Music and the Brain

When we hear music, the sound vibrates at certain frequencies in our eardrum, and then this noise is interpreted by the brain. Our brain is able to analyze dozens of different frequencies, and arrange them together in just the right way.  When listening to music almost every region in the brain is involved. Usually music is more active in the right brain as opposed to the left brain for non-musicians. For musicians more regions in the left brain are activated possibly because of their ability to analyze music. The left brain is usually responsible for more analytical processes, and the right brain is for more creativity. All this information is according to Daniel J. Levitin from his book, Your Brain on Music. The brain is an important factor to understanding music.

 Our ability to understand and interpret music depends on experience and neural structures that can modify themselves with each new song that we hear.  How our brain reacts to music is really important to how we perceive music. How one grows up in a certain culture can determine how that person my interpret music. A lot of the emotion we feel when listening to music comes from learned experiences. In the American culture, usually the songs that are played in minor are interpreted as sad, and songs that are played in major are perceived as happy.  This could be different amongst other cultures, of how they perceive major and minor chords. There is little to no proof of what the aspects of music interpretation are universal.

                Usually people are comfortable with what is familiar to them. If someone hears the same type of music over and over, they will acquire a liking to the music. This makes the music easier to listen to. When becoming familiar with a song, habituation occurs, and then there is not much of a response to the song. I noticed when I hear a song all the time, I begin to like it, but when I hear that song too much, I lose interest. The song becomes too predictable and boring. When new music comes out it is more interesting because there are some elements in the song that will be unexpected. This can be different for every person in the way that they will perceive different types of music.