Tuesday, May 01, 2007

I heart Seed Magazine: Byrne and Levitin

How great is Seed Magazine?
The answer is 12. 12 great.

Great "Seed Session", with David Byrne (a musical genius, up there with Stevie in the hero rankings) and Prof. Daniel Levitin (used to be a session musician and sound engineer, but now is James McGill professor of behavioral neuroscience and music at McGill University) having a good old natter about the neuroscience of music and all dat wicked shit man...

DB: So when you watch a performance, sports for example, you're not only watching somebody else do it. In a neurological kind of way, you're experiencing it.

DL:Yeah, exactly. And when you see a musician, especially if you're a musician yourself--

DB: —air guitar.

DL: Air guitar, right! And you can't turn it off—it's without your conscious awareness. So mirror neurons seem to have played a very important role in the evolution of the species because we can learn by watching, rather than having to actually figure it out step-by-step.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hold second-hand musical neurological experience responsible for encouraging the public to think that they're musicians.

Look at the TV schedules - that's quite a crime.

Second-hand musical neurological experience is a dick.

Ne said...

well I was down the shops with Second-hand musical neurological experience the other day, he said that you was like well minging, innit.