Brianna Shaffer 
Music and movement are very intimately connected, not just in society but also deep within the very structures of our bodies. The urge to rock out to loud music at a concert has specific correlations to structures in our ears and neck muscles that create reward responses. Our hearing and structures in the ear are associated … Read more
The National Endowment for the Arts released a guide in December 2016 to assist and encourage researchers and community arts providers to team up in research pursuits. It has been long-documented and is well-known the benefits of the arts in society, but research on its benefit is often stunted by a lack of partnership between researchers … Read more
Happy New Year everyone, here are some knee-slappin’ music puns to give you a laugh. Click on each picture to see the full size!
1. Santa Claus is Coming to Town James “Haven” Gillespie got the call to write a Christmas tune for Eddie Cantor’s radio show just after learning his brother had died. Initially, he said no. He understandably was too deep in grief to even consider writing a happy-go-lucky Christmas song. But, according to historian Ace Collins, he changed … Read more
On this Veterans Day, celebrating our veterans is a bit overshadowed by the election that occurred this past week, and understandably so. On the blog today I wanted to bring the focus back to our veterans, because caring for veterans has played a primary role in the dawn of modern music therapy and is still … Read more
Katy Perry Gets Emotional Talking About Music Therapy at CHLA: Skip to 1:00 to see her talk about the music therapy program. Katy took the stage along with Drew Barrymore and Josh Gad at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles ‘Once Upon A Time Gala’ honoring long-time supporters The Billy and Audrey L. Wilder Foundation as well … Read more
Someone nearby is rhythmically tapping their toe. Is this an irritating noise or an organized, musical sound? As it turns out, the difference depends almost entirely upon the listener. The best indicator we have of knowing whether a particular person will interpret a sound as noisy or musical is their age: It is more common that older … Read more
Right-click and select “Open Link in New Tab” to see the full-size, zoomed-in image. This infographic comes from Sonos Blog. Hopefully you are able to find some great work jams!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqXWIxj4_Y0 In a study published in the journal Neurocase, Daniel Levitin, a professor at McGill University in Montreal, scanned the brain of famous Police frontman Sting. This scan took place while Levitin would play two different pieces of music, for example The Beatles “Girl” followed by a tango by Astor Piazzolla. To the untrained ear, … Read more
This classic video from the World Science Festival in 2009 is an eye-opening experience if you’ve never seen it. I highly recommend singing along! It seems that the pentatonic scale, which he demonstrates in his interactive performance, has a universality that we don’t quite understand. This is particularly amazing because every culture has their own unique … Read more