In 2001, ten students at McGill University had their brains scanned while they listened to music. Each brought a piece that reliably gave them chills. One brought Barber's Adagio for Strings. For another student in the study, that same Adagio was the dull piece. One listener got chills, and the other was left cold.
That puzzle points to the idea under this whole course. Much of what you hear in music isn't in the sound. Your brain builds the pitch, predicts the next note and helps supply the beat, and its reward system answers those predictions. We'll see how it does each of those things, and what playing an instrument does to the machinery.
By the end, you'll be able to explain how your brain turns vibrating air into a note, a tune you expect and a beat you feel. You'll be able to say what happens when music gives you chills. And you'll be able to judge the big claims made for music: for practice, for lessons and intelligence, and for brains hurt by Parkinson's disease or a stroke.
We start with listening. The first lecture asks what your brain hears when it hears a note. The second asks whether there's a music center in the brain. The third and fourth follow your brain's predictions, from the next note to the chills. The fifth is about the beat, and why it pulls you to move. Then we turn from listening to what music can change. The sixth lecture asks what practice does to a brain. The seventh asks whether music makes you smarter, and the eighth what music can do for a damaged brain. Along the way, several famous findings shrink when someone checks them.