Monday, August 30, 2010

What Does Music Look Like to Our Brain?

from http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/nature-brain-and-culture/201007/what-does-music-look-our-brain

by Mark Changizi

I believe that music sounds like people, moving. Yes, the idea may sound a bit crazy, but it's an old idea, much discussed in the 20th century, and going all the way back to the Greeks. There are lots of things going for the theory, including that it helps us explain...

(1) why our brains are so good at absorbing music (...because we evolved to possess human-movement-detecting auditory mechanisms),

(2) why music emotionally moves us (...because human movement is often expressive of the mover's mood or state), and

(3) why music gets us moving (...because we're a social species prone to social contagion).

And as I describe in detail in my upcoming book -- Harnessed: How Language and Music Mimicked Nature and Transformed Ape To Man -- music has the signature auditory patterns of human movement (something I hint at in this older piece of mine).

Here I'd like to describe a novel way of thinking about what the meaning of music might be. Rather than dwelling on the sound of music, I'd like to focus on the look of music. In particular, what does our brain think music looks like? Continue reading...


Friday, August 27, 2010

Student Teaching Her Grandpa!

Two days ago, a student told me she's been teaching her grandpa "Chester Chills Out", so now her grandpa can play the piece well with his right hand. She plans to teach him the left hand next.

After hearing this, I smiled because that sounded like a great bonding moment!

I'm glad my 7-year-old student can now teach piano too!^_^

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Give the gift of Kindermusik!




Give the gift of Kindermusik to children who are physically or emotionally challenged, who are financially or educationally disadvantaged, who have physical disabilities, or who have lost a parent!

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Creativity Crisis

from http://www.newsweek.com/2010/07/10/the-creativity-crisis.html

For the first time, research shows that American creativity is declining. What went wrong—and how we can fix it.

Experts assess 10 drawings by adults and children for signs of out-of-the-box thinking. View gallery.

How Creative Are You?
Back in 1958, Ted Schwarzrock was an 8-year-old third grader when he became one of the “Torrance kids,” a group of nearly 400 Minneapolis children who completed a series of creativity tasks newly designed by professor E. Paul Torrance. Schwarzrock still vividly remembers the moment when a psychologist handed him a fire truck and asked, “How could you improve this toy to make it better and more fun to play with?” He recalls the psychologist being excited by his answers. In fact, the psychologist’s session notes indicate Schwarzrock rattled off 25 improvements, such as adding a removable ladder and springs to the wheels. That wasn’t the only time he impressed the scholars, who judged Schwarzrock to have “unusual visual perspective” and “an ability to synthesize diverse elements into meaningful products.” Continue reading...