A Thought on Music and Science

I recently picked up a book called This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. It is basically about the studies of a music producer turned neuroscientist but even that simple description doesn't do it justice. The point here is after reading just the introduction it made me look at several things differently. It had compared an artist to a scientist. How an artists studio and a scientists lab are very similar. Even the way the two look at the world and create. After reading just that little bit it all made sense as to why I myself am such a fan of science. Then I began to look at my musician friends and the way the approached things as well as their own personal interests. Do you know what I found? This group of misunderstood vagabonds, drunks, emotional wrecks, unstable creatives were in fact fascinated with science as well. They all have their own experiments. Their own theories as to how they can create certain things, elements, sounds to further their own research to find a new truth in the human condition.

Artists find new way to express their creativity all the time. With music it is much deeper than that. Some use technology to get the heart pumping while others call on the force of psychology to get into the heads of their listeners. Some artists aren't even sure why their music makes others feel the way they do when they hear the music but that's alright. They don't have to. Sometimes the best inventions are created on accident. What I am getting at is do you ever wonder why you are so attracted to certain songs?

You see when a musician plays music it fires up the entire brain. Listening to music does just about the same thing. When you listen to music especially in a heightened emotional state you take it all in. The minor keys will make you feel sad or down while majors will make one more happy. Beats work in a similar way. Mix major keys with a moderate paced beat you feel like you want to get up and dance. Slower beats with minor chords will, in a sense, do the opposite. Now taking into consideration of the chords being used and the beats or percussion then listen to the lyrical content. You might be surprised to find that sometimes the lyrics don't match the overall feel of the song. A song with positive meaning will sound like a negative song based on the music alone and vice versa. You normally connect with the music before you connect with the lyrics. Think about it the next time you listen to a song that you fell in love with for one reason or another.

Most musicians do think about those types of things. It is a form of psychology mixed with the science of music or frequency and waves. Take that, add the raw emotion, creativity and you find yourself in the midst of some of the most intelligent minds. Granted also some of the most underestimated and misunderstood minds. It really makes one think.

Well now that that's out thank you for taking a look at this series of thoughts!