This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession

Some concepts too simplified and made too 'pop-science', but some of the conclusions drawn were excellent. ( )

This is a fascinating book; even with the first chapter basically reviewing first year music theory (which is as far as I got) I was still enthralled. Levitin keeps the theoretical grounded in helpful examples, and the connections that he draws between various areas of research around neuroscience, music theory, memory, language, and evolution are endelessly interesting. ( )

Good popular science books have to strike a sort of balance between the specialized language of the subject matter and plain language to describe it. This is Brain on Music, though, is both too vague for experts and too general for the unitiated. The last chapter, however, is truly exciting and strikes this balance very well. I wish Levitin had started from here. The bulk of the book has preliminary kind of feeling to it. ( )

I am not one for Science books, but I do love music, so I thought I would give this a try. Levitin does a wonderful job of explaining both music and the brain for the lay reader. Very in-depth and informative, but still very readable and enjoyable. ( )

If you ask someone if music is a big part of their life, he or she will most likely say yes. But why is that so? We know that music has been around since the dawn of humankind, but did we create music, or did music create us? Daniel Levitin is a neuroscientist and throughout the book he argues that we humans would not be who we are if it wasn’t for music, and he’ll prove this by both the scientific and physiological properties of music and the brain.

In this book, you’ll see the answers to these questions:

• What are the basic components of music including rhythm, pitch, and timbre?
• Why do certain emotions and memories are associated with music we like?
• How do teenagers get attached to music and how it all begins with before we are born?
• Does music really make you smarter? (aka The Mozart Effect)
• Why do songs get stuck in our head?
• How some abilities and disabilities like Absolute Pitch and Williams syndrome affect music?
• What does the cerebellum, the oldest part of the brain, have to do with music and how does it relate to reptiles?
• What makes a musician and how much practice does it take to be great?
• If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it makes a sound?
• How does human and animal courtship us music and other forms of creativity naturally.

Levitin explains everything in such a way that everything is crystal clear. His goal is to simplify things without oversimplifying. If you’ve always been curious of how music works, how it affects our brain, and why we like it so much, then read this book to discover what your brain is on music. You won’t be disappointed.

Rating: Four and a Half Stars **** ½ ( )