This is your Brain on Music

It’s now time for bonus favorite book time, this is the beginning of many short takes on books I read from friend recommendations.  I will be reading these recommended books until new RAs start visiting me in late spring/early summer.  Today’s book, This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin, is exactly as it sounds, a review of how music impacts the brain.  Levitin begins with an intro that provides the novice music teacher wanna-be a lexicon of music definitions such as: timbre, contour, loudness, reverberation, meter, key, melody, cadence, diatonic, you get the idea.   Levitin utilizes many of the 40-somethings favorite songs to explain each of these terms, such as Dark Side of the Moon, Back in Black, Every Breathe You Take, Sledgehammer, and I’m on Fire by Bruce Springsteen.  Why do we remember voice more than facts?  This book is all about how music impacts our brain.  Why does music make my feet tap?  Why do I like the type of music I like? Why does music trigger certain memories (i.e. how do we connect life experiences with certain music)?    Not only is the book understandable for the “lay musician,” it is written with great examples (songs I remember and LOVE).  This is an in-depth investigation from a music guy turned “music scientist”!  We learn about Levitin’s ascent from high school band geek into the classroom of Stanford and MIT.  Levitin really does his work on the subject with a who’s who in his literature review.  Academics will respect the work, music lovers will learn a great deal of “what’s behind the music!”  Pick it up, worth a listen down nostalgic road.