Rocka' My Baby in the Tree Top...

Babies can recognize music from birth!

Can babies pick up patterns from music while sleeping?

Yes.

Babies, while sleeping, were hooked up to EEG (encephalograph), which is an instrument that measures brain activity using electrodes placed on the scalp.

"The results were exciting, demonstrating newborns had a sense of pitch from birth, and this was not something learned through experience as had previously been thought. The experiments showed they are even sensitive to the beat in music." (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226082517.htm)

“While it remains unclear whether a capacity for music is rooted in nature, rather than nurture, it is clear that musical competence is a special human capacity, shared across ages and cultures.” says project partner, Henkjan Honing.

Although the ability to detect musical patterns is present from birth, music cognition develops throughout life. However, music cognition is influenced not so much by musical expertise, as by experience. According to Honing, “Frequent listening to a certain musical genre allows listeners without formal musical training to become experts in that musical style.”

(http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090226082517.htm)

Music is INNATE! Well, DUH!!!!

Did You Know?

Two facts about two famous and prestigious individuals:

Dear World,

- Music helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence; he would play his violin to help him get over writers block.

1778. "If there is a gratification which I envy any people in this world it is to your country [Italy] its music. This is the favorite passion of my soul, and fortune has cast my lot in a country where it is in a state of deplorable barbarism . . . . The bounds of an American fortune will not admit the indulgence of a domestic band of musicians. Yet I have thought that a passion for music might be reconciled with that oeconomy which we are obliged to observe . . . . In a country where, like yours, music is cultivated and practised by every class of men I suppose there might be found persons of those trades [gardener, weaver, cabinetmaker, stonecutter] who could perform on the French horn, clarinet, or hautboy and bassoon, so that one might have a band of two French horns, two clarinets, and hautboys and a bassoon, without enlarging their domest[ic] expenses." Asks Fabbroni's aid in procuring such a band of musical artisans. (TJ to Giovanni Fabbroni, 8 June, B.2.196)

1790. "Do not neglect your music. It will be a companion which will sweeten many hours of life to you." (TJ to Martha, 4 April, FAM51)

- Albert Einstein even states the reason he became smart was because of he played the violin. After numerous teachers and people told Einstein and his parents that he was too stupid to learn, his parents bought him a violin. He used his violin to improvise in order to solve problems and equations.

“Life without playing music is inconceivable

for me,” he declared. “I live my

daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of

music…I get most joy in life out of music"

(Here is an article I found about Einstein and his love for music: http://www.pha.jhu.edu/einstein/stuff/einstein&music.pdf)

"WE LOVE MUSIC!!"

Sincerely,

Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein

Our Attraction to Music...

Music usually evokes a physical response from us. WHY?

Rhythm

Rhythm organizes and regulated physical movement.

Think about it, rhythm is apart of our everyday lives. There is rhythm in our heartbeat, in our steps while we walk and even during breathing.

Rhythm is even used to help us remember simple task, especially in our youth. Example...

Tying your shoe:

Build a tee pee
Come inside
Close it tight so we can hide
Over the mountain
And around we go
Here's my arrow
And here's my bow!

Memorizing Vocabulary Words:

Teachers would use music with a certain tempo in order to help students recall vocabulary words better and faster.

Therefore, the rhythm in music can help us learn and not just feel good and dance along.

Check out this funny video of how to double not; not much music, but it's corny funny:

How Music Moves Us

"Without music, life would be a mistake." - Friedrich Nietzsche

As we have seen with Dan's, Jenn's, and Sade's blog posts, music is everywhere! And music is so important to us, we simply cannot live without it. But, what is it about music that moves us? How and why are we so drawn to music?

Research shows that what we feel when we hear a piece of music is remarkably similar to what everybody else in the room is experiencing. In other words, everyone seems to pretty much share the experience of a similar emotion when listening to the same song. But, how does this happen?

The composer and music theorist Leonard Meyer argues that music that is too simple or too complex is likely to irritate. The secret to composing a likeable song is to balance predictability and surprise. A good composer will reward the listener's expectations often enough to maintain him or her interested, but will also violate those expectations the rest of the time in interesting ways.

Neurologically, this is what is going on in our brains: our neural circuits are being exercised when we listen to music, which is done by simultaneously rewarding them for correct predictions and challenging them to learn new principles for organizing the world. Also, listening to music activates reward and pleasure circuits in brain regions such as the nucleus accumbens, ventral tegmental area and amygdala, modulating production of the neurotransmitter dopamine.

Pretty cool, huh?

Info from: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7290/full/464834a.html

The Birth of MUSIC

I've always felt like music is apart of me. The way it evokes certain emotions and moods is insane to me. It makes me wonder...

How long has music been around?

Where did it originate?

 Is music in the Bible?

Because the Bible is the most popularly used form of historical documentation, why not take it back that far? Why not use it as a resource?

In the Bible, music is described to be one of the ways to praise God and worship Him; worshipping through song, through instruments, etc.

However, in Ezekial 28, there is reference to Lucifer, later known as Satan, being the angel of music. 

Ezekial 28:13 states, "The workmanship of they tabrets and of they pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."


It is said that Lucifer's entire body was made out of instruments and beautiful stones and gems that brought forth music for the Heavens to worship God. But, as everyone knows, Lucifer denied God and became Satan, the evil that plagues us and tempts us. All the gifts God gave to Lucifer were not taken away from him when he was sent out of the Heavens. Therefore, he still has the ability to produce great and beautiful music, just not to serve God.

From a religious viewpoint, this is definitely an interesting and significant story. It produces many questions. Questions like:

Well if good and evil does truly exist, does that mean that the devil produces all music and is he in all music?

Is music evil?

Why would God take those talents away from him if he was destined for everything but 'good'?

...so many questions...

where are the answers?

A Day Without Music

The last post I wrote spoke about an article that studied the effects and roles of music in the daily lives of women. At the end of my post I proposed the question of what a day without music would feel like? Or even, if a day without music is possible at all?..

Today I have made the conscious decision to try to go about my day without intentional listening to music.

Here's a look at my day! - 04/20/10

8:00am - The alarm on my phone wake me it. Its music... Opps! I forgot to switch it.. Off to a bad start.

8:15am - When I woke up my television was on. It was ironically on the music channel VH1. A Unfortunately a Brittney Spears video was on. Sorry, I'm not her biggest fan. I turned the t.v. off as soon as I noticed.

8:40am - I get on the bus.. no music! =]

10:30am - I go to a class in which we are doing group presentations. One group uses the Precious" trailer apart of their presentation. There was music in the background.

11:15am - I was walking around campus and encountered a friend of mine. He had headphones on which he simply took off in order to talk to me. I hadn't noticed or heard, for that matter, the music still playing through his headphones. I only noticed it when I went to hug him goodbye. And then I heard it... LOUD AND CLEAR. It was Spanish music; bachata, I believe. I like Spanish music =]

12:50pm - I was eating a bagel when suddenly a thought of my Godson came into my mind. My Godson loves the nursery song "Baa Baa Black Sheep" and sings it all the time. As soon as I thought of him, I thought of that song, and began to unconsciously sing it aloud. I only stopped when the person I was with asked me why was I singing. Embarrassing. It took me about five minutes to get it out of my head. Even now, just writing it, I can hear the song in my head.

The day is practically half over and I can not seem to stay away from music =[

2:30pm - I went to CVS to get a couple of things. There was music playing. The article that I previously posted about discussed companies using music to regulate the customer's mood. Okay so fine, my mood got regulated... but did it effect me? Did I purchase more than I would have without hearing the music?.. I wonder..

4:00pm - MAJOR FAILURE! So I was looking at pictures from my recent trip to the Dominican Republic and I got in the mood to listen to some of the songs I discovered and fell in love with while down there. Four songs later I snapped back into reality and realized what I had done... SORRY GUYS!... This "not listening to music" thing is way harder than I initially thought =[

6:00pm - I had to watch a movie for my Latin American in the World history class. It was a really good, interesting, and informative movie, BUT... there was some background music playing.

8:00pm - I was studying and trying to do some reading in one of the residential hall's lounges. I tried to sit in the most remote corner of the room. A couple of minutes someone came and sat a couple of seat away from me. Unfortunately for me he was listening to his music on the loudest possible level, thus causing me to once again hear music on my "no music" day AND distracting from reading chapter 3 in my history book =[

10:00pm - A friend of mine decided to give me a car-ride back to my dorm room. I got into the car and immediately heard music. I would have asked him to turn it off, but I liked the song. =/ ekk!

12:00am - Time to sleep. Usually I fall asleep to music, but tonight my roommate's slightly loud snoring will be my lullaby. GoodNight!

OKAY! This was wayyyyyyyy harder than I thought. Music plays such a big part in our daily lives that even if we try to avoid it, it follow us... everywhere.we.go! Sometimes, I admit, it was my fault, but most of the time i was just placed in a situation in which I could not help but hear the music.

A Day Without Music = IMPOSSIBLE

Days of Our Lives... and MUSIC!

I think everybody should listen to music. It helps you to be calm, relaxed, to see your life differently – Mireille, contract cleaner, London

Music is like the constant never ending entity. It is omnipresent. I don’t think I’ve ever gone a day with out hearing/listening to music (intentional or unintentional). And please note and understand there is great difference in hearing something and actually listening to it.

What would happen if music just ceased to exist? How would we be affected? What will change? What will remain the same? That is to ask; what role does music play in our daily lives?

A study by Tia DeNora (<-- click to read article) researched just that. 52 in-depth interviews were conducted with women of all ages. The questions were not “yes or no” questions, but open-ended questions, which allowed the participants to explore and express their own personal opinion as elaborately as they so pleased. Each woman can from different areas and had different backgrounds, especially with music, but the underlining similarities in the responses were overwhelming.

Almost every woman described music “as a means for creating, enhancing, sustaining and changing subjective, cognitive, bodily and self-conceptual states.” Music was a way to keep you happy when you’re happy, make you happy when your sad, make you relaxed, help you sleep, and get you excited. They described music as having the ability to do this and so much more. Most of these woman spoke of music as a “need.” A fundamental “need” to sustain the self, and everyday living.

Music was also referred to as an “aesthetic agent” in which it is able to conform, control, and create different mental and physical states. The article talks about how actors sometimes listen to different types of music in order to achieve a desired mood before shooting a scene for a movie. I wonder if this is the same reason why athletes listening to music before big games? When I used to play basketball in high school I would listen to the most energetic music I could find before a game. And even now before taking a test, I like to listen to slow relaxing music. When I was in high school my track coach would not let us listen to music as we did our daily 3mile runs for practice. She said it was because we would loose our body’s natural rhythm. I never understood then, but I understand why now. We conform to our music. Our body changes, our mental states change all in the presence of Miley Cyrus’ “Party In the USA”. Okay fine... It’s not only that song, but it’s all songs that do this to us. And it’s individualistic. My happy song may be you sad song, and vice versa.

This is not a new discovery. Nope! Not at all. People have known about this for… ever! That is why there is music in stores, music in fast food restaurants, music in elegant restaurant, music at social gatherings, and music in elevators. There is music almost everywhere, and in each venue the music serves a particular purpose.

So there you have it. Music plays a BIG role in EVERYONE’S daily lives.

I wonder what a day without music would feel like?...

Do you think you can survive one?

I don’t.

Or, maybe I can. I would just be a very. extra. long. SILENT. day…

"Quotes"

Here are some quotes I found on the Internet where many philosophers and musicians explain in simple statements what music is to them:

After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.

Aldous Huxley

All music is beautiful.

Billy Strayhorn

Any good music must be an innovation.

Les Baxter

I don't care much about music. What I like is sounds.

Dizzy Gillespie

If a composer could say what he had to say in words he would not bother trying to say it in music.

Gustav Mahler

If music be the food of love, play on.

William Shakespeare

In music the passions enjoy themselves.

Friedrich Nietzsche

It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has the beauty of loneliness of pain: of strength and freedom. The beauty of disappointment and never-satisfied love. The cruel beauty of nature and everlasting beauty of monotony.

Benjamin Britten

Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.

Victor Hugo

Music happens to be an art form that transcends language.

Herbie Hancock

Music hath charms to soothe a savage beast, to soften rocks, or bend a knotted oak.

William Congreve

Music in the soul can be heard by the universe.

Lao Tzu

Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Music is a moral law. It gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and charm and gaiety to life and to everything.

Plato

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

Michael Tippett

Music is love in search of a word.

Sidney Lanier

Music is moonlight in the gloomy night of life.

Jean Paul

Music is my religion.

Jimi Hendrix

Music is the best means we have of digesting time.

W. H. Auden

Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue.

Plato

Music is the shorthand of emotion.

Leo Tolstoy

Music is the soul of language.

Max Heindel

Music is well said to be the speech of angels.

Thomas Carlyle

Music should be your escape.

Missy Elliot

Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.

Maya Angelou

Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

Berthold Auerbach

Music, in performance, is a type of sculpture. The air in the performance is sculpted into something.

Frank Zappa

No good opera plot can be sensible, for people do not sing when they are feeling sensible.

W. H. Auden

One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.

Bob Marley

When words leave off, music begins.

Heinrich Heine

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

Laurie Anderson

You are the music while the music lasts.

T. S. Eliot

…And they all have their own definitions…

M.U.S.I.C.

All this talk about music... but what is it?!?

Seems like a pretty easy question right? Yea, that is until you have to answer it.

American Heritage® Dictionary tell us this

NOUN:

1. The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.
2. Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm.
3. 1. A musical composition.
   2. The written or printed score for such a composition.
   3. Such scores considered as a group: We keep our music in a stack near the piano.
4. A musical accompaniment.
5. A particular category or kind of music.
6. An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds: the music of the wind in the pines.

But uh... this doesn't tell me much...

Wikipedia tells us that music is an "art form whose medium is sound"

When I google it pages like "Yahoo! Music" and "Pandora" come up. All great websites, but I'm still confused, and I can only assume so are you...

Google Images shows me this

Studies and an Article in TIME MAGAZINE tell us that music is connected to the cerebral cortex. And if you didn't know what that is, it the important part of your brain where all higher functioning and cognition occur. Memory, language, thinking and consciousness are all connected to the cerebral cortex.

Music

What is music?

I think that to each individual this definition holds its own.

What is music to me?

Music is what makes my heart smile. Its what I listen to when I need to get out of a mood, or stay in it. Its what I listen to when I'm happy and what I am sad. It is what I tried to make when I took piano lessons for 10 years. Music is everything and nothing all the same. My music may be your noise and your music may sound terrible to me, BUT! its all music

So tell me... what's you're definition?

Music in the classroom

How important is music in a child's general development? Is it particularly important for a child's emotional development? Should music be part of every school's curriculum?

According to developmental research, music helps develop children's social, cognitive, as well as emotional skills. In the article "The Role of Music in Your Classroom," Jennifer Jones cites several reasons of why music is an important aspect of a child's development:

• Songs can be used to teach new concepts and to introduce new vocabulary.

• Movement to music develops children’s awareness of their bodies and what they can do. It can also help to develop feelings of self-confidence and fine motor skills.

• Listening to music can help teach children about the basic proper ties of music: loud, soft, fast tempo, slow tempo, and pitch. It can also lead to further creative expression.

Along with this, research has also shown that within the classroom, music has significant therapeutic applications as well. Music in the classroom can help in the expression of feelings, can help soothe hurt feelings, and can increase feelings of self-worth. Therefore, through music, teachers can foster the emotional development of their students.

As Jones also states in her article, "There are many ways to include music in [a school] program. Music can be a rewarding partner in the classroom."

Live Music

Last night I had the opportunity to see my favorite artist and my greatest influence as a musician, John Mayer, play live at the Boston Garden. I will not get into the political aspects of his current situation with the media, that isn't the point of this blog. Today I want to discuss the aspects of live music and how it connects on a much deeper level than any type of recording.

As a musician, for the longest time I was a "bedroom guitar player." I locked myself in my room and played for hours and hours until my hands started to hurt. Eventually I felt like there was something missing. I needed someone else to share the music with. It's hard trying to express yourself in such a way in which nobody can hear your message. That is the whole point of artistic expression, to share your vision with the world. I started a band and now I am in the process of producing my own record. Music is so much more than a self-stimulation and pleasure. It is a community. There is something very intimate about live music that makes people keep coming back for shows. It is a very mutual experience. The artist expresses himself through his music for his fans and the fans feed off of the artist's energy and give back. The experience of live music is very personal and it creates a bond deeper than the aesthetic pleasure of the actual listening. There is nothing better than being on stage and hearing people cheer you on. It is also very special sitting with 10,000 other people who are in attendance for the very same reason you are and that you all share this common bond through the music.

Last night in particular was very special to me because I can play almost all of John's songs and I understand every bit of what he does musically to produce his sound. I have a deeper connection than those who enjoy listening. His music and lyrics hold a special place in my heart more than any other musician. You can certainly hear his influence in my own music. After putting on half of his incredible show he then reached out to the crowd and told us "One of you will take my place up here in 10 years." I raised my fist up in the air and said, "I will."

Dan

Emotional Connection to Music

Hello everybody! When The Music Stops is a blog dedicated to finding out the psychological reasons why humans have such a deep emotional connection to music and how that effects development, particularly in the adolescence to young adult range. We hope you learn as much from this project as much as we do. Thanks for following along with our musical journey.

Dan, Sofi, Jenn, and Sadé