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This book will blow your mind. It should be standard literature for anyone who's musically inclined. Everything you've ever wondered about music and why we even care about it is in there.
That did not qualify him to attempt a project of this nature. 180 the cat is out of the bag; "Crick's own search had encouraged me to take my lack of experience as a licence to think about cognitive neuroscience differently than other people" Quite. Several reviewers with considerable expert knowledge in the area have - it is fair to say - excoriated this book on this site. 238 shows that Levitin has never actually played with a real jazz ensemble; the "chorus" is indeed the whole form, not the "B" section. Our own edited collection Language, Vision, and Music: Selected Papers from the 8th International Workshop on the Cognitive Science of Natural Language Processing, Galway, Ireland 1999 (Advances in Consciousness Research)features writers at a much higher stage of competence than LevitinSeán O Nualláin Ph.D. The musical errors are elementary, and at times close to maddening, as several reviewers have pointed out. On P.
One cannot enter an established academic field - or two, in this case - with a gragbag of techniques and less than fully-baked ideas and hope to get away with it. Levitin may be a clever experimentalist, and possibly a good music producer. Regrettably, then, even when the discussion on the neuroscience of music shows signs of competence (eg 227-228), I am disinclined to follow anything up. For example, as alluded to in one of these reviews, p. Or is it the old adage in bad jazz - "if you make a mistake, be sure to repeat it" that obtains here as in his playing.Levitin's work is an example of why cognitive science in progressing only slowly. For those who want a solid grounding in a generative theory of music, try Jackendoff and LerdahlA Generative Theory of Tonal Music. 4u Meitheamh 2009
This is a great book. I play Tabla and this book just further enhances my practice.
Levitin has no idea what "groove" is. Levitin is apparently unable to recognize the X factor that is the indescribable, innate quality of an artist that cannot be taught; that does not need years of training to release--and is the reason why some highly trained people are brilliant technicians, but not artists. Well written and informative, but Mr. Again, being a player, does not make one an artist. This inability marred his conclusions and misdirected his studies/experiments. As a musician, it is also my opinion that Mr. Also, I would have appreciated a diagram to illustrate the areas of the brain discussed. This is fast read with a few nuggets to enhance ones understanding of how the brain works, but fortunately for the author, there's more work to be done.
This book does an amazing job of introducing the reader to how the brain works, how it develops in the human, and how it responds to various stimuli including music. Combined with the works of Damasio and Leonard Meyer (U of Chicago), the book immerses the reader in a wonderful sea of information and opens new areas to explore. I can't recommend the book highly enough.
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