Saturday, January 19, 2008

Brain stuff

What I am looking for in This is your brain on music is something that makes me think. In my last entry I wrote that a melody is just a series of ratios and rhythms. It is significant that the brain, as opposed to machines, focuses its attention on the differences between the notes rather than the notes themselves. It may be this feature that makes music possible. I'm going to propose the possibility that the ratio between notes passes into long term memory while the specific pitch does not.

He writes briefly about musical illusions. I think music is an evolutionary accident, and that music itself is an illusion.

The author says he is more interested in mind than in brain. He should have called his book This is your mind on music.

1 comment:

Chris Baker said...

I totally disagree. I think that music is an integral part of being human, just as song is to being a bird, and dance is to being a bee. Language, however, is an evolutionary accident.