Science On Tap

Wednesday, May 31, 2023

Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music

Whenever a person engages with music, countless neurons are firing―when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, someone sobs to a sad song, or a wedding guest gets down on the dance floor. Playing an instrument requires all of the resources of the nervous system, including cognitive, sensory, and motor functions. Something as seemingly simple as listening to a tune involves mental faculties most of us don’t even realize we have.

Presenting at this special event: Neuroscientist and lifelong musician Dr. Larry Sherman, Grammy award-winning, Hopi-Nez Perce Native American flutist James Edmund Greeley, Internationally acclaimed gospel, jazz and blues singer Marilyn Keller, Singer, composer, pianist and recording artist Naomi LaViolette, and Celebrated cello and bass quartet Porchello

The event is also a book release celebration for Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music, written by Dr. Sherman and former Warner Pacific University Professor of Music and musician Dennis Plies. Written for both musical and nonmusical people, including newcomers to brain science, this book covers all of the topics in the lecture (and much more) and is a lively and easy-to-read exploration of the neuroscience of music and its significance in our lives.