FEAST OR FAMINE

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Showing posts from February, 2021

Kylie the Crocodile is in Paris

MARTINA NICOLLS Website Martinasblogs Publications Facebook Paris Website Animal Website SUBSCRIBE TO MARTINA NICOLLS FOR NEWS AND UPDATES MARTINA NICOLLS is an international aid and development consultant, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

Sunday Walk: by the Odeon

The health benefits of music

There has been many research articles about the health benefits of listening to music. Recent research has again mentioned the benefits – for brain health, better physical coordination, improved sleep, pain relief, and dementia benefits. Neurologic music therapist Brian Harris from the Harvard Medical School says that listening to calming music stimulates the part of the brain stem that controls heartbeat and respiration. So, music may lower the heart rate and blood pressure. Neuroscientist Julia Jones (Dr Rock and founder of The Music Diet) says the foot-tapping, dancing, and playing an instrument – even air guitar – activates the motor cortex and sensory cortex of the brain. This can lead to better brain-to-body coordination and synchronisation. Listening to relaxing music can trigger the body to mimic sleeping patterns by regulating the heart rate and breathing to reduce anxiety and improve sleep. This seems to be especially if music is heard...

The Music Instinct by Philip Ball: book review

The Music Instinct: How Musics Works and Why We Can’t Do Without It (2011) attempts to answer these questions, stating that ‘it is deeply puzzling why these complex mixtures of acoustic frequencies and amplitudes make any sense to us, let alone why they move us to joy and tears.’ He also answers the question, why do we sing? The author begins by saying that music ‘is the most remarkable blend of art and science, logic and emotion, physics and psychology’ and in this book he explores ‘how music works its magic.’ He says music is ‘not simply hedonistic’ or a luxury, nor does its absence ‘lead to a brutish nature’ of humankind. He opts for something in between. He blends his research into a mixture of music psychology, neurology (brain science), philosophy, mathematics, history, ethnomusicology, vocalization, and communication. He starts with the first musicians: ‘about the origins of music, we have almost no evidence whatsoever.’ ...