Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why

Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why

Instructor: Dale Purves

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69,252 already enrolled

8 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

727 reviews

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

96%

Most learners liked this course

8 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

727 reviews

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

96%

Most learners liked this course

Skills you'll gain

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Assessments

7 assignments

Taught in English

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There are 8 modules in this course

The course will explore the tone combinations that humans consider consonant or dissonant, the scales we use, and the emotions music elicits, all of which provide a rich set of data for exploring music and auditory aesthetics in a biological framework. Analyses of speech and musical databases are consistent with the idea that the chromatic scale (the set of tones used by humans to create music), consonance and dissonance, worldwide preferences for a few dozen scales from the billions that are possible, and the emotions elicited by music in different cultures all stem from the relative similarity of musical tonalities and the characteristics of voiced (tonal) speech. Like the phenomenology of visual perception, these aspects of auditory perception appear to have arisen from the need to contend with sensory stimuli that are inherently unable to specify their physical sources, leading to the evolution of a common strategy to deal with this fundamental challenge.

Introduction to Music as Biology

What's included

1 video2 readings1 discussion prompt

An overview of the organization of the human auditory system, and how sound signals are transformed into sound stimuli.

What's included

4 videos2 readings1 assignment4 discussion prompts

4 videos Total 36 minutes

Organization of the Auditory System 10 minutes
Sound Signals and Sound Stimuli 5 minutes
Tones versus Noise 11 minutes
Determining the Sources of Sound Stimuli 10 minutes

2 readings Total 20 minutes

Module Resources 10 minutes
An Overview of the Human Auditory System 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Sound Signals, Sound Stimuli, and the Human Auditory System 30 minutes

4 discussion prompts Total 40 minutes

Distinction Between Sound Signal and Sound Stimuli 10 minutes
Harmonic Series 10 minutes
Auditory Perception 10 minutes
Thinking About Music as Biology: Week 1 10 minutes

An introduction to the sound qualities we perceive, and how and why these qualities differ from the information in sound signals.

What's included

5 videos1 reading1 assignment2 discussion prompts

5 videos Total 45 minutes

Loudness and Intensity 15 minutes
Pitch and Frequency 13 minutes
Timbre and its Causes 5 minutes
Observation and Linguistics 6 minutes
Auditory Objects and Scenes 5 minutes

1 reading Total 10 minutes

Module Resources 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

The Perception of Sound Stimuli 30 minutes

2 discussion prompts Total 20 minutes

Correlates and How They Differ 10 minutes
Thinking About Music as Biology: Week 2 10 minutes

A discussion of the nature of vocal sound signals, their biological importance and their role in understanding music.

What's included

5 videos1 reading1 assignment3 discussion prompts

5 videos Total 45 minutes

The Production of Vocal Sound Signals 12 minutes
The Perception of Vocal Sound Signals 10 minutes
The Perception of Intensity (Loudness) in Empirical Terms 11 minutes
The Perception of Frequency (Pitch) in Empirical Terms 5 minutes
Relationship of Vocalization to Music 7 minutes

1 reading Total 10 minutes

Module Resources 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Vocalization and Vocal Tones 30 minutes

3 discussion prompts Total 30 minutes

Human Vocalization 10 minutes
Share Your Work! 10 minutes
Thinking About Music as Biology: Week 3 10 minutes

The tonal phenomena that need to be explained in any theory of music, and different approaches that have been take to provide answers.

What's included

9 videos1 reading1 assignment3 discussion prompts

9 videos Total 72 minutes

Defining Music 12 minutes
The Chromatic Scale and Some More Musical Terminology 7 minutes
Consonance and Dissonance 7 minutes
Tonality vs. Atonality: Frequency of Consonant vs. Dissonant Intervals 4 minutes
Tension and Resolution 5 minutes
Cadences 9 minutes
Mathematical Explanations of Consonance 5 minutes
A Physical Explanation of Consonance 8 minutes
A Biological Explanation of Consonance 16 minutes

1 reading Total 10 minutes

Module Resources 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Defining Music and Exploring Why We Like It 30 minutes

3 discussion prompts Total 30 minutes

Defining Music 10 minutes
Share Your Work! 10 minutes
Explanations of Consonance 10 minutes

Why a small number of basic scales are used in music worldwide, and how a biological framework explains this and related puzzles.

What's included

6 videos1 reading1 assignment3 discussion prompts

6 videos Total 62 minutes

Defining Scales and Modes 19 minutes
The Small Number of Scales Used 8 minutes
Testing a Biological Explanation of Scale Preference 9 minutes
Why Is the Number of Intervals in Scales So Limited? 6 minutes
The Status of the Chromatic Scale and the Semitone in Biological Terms 11 minutes
Is Music Uniquely Human? 10 minutes

1 reading Total 10 minutes

Module Resources 10 minutes

1 assignment Total 30 minutes

Musical Scales 30 minutes

3 discussion prompts Total 30 minutes

Tuning Systems 10 minutes
Scales 10 minutes
Biological Explanation of Scale Preference 10 minutes

How emotion is conveyed by vocal similarity in music across cultures, and how the speech of a culture and its music are related. A summing up of the major points in the course follows.

What's included

7 videos3 readings2 assignments4 discussion prompts

7 videos Total 65 minutes

Introduction to Emotion 9 minutes
Emotions Elicited by Major versus Minor Scales 15 minutes
Comparision of Major and Minor Music with Vocalization in Different Emotional States 7 minutes
Expression of Emotion in Eastern and Western Music 7 minutes
Language, Speech, and Cultural Differences in Music 20 minutes
Mbira Music: Background and Cyclical Structures 4 minutes
Mbria Music: Nonhamronic Frequencies 4 minutes

3 readings Total 30 minutes

Module Resources 10 minutes
Mozart Variation 8, "Minor" 10 minutes
Mozart Variation 9, "Major" 10 minutes

2 assignments Total 60 minutes

Music, Emotion, and Cultural Differences 30 minutes
Summing Up 30 minutes

4 discussion prompts Total 40 minutes

Relevancy of Emotion 10 minutes
Culturally Different Music 10 minutes
Your Takeaway 10 minutes
Music as Biology: Summing Up 10 minutes

Additional demonstrations and commentaries by Ruby Froom on some of the musical issues considered in the course, as well as a glossary of terms and bibliography for references.

What's included

6 videos17 readings

6 videos Total 38 minutes

Mozart: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star 9 minutes
Derivations of the Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales 9 minutes
Cadences 9 minutes
Berg Lieder 4 minutes
Background and Cyclical Structure 4 minutes
Nonharmonic Frequencies 4 minutes

17 readings Total 170 minutes

Mozart Theme 10 minutes
Mozart Variation 2, ornamentation 10 minutes
Mozart Variation 5, rhythmic sync 10 minutes
Mozart Variation 8, "Minor" 10 minutes
Mozart Variation 9, "Major" 10 minutes
Minor Scale Analysis in BWV 002 10 minutes
Music Theory Rules 10 minutes
BWV 002 Harmonic Analysis 10 minutes
BWV 65.2 Harmonic Analysis 10 minutes
BWV 133.6 Harmonic Analysis 10 minutes
Schliesse Mir Die Augen Beide 10 minutes
Tonal Version Sheet Music 10 minutes
Atonal Version Sheet Music 10 minutes
Share your learning experience 10 minutes
Glossary A-O 10 minutes
Glossary P-W 10 minutes
Bibliography 10 minutes

Instructor

Instructor ratings

(105 ratings)

Dale Purves

Duke University

2 Courses 102,327 learners

Offered by

Duke University

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Reviewed on Sep 30, 2022

Good introductory course on science behind music. Solid and interesting content. Little dry. Pianist is excellent.

Reviewed on Sep 21, 2016

This course has helped me to understand biological psychology of humans towards music. Based on this knowledge i am confident to create music which will seem good to the ears of humans.

Reviewed on Sep 16, 2016

This course was fairly interesting. The argument that the notes of our scale are linked to human vocalisation, not just in the West, but the whole world.

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