Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    How Music Can Make You Better
    How Music Can Make You Better
    How Music Can Make You Better
    Ebook99 pages1 hour

    How Music Can Make You Better

    By Indre Viskontas

    5/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    How can certain songs carry us through a tough workout, comfort us after a breakup, or unite 50,000 diverse fans? In this fascinating field guide, neuroscientist and opera singer Indre Viskontas investigates what music is and how it can change us for the better—from deep in our neurons to across our entire society. Whether hip-hop fans, classically trained pianists, or vinyl collectors, readers will think about their favorite songs in a whole new way by the end of this book. This is a vibrant and smart gift for any audiophile.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChronicle Books Digital
    Release dateApr 2, 2019
    ISBN9781452172279
    How Music Can Make You Better
    Author

    Indre Viskontas

    Indre Viskontas, PhD, is the creative director of the Pasadena Opera, host of the podcasts Cadence and Inquiring Minds, and a professor at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She lives San Francisco.

    Related to How Music Can Make You Better

    Related ebooks

    Creativity For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Is Music Good For You?

      Jun 10, 2021

      Is Music Good For You?
      2 min read

    • Article

      4 Ways You May Be Sabotaging Your Career Success

      Mar 1, 2021

      We all want to do well on the job, right? But how often do we get ourselves into a real pickle — instead of being thought of as a go to person, it feels like stay away from me is tattooed on your forehead. “Nobody wants to be in that category,” best-

      3 min read

    • Article

      4 Wisdom

      Mar 23, 2021

      INTERBEING IS A TERM INVENTED by Thich Nhat Hanh to describe the profound interconnectedness of all things: that nothing can exist by itself alone; it can only ever inter-be with everything else. So when in Buddhism we speak of “no self” or “emptines

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Changing Face Of Music

      Jul 19, 2022

      What exactly is an electronic musician? In 2022 that's not such a simple question to answer. The obvious answer would be, anybody making music with electronic music technology – synths, samplers, software and the like. But these days that definition

      1 min read

    • Article

      Your Ear Is Key

      Nov 17, 2020

      Always try to bend the rules, use whatever tools you have in unorthodox ways, but do it with your ear and by trusting your ear. Training the ear is probably the most important part of anyone’s process to become a great producer. There are of course t

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Power Of Music

      Aug 27, 2020

      The Power Of Music
      3 min read

    • Article

      How to Really Listen to Music

      Aug 22, 2019

      How to Really Listen to Music
      5 min read

    • Article

      Listening Deeply

      Oct 12, 2021

      The one activity that distinguishes audiophiles from other music lovers is our practice of sitting in solitude and listening closely to music reproduced on a finely tuned playback system. That is not to suggest that there’s anything wrong with playin

      3 min read

    • Article

      We Need A New Word.

      Dec 8, 2020

      When I first heard the word “audiophile,” I loved it. It sounded fresh and dignified. I related to it instantly. An audiophile! I loved the whole idea of it, the focus on music, on sound. That was me! I’d found myself! And people like me. Other audio

      4 min read

    • Article

      Finding Ourselves Within Music

      Jul 7, 2021

      When I was a boy, music was like a friend to me. I would make up sounds on the piano by pushing down several notes at a time, over and over again, listening to the different shades of colour as I shifted notes, learning to hear how they blended toget

      6 min read

    • Article

      The Science Of SONG

      Mar 3, 2021

      The Science Of SONG
      6 min read

    • Article

      Punk Rock’s Wild Gift

      Apr 11, 2023

      This month’s music feature, by Mike Mettler, is an interview with John Doe, best known as cofounder, in 1977, of the legendary punk band X. During X’s long recording career, Doe’s urgent voice has offset the starkly contrasting voice of co–lead vocal

      4 min read

    • Article

      Thank You For The Music

      Sep 28, 2021

      Thank You For The Music
      5 min read

    • Article

      When You Listen to Music, You’re Never Alone: Technology hasn’t diminished the social quality of listening to music.

      Mar 10, 2016

      On a late spring evening in 2015, at South Street Seaport, a square on the southern tip of Manhattan, hundreds of people slipped on headphones and slipped into their own worlds. It was a clear night, perfect for a stroll, but attendees weren’t intere

      8 min read

    • Article

      When You Listen to Music, You’re Never Alone

      Feb 22, 2018

      On a late spring evening in 2015, at South Street Seaport, a square on the southern tip of Manhattan, hundreds of people slipped on headphones and slipped into their own worlds. It was a clear night, perfect for a stroll, but attendees weren’t intere

      8 min read

    • Article

      My Backpages

      May 10, 2022

      THIS ISSUE: A clinical psychologist describes new science that puts Stereophile’s approach to reviewing on a solid footing. In audio reviewing, there’s a tension between scientific explanations for the qualities of the sound we hear and how the music

      4 min read

    • Article

      Between the Notes

      Jul 7, 2021

      Whether or not we consider ourselves “singers”, the act of singing has some startling benefits. To begin with, it encourages the same relaxation response (our rest-and-digest, or parasympathetic nervous system response) as deep breathing through its

      8 min read

    • Article

      Justin Sandercoe

      Jun 29, 2022

      Music is a fascinating thing. It can reach deep inside us and connect with our emotions in a very powerful way; change or enhance our mood, fire us up or soothe our hurt. I’m not sure anyone yet really understands the science of how this works, altho

      3 min read

    • Article

      From Our Community

      Jul 7, 2021

      Sitting on the steps of the Sydney Opera House at the Crowded House Reunion concert. Our Vietnamese family amongst an a cappella choir of 6000 others singing “Fall at Your Feet,” thinking to myself, There are few moments in my life more Australian th

      5 min read

    • Article

      Music magic

      Feb 5, 2023

      Music magic
      6 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for How Music Can Make You Better

    5/5

    3 ratings2 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Amazing ❤️. Would read again . And again . .
    • 5/5
      Short and easy read. Discusses various aspects of music, some related to the research of others (10,000 hour rule, growth mindset). Highly recommend.

    Book preview

    How Music Can Make You Better - Indre Viskontas

    Text copyright © 2019 by Indre Viskontas.

    All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher.

    Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available.

    ISBN: 978-1-4521-7192-0 (hc)

    ISBN: 978-1-4521-7227-9 (epub, mobi)

    Design by Vanessa Dina

    Chronicle Books LLC

    680 Second Street

    San Francisco, California 94107

    www.chroniclebooks.com

    INTRODUCTION

    PART 1: HOW DO OUR BRAINS TURN SOUND INTO MUSIC?

    WHAT IS MUSIC?

    HOW DO WE FIND MEANING IN MUSIC?

    THE GOLDILOCKS THEORY OF MUSICAL PREFERENCE

    SWEET ANTICIPATION

    MUSIC BENDS TIME

    TURN THAT RACKET DOWN! TURN DOWN FOR WHAT?

    YES, PRETTY MUCH ANYONE CAN SING

    THE SONG THAT NEVER ENDS

    PART 2: HOW CAN MUSIC HEAL OUR MINDS AND BODIES?

    MUSIC REPAIRS BROKEN CIRCUITS

    MUSIC CAN REDUCE STRESS AND DIMINISH PAIN

    A LIGHT IN A DARK TUNNEL

    LULLABIES: NOT JUST FOR THE LITTLES

    MUSIC AND EXERCISE

    IT HURTS SO GOOD

    MUSIC ENHANCES LEARNING

    WHAT ABOUT THE MOZART EFFECT?

    SHAPING THE BRAIN WITH MUSICAL TRAINING

    BUT ARE 10,000 HOURS ENOUGH?

    PART 3: HOW CAN MUSIC MAKE SOCIETY BETTER?

    CAPTURING OUR HEARTS—LITERALLY

    MUSIC CAN CHANGE HISTORY

    AUDITORY CHEESECAKE

    BIBLIOGRAPHY

    ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

    INTRODUCTION

    When I tell people I’m an opera singer, they are surprised to meet a modern-day unicorn: mysterious, rare, and, let’s face it, pretty archaic. Who in their right mind would devote all that time to training an operatic voice when the art form is irrelevant for most people? I can understand this reaction.

    But it breaks my heart when the now duly impressed person tells me that they love music but know nothing about it. They ask if their favorite singer—Adele, Bono, Bob Dylan—has a good voice. They seem ashamed of their musical taste, doubting that the music they enjoy is objectively great. Music has become caged in a caste system where even the most passionate admirers question their ability to distinguish nobility from commoners. And the performance of music has been ripped from the clutches of amateurs and reserved for the privileged class of professionals.

    How did we get here? Music has always been for the masses. Even opera, whose first audiences played cards, smoked, drank, and conversed loudly throughout the show, challenged the singers to capture their attention with emotion and vocal acrobatics. These humble beginnings are a far cry from the elitist reputation opera now enjoys. Today, many people avoid it altogether, embarrassed because they just don’t find the music moving.

    Why do I find opera sublime while others find it boring? As both a singer and a cognitive neuroscientist, I like to combine art and science to help answer this and other questions.

    Many of us think music exists in the ether—while it defies definition, we know it when we hear it. But the truth is that we only hear it when we know it. Music isn’t music until our minds make it so. Sound can be noise in one context but music in another.

    Like many aspects of our personalities, we can thank our parents and our raging teenage hormones for much of our musical tastes. Two forces that shape those tastes are early exposure, when we first develop a relationship with sound, and the roller-coaster emotional ride of adolescence.

    But no matter where you came from and where that ride ultimately took you, music has almost certainly left its indelible mark. Whether you have perfect pitch or can’t hold a tune, whether you have B-sides that you can’t let go of or guilty pleasure music reserved for road trips, music has shaped your mind. And neuroscience can show you how.

    Humans are bizarre creatures: We value many things that don’t ensure our survival or propagate our genes. Perhaps then it’s not so surprising that we spend our money and time listening to and creating meaningful sounds. But for curious extraterrestrial visitors, our love affair with meaningful sound would be baffling.

    Music is essential to so many of our activities: watching movies, shopping, working out, eating out, cheering on sports teams, commuting to work. Music has the power to connect people, to change brains, to incite violence and tame beasts, to give us energy or heal our pain. But it’s our minds that turn noise into this panacea.

    Each way of consuming or creating music has a unique neural signature and leads to a unique subjective experience. Music affects us in so many different ways that, when they are all taken together, few brain regions are left untouched. That’s why music can be a lifeline in the face of devastating brain conditions, be it Alzheimer’s disease or a traumatic brain injury.

    In this guide, we’ll first find out what music actually is and how it works. Then we’ll explore how it can help or heal our minds and bodies. Finally, we’ll turn to how music can change society. This book will show you just how ethereal and magical music is, that there is no one right way to listen or play, and that extracting meaning from sound is one of the greatest gifts that natural selection has given us.

    PART 1

    HOW DO OUR BRAINS TURN SOUND INTO MUSIC?

    WHAT IS MUSIC?

    You can’t touch music—it exists only at the moment it is being apprehended—and yet it can profoundly alter how we view the world and our place in it.

    —DAVID BYRNE,

    HOW MUSIC WORKS

    Music isn’t in sound waves. It’s not in your ears. It’s not on

    Enjoying the preview?
    Page 1 of 1