language is an integral part of our
everyday lives we use it to convey
everything from concrete facts and ideas
to stories taught by at the grocery
store but there are few areas of
communication were written in spoken
language falls short one is a simple
fact that not everyone speaks the same
language and it takes years of practice
to learn a new language the second is
that it is very difficult to convey
emotion effectively with language this
brings us to an important question how
can I make another person feel an
emotion that they otherwise would not be
feeling this brings us to another type
of language
well that is equally as common as spoken
language but is very different in its
purpose I am of course talking about
music music is effectively the opposite
of written in spoken language for
starters you cannot use it to
communicate concrete facts or ideas I
couldn’t tell you to go pick up a gallon
of milk from the grocery store by
tapping on the piano but perhaps musics
most incredible attribute is that it is
completely universal anybody regardless
of race ethnicity religion or background
can listen to and interpret a song the
first and arguably the most important
aspect of emotional messaging music are
the chords that make up the song chords
are basically just a combination of
notes played at the same time the human
brain perceives some chords as being
happy
oops – not good music some chords sound
it is difficult to explain exactly why
the brain perceives these chords as
being certain emotions but there are a
few working theories the most widely
accepted is that we are culturally
conditioned to associate these chords
with emotions for example in movie or TV
shows when a scene is dramatic into sad
it’s usually in a minor key and will
have very loud and dramatic chord
progressions
[Music]
whereas if a seamless more happier
light-hearted it would be in a major key
like this and be a little more bouncy
[Applause]
in this way our brains are culturally
conditioned to associate certain
sounding chords with certain emotions
now some of you might be thinking what
about someone who hasn’t grown up in a
Western culture well studies in rural
parts of Africa have shown even people
who have had no contact with Western
music can still distinguish the
difference between happy and sad
sounding chords what this means is that
someone who grew up in Africa and
someone who grew up here would be able
to interpret one song the same way which
is really cool
now composers of music use these chords
to establish moods and basic emotions in
songs but it is really up to the player
to infuse the song with the utmost
emotion so everyone is familiar with the
brain’s ability to find out whether a
voice is really fake take Siri for
how many iPhones does it take to okay
never mind hey her jokes not really that
funny yeah but um so she speaks clearly
and you can understand her just fine but
there’s that something missing the
natural inflection that implies emotion
the same is can be said for music when a
computer or computer software tries to
interpret a song it sounds almost normal
the melody the melody is there the
harmonies are there the rhythms are
there but there’s that something missing
just like it something missing in series
voice emotion if you follow the path of
emotional expression for a human it goes
something like this some situation
arounds you in creates an emotion in
your brain that triggers an Ender can
release and it is felt throughout the
body what usually happens after this is
some physical expression of the emotion
for example when you’re happy you might
smile and start to jump around when
you’re sad you may cry when you’re angry
you might punch a wall or go for a run
the same principle can be applied to
music and musicians
when the chords and chord progression of
a song inspiring emotion in a musician
they take that emotion and turn it into
a physical action such as bowling on a
violin or playing the piano but those
instruments then do is take that
physical input and turn it into sound so
in the most basic sense the emotion is
actually captured by the sound of the
music the group of attributes of music
that contribute to emotion that come
from the players is called musicality
musicality is basically everything a
computer is now exciteing tend to have
more excited or angry breathing styles
so if you’re angry or excited your
breathing might be more fast and
intensely so this this next selection is
from the same piece a different part try
to listen for the angry dynamics
all right so you probably heard it it
was very punchy very loud all the time
none of that growing and release just
like angry breathing in this way the
dynamics of music reflects the way you
breathe while experiencing an emotion in
relaxing songs you see the motif of the
grow and release and in more exciting
songs that is more consistently loud so
what does this all mean it means that in
a given song you have a mood that is
uncanny in the way it is established
through the chords of the composer it
means you have a pulse that correlates
directly to your heartbeat when
experiencing emotion it means you have
dynamics that grow and release tension
just like a relaxing breath in other
words it is the closest thing we can
achieve to the physical embodiment of an
emotion it means that instead of having
to tell someone in a motion you can
instead show them now to say that next
time I’m feeling happy I’m going to go
out and write a happy song to show
everyone it’s a bit of a stretch music
is not really practical in the sense
that it can be used in direct
communication with other people but
that’s not to say that music should be
taken for granted every song regardless
of genre or style has an emotion to
share and a story to tell
therefore I encourage you from time to
time to sit back relax and listen with
your ears your mind and your heart thank [Applause]