On this week’s show, Dawn Ivers and I discuss Dr. Daniel J. Levitin’s book, This is Your Brain on Music.

Listen to the full podcast episode here.http://traffic.libsyn.com/pianoparentpodcast/PPP123__This_Is_Your_Brain_On_Music.mp3

Music activates the oldest and newest parts of our brain together.

The old brain and new brain work together when playing an instrument. (pg 57)Listening to music activates brain regions in a particular order. (pg 191)You may have heard that music is good for the brain, and it’s true. The research shows that both playing & listening to music create more & stronger neural pathways between different brain regions.

Melodic Memory is a combination of both abstract and specific.

We store both abstract and specific memory of melodies. We pay attention to absolute pitch/tempo, as well as relative pitch/tempo. (pg 165)When we hear a familiar piece that has undergone a transformation, we still recognize it. (pg 137)Like the ragtime interpretations of classical themes in the video below.

Most people, even non-musicians, when they sing a song will be within 4 bpm of the ‘original’ they are referencing. (pg 61)We also tend to sing at or very near the original pitch of a song, because we sing along with that specific memory representation in our heads. (pg 153-154)

Experiencing a thing and imagining it or watching someone else do it will activate the same neurons.

Brain scans were done on people while listening to music, and then while they only imagined listening to music. The same brain regions lit up both times. (pg 154)Our brains also react when we watch someone do something (the experiment referenced is a monkey reaching for a banana). This phenomenon is called mirror neurons. While there was no specific research into this with musicians at the time this book was written, there is speculation that while watching a musician perform, we may be trying to figure out how they are making those sounds, and our brains may essentially be ‘playing along’ ( pg 266-267)For piano students and parents,