your brain on music
TRANSCRIPT
Your Brain On Music
Music and Speech♪ Neural overlap between music and speech comprehension
fMRI shows coactivation of brain regions, indicating similar parts of the brain are used for both processesThis could have a huge effect on the way we look at speech perception and early learning
♪ Let’s focus on three characteristics that music and speech share: Pitch TimingTimbre
Pitch♪ Pitch refers to the frequency of
the sound vibration (High or low)
♪ Perception of the frequencies is technically not measurable because each person perceives sounds differently
However, there is generally
agreement on the pitch level of a sound in relation to other sounds
Timing♪ Timing includes the duration of a tone or beat as
well as the tempo of a piece as a whole♪ Ever heard of holding a note? Think about when you
go to the dentist and they ask you to say ‘ahhhhh!’ ♪ In music, you can play sounds on the beat, or the
front or back of the beatThis affects the tempo of the song
♪ Speech uses these concepts too!Certain languages sound faster or slower
Some have words that mean different things if you elongate a syllable or sound (think of ‘r’ versus ‘rr’ in Spanish) Metronome
Timbre♪ Timbre is most noticeable when
distinguishing between instrumentsString instruments vary greatly in tone from brass instrumentsA violin even has distinct tones from a cello!
♪ The physical qualities of instruments interact with the notes they produce
♪ Above is a spectrogram of one second of a chord on a Fender Stratocaster
♪ The image beneath that is a spectrogram of of a man saying the word “buy”
Perceived Effects♪ Studies have indicated that an
early understanding of music may improve performance in other areas due to similar processing
Learning to read music may translate to more rapid comprehension with consonants and vowelsOverall faster comprehension times across subjects
♪ Think about it: music is usually a pattern you’re really learning how to identify parts within a pattern, or even create a pattern out of separate parts that you’re given
♪ Music has also been linked with motivation and is great for study breaks!
Do you play any instruments?Delphian School
promotes the use of all kinds of arts to stimulate our students’ growth and enthusiasm
for learning!
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