I Heard There Was A Secret Chord

I Heard There Was A Secret Chord
Author: Daniel J. Levitin
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2024-08-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0735246165

Neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin reveals how the deep connections between music and the human brain can be harnessed for healing. Music is perhaps one of humanity’s oldest medicines as well as its most universal: from China to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and pre-colonial South America, cultures have developed rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, spur healing, and calm the mind. Despite this history, musical therapy has long been considered the remit of ancient practice and alternative medicine, if not outright quackery and pseudoscience. In the last decade, however, an overwhelming body of scientific evidence has emerged that persuasively argues music can offer profoundly effective treatment for a whole host of ailments, from Alzheimer’s to PTSD, depression, pain, and cognitive injury. It is, in short, one of the most potent and remarkably promising new therapies available today. A work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and joyful celebration of the human mind, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord explores the critical role music has played in human evolution, illuminating how the story of the human brain is inseparable from the creative enterprise of music that has bound cultures together throughout history. Music insinuates itself into our earliest memories; it is intimately connected to our emotional regulation and cognition; its shared rhythms and sounds are essential to our social behaviors. As neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin demonstrates in this mind-expanding follow-up to This Is Your Brain on Music—which revolutionized our understanding of the neuroscience of song—medical researchers are now finding that these same deep connections can be harnessed to create profound benefits for those both young and old.

The Holy Or the Broken

The Holy Or the Broken
Author: Alan Light
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2012
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1451657854

Praised as "brilliantly revelatory...a masterful work of critical journalism" (Kirkus Reviews, starred review), The Holy or the Broken is the fascinating account of one of the most-performed rock songs in history--Leonard Cohen's heartrending "Hallelujah." How did one obscure song become an international anthem for human triumph and tragedy, a song each successive generation seems to feel they have discovered and claimed as uniquely their own? Celebrated music journalist Alan Light follows the improbable journey of "Hallelujah" straight to the heart of popular culture.

MUSIC AND THE MIND

MUSIC AND THE MIND
Author: Anthony Storr
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 248
Release: 2015-05-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1501122096

Why does music have such a powerful effect on our minds and bodies? It is the most mysterious and most tangible of all forms of art. Yet, Anthony Storr believes, music today is a deeply significant experience for a greater number of people than ever before. In this book, he explores why this should be so. Drawing on a wide variety of opinions, Storr argues that the patterns of music make sense of our inner experience, giving both structure and coherence to our feelings and emotions. It is because music possesses this capacity to restore our sense of personal wholeness in a culture which requires us to separate rational thought from feelings that many people find it so life-enhancing that it justifies existence.

Successful Aging

Successful Aging
Author: Daniel J. Levitin
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 363
Release: 2020-01-07
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1524744190

INSTANT TOP 10 BESTSELLER • New York Times • USA Today • Washington Post • LA Times “Debunks the idea that aging inevitably brings infirmity and unhappiness and instead offers a trove of practical, evidence-based guidance for living longer and better.”—Daniel H. Pink, author of When and Drive SUCCESSFUL AGING delivers powerful insights: • Debunking the myth that memory always declines with age • Confirming that "health span"—not "life span"—is what matters • Proving that sixty-plus years is a unique and newly recognized developmental stage • Recommending that people look forward to joy, as reminiscing doesn't promote health Levitin looks at the science behind what we all can learn from those who age joyously, as well as how to adapt our culture to take full advantage of older people's wisdom and experience. Throughout his exploration of what aging really means, using research from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences, Levitin reveals resilience strategies and practical, cognitive enhancing tricks everyone should do as they age. Successful Aging inspires a powerful new approach to how readers think about our final decades, and it will revolutionize the way we plan for old age as individuals, family members, and citizens within a society where the average life expectancy continues to rise.

Dance Me to the End of Love

Dance Me to the End of Love
Author: Leonard Cohen
Publisher: Rizzoli Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006-08-15
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1932183930

10 years ago, Welcome Books published the star of its Art & Poetry Series, Dance Me to the End of Love, a deliriously romantic song by Leonard Cohen that was brilliantly visualized through the sensual paintings of Henri Matisse. Now for its 10-year anniversary, Welcome is thrilled to present the entirely re-imagined and redesigned Dance Me to the End of Love. With the art of Matisse and the words of Cohen still at the heart of the book, the new look and feel of this Art & Poetry book is overwhelmingly beautiful. Cohen's song is a lyrical tribute to the miracle of love, the grace it bestows on us and its healing, restorative power. Originally recorded on his Various Positions album, and featured in Cohen's anthology, Stranger Music, this poetic song is gloriously married to the art works by Henri Matisse, perhaps the greatest artist of the twentieth century. "I had this dance within me for a long time," Matisse once said in describing one of his murals. Dance Me to the End of Love is the perfect book for art lovers, song lovers, and all other lovers as well.

Guitar Zero

Guitar Zero
Author: Gary Marcus
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 252
Release: 2012-01-19
Genre: Music
ISBN: 110155228X

On the eve of his 40th birthday, Gary Marcus, a renowned scientist with no discernible musical talent, learns to play the guitar and investigates how anyone—of any age —can become musical. Do you have to be born musical to become musical? Do you have to start at the age of six? Using the tools of his day job as a cognitive psychologist, Gary Marcus becomes his own guinea pig as he takes up the guitar. In a powerful and incisive look at how both children and adults become musical, Guitar Zero traces Marcus’s journey, what he learned, and how anyone else can learn, too. A groundbreaking peek into the origins of music in the human brain, this musical journey is also an empowering tale of the mind’s enduring plasticity. Marcus investigates the most effective ways to train body and brain to learn to play an instrument, in a quest that takes him from Suzuki classes to guitar gods. From deliberate and efficient practicing techniques to finding the right music teacher, Marcus translates his own experience—as well as reflections from world-renowned musicians—into practical advice for anyone hoping to become musical, or to learn a new skill. Guitar Zero debunks the popular theory of an innate musical instinct while simultaneously challenging the idea that talent is only a myth. While standing the science of music on its head, Marcus brings new insight into humankind’s most basic question: what counts as a life well lived? Does one have to become the next Jimi Hendrix to make a passionate pursuit worthwhile, or can the journey itself bring the brain lasting satisfaction? For all those who have ever set out to play an instrument—or wish that they could—Guitar Zero is an inspiring and fascinating look at the pursuit of music, the mechanics of the mind, and the surprising rewards that come from following one’s dreams.

The Psalms and the Life of Faith

The Psalms and the Life of Faith
Author: Walter Brueggemann
Publisher: Fortress Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2004
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781451419719

Walter Brueggemann's unique gift of joining historical-exegetical insights to penetrating observations about the traumas and joys of contemporary life?both personal and social?is here forcefully displayed. Everyone who is familiar with his work knows the power of his speech about "doxological, polemical, political, subversive, evangelical faith: and about the ways such faith is enacted in the praise of ancient Israel and in the church.Readers of this book will find fresh insight into:the Psalms as prayer and praisethe categories of the Psalmsthe social context in which psalms were prayed and sungthe theology of the Psalmsthe dialogical character of the Psalmsjustice and injustice in the Psalmsthe study and "use" of the Psalms by the churchpraise as an act of basic trust and abandonmentthe impossible wonders of God's activity that overturn conventional ways of

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen
Author: Harry Freedman
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 297
Release: 2024-05-14
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1399416499

"Leonard Cohen's music is studded with allusions to Jewish and Christian tradition, as well as Kabbalah and Zen. This book is about the ethos, origins, and traditions in Cohen's lyrics. He was as familiar with Christian traditions as he was Jewish. He is not concerned with confessional barriers, they simply impede access to the deep well of spiritual lore from which he draws. This is not a biography but a biographical narrative into the treatment of each song or theme, so that by the end the reader will in fact have a good understanding of Cohen's life story. Print run 25,000."--Provided by publisher.

Anatomy of Guitar Playing

Anatomy of Guitar Playing
Author: Dustin Silva
Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
Total Pages: 222
Release: 2018-01-04
Genre:
ISBN: 9781545146774

Guitarists are athletes. Playing the guitar requires the skilled use of your entire body. Unfortunately, most books on playing guitar focus exclusively on what notes to play, and give little or no attention to how they should be made. This leaves guitarists with a problem. Misunderstanding the mechanics of movement leads to frustration, because it makes learning new techniques harder, limits your abilities when techniques don't work like they should, and causes injury when unhealthy technique wears down your body. The solution is simple: Anatomy of Guitar Playing is your guide to moving well, learning faster and avoiding injury. When you understand the mechanics of moving, you will know for yourself how techniques work. Anatomy of Guitar Playing is both a description of how the body works, as well as a prescription for how to move better, taking you through what you need to know about the body in order to use it more effectively. It covers the anatomy and physics of fretting and picking, how to set up and adjust the guitar to your body and many other important topics. Through learning about the proper use of the body at the guitar, you will be able to learn faster, play with better facility and reduce injury.