music 7


Week 7 Listening Discussion: “How Music Makes Me a Better Neuroscientist”

This week, we continue with the notion of special musical moments, this time starting with neuroscience. This Ted talk by Indra Viscontas highlights two aspects of music: repetition and expectation.

Many of you mentioned musical experiences in our last discussion that linked to one of these two; consider those experiences, then watch the talk.

For our discussion, do two things:

1) Write a short summary of the talk. Be sure to include her characterizations of repetition and expectation.

2) Find a song that has the moment that you wait for—the last version of the chorus, the high note, the drum break—a song that makes you excited when it starts, and as you wait for that moment. Share the video here, give us the time stamp of that moment, and tell us how the musicians use repetition and/or expectation to build to that moment.