be a bit tedious.

One other issue I had was that in many cases there were pictures involved in the lecture - and this is an audio version of the course. So that was a bit frustrating. But I did enjoy all the music recording examples and the recordings of animals. Fascinating stuff.

[Marielena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a great time with this audiobook! It covered a great variety of music-cognition/brain-related topics, presenting intriguing scientific results; I really appreciated that the audiobook version came along with a pdf (especially because it even made it even easier to check the references of the papers mentioned in the narrative). Even though I don't have any musical education (*sadness mountain*) and occasionally I had a hard time understanding some of the music theory concepts mentioned, I didn't find the difficulty unsurpassable.

[Chad Schultz · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was more interesting than I expected. Don't get me wrong, I still don't know how to sing in key. I still get confused about basic musical terms. But this did have a lot of interesting information about how our brains interact with music, as well as how unusual it is that we do have such an innate sense for music and how that might have evolved. It was also interesting to learn about some of the potential neurological benefits of listening to music or learning to create music.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 1 out of 5]

(NOTE: I'm stingy with stars. For me 2 stars means a good book or a B. 3 stars means a very good book or a B+. 4 stars means an outstanding book or an A {only about 5% of the books I read merit 4 stars}. 5 stars means an all time favorite or an A+ {Only one of 400 or 500 books rates this!).

This was not as interesting as I thought it might be but there are interesting portions in it.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting journey of how music has been a key factor in human civilisation. These lectures are informative and well delivered, though do go into greater detail than non academics (like myself) can follow. Overall I enjoyed reading/listening to the book and feel I have a more rounded understanding of the topic.

[Rhoda · Rating 5 out of 5]

.......sometimes behave so strangely........

Music is otherworldly and that is why this book couldn't answer all the questions.

I don't sing enough and not just because of neurological health.

Learned fascinating facts about music. But this is only the beginning of the journey.....

[RA · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining and quite informative set of lectures about music and the brain. Mr. Patel keeps it interesting and lively. This is research-based, so it's staggering in the implications. Great stuff

[Major Doug · Rating 2 out of 5]

Listened to this book: too much music; not enough brain. Got to get my kids playing piano...

[Leslie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of course I listened to this on an audiobook. He plays a lot of music so I can't imagine how you'd just read this book.

[Always2014]

angie recommended

[Jamie Scott · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable and interesting.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, not totally to the point.

[Kathy Nealen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good course. I liked the later episodes better than the earlier ones. The later ones were more like what I expected the class to be.

[Joseph L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Watch a detailed review along with my favorite ideas and takeaways at:
https://youtu.be/Z9M3_X-z-eU

[Ryan Miller]

DNF—Good content, but not what I was looking for.

[Andrew Boyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Slam dunk, really good.

[Malachi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not an expert at any of this.
I thought is was a great combination of technical and aesthetic.
I learned a lot. Lots of ideas for further reading.

[GW · Rating 4 out of 5]

I believe imagination is a tapping into the subconscious as a form of open play. But in life without struggle there can be no progress. I found the class interesting, but it did not have enough of hard science or musical examples. It was a survey class. So allow things in your life which make your heart sing, feed your soul or nourish you on a daily basis. Music is our common energy. And after listening to the lectures I tried listening to different kinds of music. The kind you might struggle with. I've tried Diurnal Beats to aid in mental things but I found viruses attached to the free versions on line. So I'm trying music to find inner soul instead. Some weird dissonant sounds and foreign language songs. What Patel calls cognitive restructuring. But I didn't believe all his studies and I say only that music needs to be studied more to unravel the mysteries of the brain as regarding what music is all about. Both, empirically and emotionally. I'm looking forward to further study on this one.