Daniel Levitin

Oh, music

Daniel J. Levitin explores this profound evolutionary tool in his book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord

Such a great title

And Levitin is uniquely positioned to map this territory, you know.

And I come to find out later, right? Because I've, you know, I always have had this strong sense of curiosity.

And so I'm like, why is this? Why is that? And so I've learned from people, like I've had the opportunity to meet some wonderful people like Daniel Levitin, who's a musician and a neuroscientist who wrote This Is Your Brain on Music.

And so Daniel explained to me how the part of the brain that accesses music is deeper than the part of the brain that accesses language.

And so oftentimes brain disease doesn't go that deep.

There are tricks that you can do to make your ear think that there's more low end than there actually is.

So if you'll permit me to get a little bit nerdy, there's this book called This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin.

Yes.

Fantastic read for nerds.

Yeah.

It's, it's interesting you saying that because I had, uh, uh, three people that passed over recently, friends of mine, one, one day after the other just last week.

Mm-hmm.

And I've been inundated with playing music all the time.

Email us at podcast at michaelbeckwith.com, and perhaps one day I'll be answering your question that will touch the lives of so many.

If you've enjoyed the show, you might as well submit a five-star review.

You might as well tell your friends and family.

Let's spread the love.

On a serious note, if you love your job, you're engaged, you find that you've got purpose, you've got meaning, then Area 47 is really activated.

I'm talking about an area of the brain that Vinod Manon and Daniel Levitin have been working on for several years.

And interestingly, it's about the size of your pinky finger.

But what it is, it's essentially an area behind your temples and it's responsible for helping you to keep busy.

Worship music doesn't actually blow all the circuits in your brain, but it does rewire them.

In This Is Your Brain on Music, The Science of a Human Obsession, Daniel J. Levitin explains, "...music is being used to manipulate our emotions, and we tend to accept, if not outright enjoy, the power of music to make us experience these different feelings." He adds, if music serves to convey feelings through the interaction of physical gestures and sound, the musician needs his brain state to match the emotional state he is trying to express.

Given the example of a blues singer singing and feeling the blues, Levton suggests, As listeners, there is every reason to believe that some of our brain states will match those of the musicians we are listening to.

If you're singing about violence while experiencing feelings of excitement, your beliefs about and behaviors toward your neighbors are going to be affected, as your brain associates violence with excitement.

There's some Mark Twain.

There is Daniel Levitin, which this is the other thing is that some of these books, it's not all fiction.

It's not just rom-coms or anything like that.

It's not easy on your brain type of reading.