Customer Reviews:
 Very informative January 18, 2008
0 out of 3 found this review helpful
I found the book interesting as well as informative. Very helpful to a fledgling musician!
 Revised Title: Daniel J. Levitin's Brain on Music January 14, 2008
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
There is enough self-indulgent auto-biographical dribble in this book to ruin whatever interest the reader might have had for brain science. If you want to learn about how the mind works there are many excellent popular brain science books, stay away from this book. If you want to learn about the musical tastes of Daniel J. Levitin and how important his friends are, this is the book for you. Barely tolerable.
Just Say "Yes" to This is Your Brain On Music January 11, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Daniel J. Levitin's "This Is Your Brain on Music" is a book that combines an interest in music with an interest in the brain, the mind, and how they work together. It wasn't written with his scientific colleagues in mind, nor was it written for musicians with advanced concepts of harmony, but anyone with an interest in music and the mind can benefit. He kind of renders unto Caesar what is Caesar's as it were, but I imagine his fellow scientists would think he had oversimplified some of the science, just as I did with the rudimentary musical explanations.
I kind of skimmed over parts that explained things I already knew about chords, scales and keys. But he did a pretty good job. I think you can't really explain music like that with just words, but if you explore harmony with a piano or guitar, and then read about the theory, you will start to see how certain chords almost have gravitational fields that pull them towards resolutions with other chords. At one point, in the appendix, Levitin prints the chords to I Got Rhythm by George Gershwin, but for an AABA form song, he only prints the chords to the first two A parts, and leaves out the B section, which is what really made the song such a perennial favorite of jammers. Also, he transposes them to the key of C, while "Rhythm" is more often played in Bb. For the musician who wants to understand music theory I recommend The Jazz Theory Book by Mark Levine or The Jazz Piano Book, also by Mark Levine.
But TIYBOM is THE book to read if you want to take a layman's tour of the latest scientific theories about how the brain and mind function in performing or listening to music. He describes fascinating experiments with EEG, electroencephalogram, which monitors the electrical activity triggered by musical, or other, thoughts. To further refine the process, they use functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or fMRI, which not only monitors the electrical activity, but can pinpoint the exact location by tracking oxygenated hemoglobin which flow into the regions where the synapses are firing. Though Levitin was biased against mapping the brain for its own sake, the mapping did provide insight into how musical thoughts were processed. For instance, the hippocampus, not a college for hippopotami, but rather a part of the brain, seems to be involved in musical memories, experiences and context. The left and right hemispheres have different functions, but how this differs in left and right handed individuals is still being studied. The cerebellum, the most primitive part of the brain, one that is present in reptiles, also seems to have a role in rhythm, rhythmic motor functions, such as walking, and emotions. Perhaps emotions are triggered by music, completely bypassing the later more evolved portions of the brain, and going straight to the cerebellum. Like the snake charmer with a basket of cobras, except that cobras are deaf and it is a trick, involving kicking the basket, and then swaying to distract the snakes.
There are lots of interesting stories about patients with various brain trauma, lesions, and injuries, which had interesting effects on how they perceived music. For instance, one case had someone who suffered from hypermnesia, which was the opposite of amnesia, and instead of forgetting, he remembered everything. If he looked at a person, he remembered every image of their face, but he had trouble knowing that they were all the same person. He couldn't sort out the connections. Another case was a man with Williams Syndrome, a chromosome deficiency similar to Down Syndrome, but a quarter as rare. This individual was severely retarded, and he had trouble even tying his shoes. Yet, he was able to play the clarinet, and remembered several complicated pieces by heart. If, however, he made a mistake, he would ask if he could do it again, but he would have to go back to the very beginning of the piece.
Another section of the book deals with the phenomenon of Absolute Pitch, or AP. People with this can hear a note and instantly tell what pitch it is. Willie Nelson has this, and in his autobiography he describes how he can even tell what pitch the buzz of a fly is, which he claims to be F. A friend of mine who had AP once heard a blimp overhead, and claimed the motor was humming in E. He struck the chord on the guitar, and I was surprised to find that he was right. Levitin himself does experiments on average people, and he finds that they will most often sing a familiar song in the right key and close to the tempo, so somehow average people can remember pitches, but they don't seem to be able to just name the pitches like people with AP. Also, those with AP seem to have an enlarged area of the brain that might account for this ability.
And did you know that the Germans actually have a word for the tunes or snippets of catchy jingles that can get stuck in your mind and play over and over? They call them ohrwurms, or Ear Worms. Perhaps this condition is similar to obsessive compulsive disorder. I find that if you get one, it helps to think of Ravel's Bolero, because it is a stronger ohrwurm and will slay the other one. Like the theme to the "I Love Lucy" show. Have you ever had that stuck in your head? At least Bolero changes timbre, with the motif being orchestrated differently, as it builds and builds in intensity. Did you know that William Burroughs has the boys in his novel The Wild Boys use them as weapons, making up "idiot songs" that would get stuck in their enemies minds and drive them insane. And I thought he was prophesizing about Hip Hop.
Daniel Levitin has a lot of interesting takes on music and science, and he sometimes describes his scientific experiences in terms of his musical ones. For instance, he is invited to a seminar at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, and he feels like a girl backstage at an Elvis concert. One of the chapters is titled "After Dessert, Crick was still Four Seats Away" and in it he wants to meet Francis Crick, who along with James Watson was the scientist who mapped the structure of DNA. He frets that it will turn out like an earlier meeting when he was invited to a tea party at the Automat recording studio, and wanted to meet, and possibly work with Ron Nevison, an engineer who had worked on recording sessions with Led Zeppelin and The Who. He breached protocol, introduced himself, and never heard from Nevison again. But luckily this time a sympathetic colleague introduced him to Crick, who perks up at the mention of music, and they have a great chat, but they never meet again as Crick dies a month later.
He had wanted to meet him not because of his work on DNA, or even because of his recent work entitled The Astonishing Hypothesis, but rather because of an autobiographical book he had written called What Mad Pursuit. Francis Crick wrote that because he started so late, he was able to approach science with an open mind, and he hadn't invested countless hours in a particular discipline or hypothesis that might have blinded him to alternate views. This particular passage inspired Levitin because he, too, had come to science late in life.
Inspiration takes many forms, and some of the other scientists propose theories that Levitin disagrees with. For instance, Steven Pinker, who had just completed a major work of cognitive science called How The Mind Works, thought that music was completely useless, and that it had developed solely by piggy backing on the language function. He described music as mental cheesecake. Levitin obviously disagrees with this opinion, and makes a compelling case for music being an integral part of who we are as humans, something that exists in all cultures, and has for as long as time is remembered. Another work he doesn't agree with is The Mozart Effect, which proposes that music can make you smarter. While he agrees that music could make you smarter, he turns the idea around, and for instance, asks if educators and parents would be so anxious to push math on kids because it was discovered that it would make them better musicians? He thinks music is worthwhile for itself alone. He also thinks the experiments were poorly designed.
From his contacts with the musical world, there is an interesting encounter with Joni Mitchell, who likes to use alternate tunings in her music. She told Levitin that she never found a bass player who could support what she was doing until she played with Jaco Pastorius. The bass prodigy who played with Weather Report and was later killed by a bouncer had an obnoxious personality, but she put up with him because he understood her music, and contributed just what she wanted. With her alternate tunings, the songs were built on unconventional chord structures, and also incorporated pedal notes, open strings that would drone throughout a piece. Bass players kept asking her what chords she was playing; wanting to know what was the root. She didn't really know the root, but more important, she wanted the harmonies to be a little ambiguous, without them having a specific root.
It is personal anecdotes like this one that made This Is Your Brain on Music such an fascinating read, and if ever I am at a scientific conference, I hope someone will have the good grace to introduce us, observing proper protocol, of course.
Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul Francis Crick wrote this.
What Mad Pursuit: A Personal View of Scientific Discovery (Sloan Foundation Science) Francis Crick wrote this, too, and it inspired Daniel J. Levitin in his scientific pursuits.
The Wild Boys: A Book of the Dead (Burroughs, William S.)
The Jazz Theory Book, or The Jazz Piano Book, also by Mark Levine.
Shadows and Light Joni Mitchell live with Pat Metheny and Jaco Pastorius, who Joni felt was the first bassist to "get" her.
The Mozart Effect: Tapping the Power of Music to Heal the Body, Strengthen the Mind, and Unlock the Creative Spirit Daniel J. Levitin has a bone to pick with The Mozart Effect, but it is interesting if taken with a grain of salt.
Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within Kenny Werner has excellent advice on how to get to Carnegie Hall. Yes, it takes practice, but it is effortless.
Fantasia (Special 60th Anniversary Edition) This Disney animation has a segment devoted to Beethoven's 6th Symphony, the Pastoral. It is mentioned as one of Daniel J. Levitin's favorite pieces of music.
Psycho: The Complete Original Motion Picture Score
The Older Stuff: Best of Michael Nesmith (1970-1973) Joanne by Michael Nesmith is listed as one of Daniel J. Levitin's favorite songs. It is the opening track of this "Best of" from the former member of The Monkees. He was the one who always wore a wool cap.
 Interesting topic... but that's about it January 3, 2008
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Boring... The author takes a very interesting topic and simply fails to keep it interesting. The book is highly theoretical with very little concrete fact, offering little substance for the reader.
 Extended Wikipedia article meets self-serving autobiography December 28, 2007
32 out of 38 found this review helpful
I'm a musician who's been thinking about reading this book since seeing it favorably reviewed. I read it after receiving it as a gift this Christmas, and unfortunately found it to read like an extended Wikipedia entry. Opinions and speculation are stated as facts, claims are not justified with evidence, the author frequently oversteps his expertise, and the writing is otherwise amateurish, lacking direction and leaving loose ends. It seems as though the author wrote it off the top of his head without researching his points or his examples, and a number of statements are false. Other reviewers have listed their pet gripes (some of which have been fixed in the paperback copy), here are a few of mine that haven't been mentioned (and that still exist in the paperback):
-The detailed discussion of the Haydn's Surprise Symphony theme (p92-93) is flawed at every turn: He uses the term parallelism (a term reserved for describing a particular harmonic device) incorrectly to refer to the melody. He describes the melody as going up "just a little" when what we have at that point is the *largest interval leap* anywhere in the theme. Then, "the highest note we've encountered so far" in the melody is incorrectly identified as the fifth. We have already (just two notes ago) heard the C above the G he is referring to. (The highest note is the tonic, not the fifth). Finally, the "surprise" in the Surprise symphony, is identified in the wrong place--eight measures too soon. Why so much detail about something the author hasn't researched? Not only that, but the misunderstandings lead him to bad analysis.
-In one of the book's stupidest sentences, the author claims that "A schema for Dixieland includes foot-tapping, up-tempo music, and unless the band was trying to be ironic, we would not expect there to be overlap between their repertoire and that of a funeral procession" (p117). Dixieland bands playing funeral processions is, of course, an important and well-known New Orleans tradition.
-Beethoven's Ode to Joy theme from his 9th symphony is used as an example of violating expectations (p 119). He describes that we expect the first phrase to end on "do" and we are surprised to hear it end on "re." In the second phrase we are surprised to hear it end on "do" after hearing the first phrase end on "re." Most musicians would disagree with this analysis. This phrase structure is so common, in fact, that there are terms for paired phrases such as this. (The first phrase, typically ending on a member of the dominant chord as happens here, is called the antecedent. The second phrase ending on the tonic is called the consequent. Together the pairing is called a period, or informally a call-and-response.) What is described here as Beethoven's clever violation of expectation is a very good example of the very most common phrase structure in all of music.
-Later, in describing how jazz musicians play over AABA song form (p238-239), Dr. Levitin explains that the "B" section is the "chorus." I think you'll find that by far the most common term for the B section is the *bridge,* the term "chorus" being reserved for one entire iteration of the form. He goes on to describe this as a point of confusion, but it's not if you use the usual terms. Confused himself, he also says "Some songs have a C section, called the bridge." One of his own examples, "All of Me" is ABAC. However, most musicians would say that this song has no bridge, and certainly the C section of "All of Me" cannot be considered the bridge.
I don't have the time or the space for a line-by-line critique of the entire book, but suffice it to say that my examples are not cherry-picked (rather the positive aspects in some reviews seem to be cherry picked, and some of the positive reviews are not so positive). The writing throughout the book is imprecise, inaccurate, misleading, and interspersed with nonsense. The anecdotes make up a conspicuously large portion of the book, and are conspicuously self-serving (dropping the names of rock stars and famous scientists). He has an entire chapter on meeting Crick (of the DNA-discovering pair Watson and Crick). According to the author's account, he was nervous, and had a past memory that kept him from introducing himself. What a relief to find that after finally meeting, Crick enjoyed his company and found his research fascinating! ("Crick's eyes lit up. He sat up straight in his chair. 'Music,' he said. He brushed away his lepton colleague.") On reflection, the topic of music and the brain seems less the main point of the book, and more a jumping off point for a superficial, glowing autobiography. I was disappointed.
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