[Applause] [Music] [Music] you are not getting the most out of your musical experiences how often do you really listen to music how much music do you have in your pocket are you aware of the music that surrounds us every day unless unless your entertainment is a book you're probably listening to music as you play a video game go shopping or watch a film music stimulates the pleasure centers of our brains so if you can better understand what it is you're hearing you're going to get a lot more from the music you already love and as a bonus you might find other kinds of music to be more accessible I can't remember life without classical music my parents were always blasting great recordings around the house 19th century top 40 and I started by linnn when I was 2 and a half so I can't remember a life without listening to this kind of music but imagine my confusion at school when other kids didn't really share my passion for this great art and I didn't share their knowledge of Pop Culture I remember a boy in grade school wearing a t-shirt that said the police and I thought he was an early convert to law enforcement uh he explained that the police was a band so that conversation went pretty well yeah you probably already know that we can train our ears and our brains to listen more actively to conversations perhaps to Ted Talks uh we can get more from our musical experiences as well by using some of the same techniques American composer and author Elliot Schwarz calls this perceptive listening two of the most important facets of this are are sensitivity and vocabulary sensitivity means to hone your ears pick out the sounds around you separate them identify them and think about how they're contributing to your environment let's try it right now okay everybody please close your eyes what can you hear besides the sound of my voice is it the hum of the lights is it the person next to you breathing maybe it's the digestion of someone's lunch okay you can open your eyes now or keep them closed as you wish so you can do this exercise everywhere certainly while listening to live music or to a film but you know you can try this with your colleagues at work with your family at home the tone of someone's voice tells you a lot beyond their words if you're paying attention so don't miss out my mother used to say that I could hear ice cream being scooped at a 100 yards while this was advantageous as a child it wasn't because I had superhuman hearing it was simply that my early musical training had enabled my ears to pick up on sounds of Interest perceptive listening in action now that we've discussed sensitivity and you have an idea of how to use it we need another tool we need the right vocabulary because music is essentially a nonverbal art form we need special words to describe what we're hearing words like Rhythm Tempo Melody and Harmony without one of these four essential building blocks most music couldn't exist through a practical understanding of what these words mean we can then identify what it is we're hearing and we can have a more rewarding experience from all kinds of music whether we're listening to a pop song or a symphony or a film score some of my favorite professional experiences have been recording for film scores like the theory of everything and The Hunger Games since most people go to the movies and the music used in movies is recognizable and yet also complex I'm now going to demonstrate Rhythm Tempo Melody and Harmony using music you may have heard somewhere before [Music] [Music] that was from the Opera Carmen first premiered in Paris 140 years ago but you've probably heard it somewhere before like a commercial or a film so it's a great example of Rhythm and Rhythm means the Beat of the Music it's the strong regular patterns of long notes and short notes it's the placement of the Sounds in time if I were to play this for you again using all the same Rhythm no variety to the Rhythm just playing the notes it'd be a little bit more [Music] boring It's the Rhythm that gives these notes their structure their character and their flavor [Music] [Applause] [Music] I didn't play that piece the way it was intended although I did play All the Right notes I didn't play it at the correct Tempo Tempo means the speed or Pace of the music it's the Italian word for time whether in a Madonna song or a betan symphony the composer usually writes out instructions for Tempo let me show you what this composer really intended and how the speed of the music makes a huge difference to the mood and effectiveness of the music much more urgent at a fast speed after all that song is called the obsession Sonata now that you have an idea of how to apply Rhythm and Tempo to a piece of music perhaps you'd like to think about it in your daily life did you know that restaurants with an emphasis on profit and high turnover will often play Loud fast music that's because this kind of music stimulates our subconscious urges to eat more quickly and leave however fast loud music also suppresses the appetite so you might want to think about what you're listening to next time you're trying to go on a diet perhaps you should consider techno so a Melody is a pleasing sequence of single notes in less technical terms it's the tune the part that anyone can sing we know this all too well from the popular pastime of karaoke When was the last time you had an earworm that's a song which gets stuck in your head no matter how hard you try to get rid of it even though an earworm can be quite irritating it's actually a great example of Melody because a really good Melody is recognizable and Unforgettable kind of like this [Music] that's from an opera by Pini but you've probably heard it used outside the Opera House in surprising ways like the trailer for the video game Grand Theft Auto 3 yeah believe it or not imagine how many teenage boys were affected by that piece of music so the violin is a great way to demonstrate Melody because it is essentially A melodic instrument the Italian Old Masters were attempting to mimic the sound of a woman's voice when when they first created their instruments so in this case the violin can demonstrate a Melody actually written for a singer much better than my own voice can we've discussed Rhythm Tempo and Melody but now comes the most important element Harmony Harmony is a pleasing combination of two or more notes played at the same time as opposed to Melody which is one note at a time so if this is one note and this is one note at a time Melody then Harmony is two or more notes all at once Harmony is essential to the structure and diversity of music do you remember the piece that I played at the very beginning of this talk it's actually from a box Sonata for solo violin you've heard a lot lot of pieces by Bach since his compositions have been used in films and songs by everyone from Monty Python to Lady Gaga not bad for a guy born in 1685 so I'm going to play just the opening of the boach for you again in two different ways see if you can spot the difference [Music] the first way was just the melody the second way had all of the harmonies so I like to think of the melody as a general leading an army the harmony is kind of like the soldiers the general could definitely attempt to fight a battle all by himself but he's a lot more effective with the soldiers backing him up a big part of Harmony and the battle for our emotions is whether or not the notes are formed to make a major key or a minor key so a minor key produces sounds of sadness and Melancholy whereas harmonies or Melodies In A Major key might make you feel sort of happy and triumphant I'm going to play the opening of the box anata which is G minor now the opening chord to the Pini Melody is G major only one note is different in those chords but it makes such a huge difference to the mood kind of sad maybe you feel better if you are able to identify the difference between major and minor in any piece of music you're going to experience a much greater variety of emotions while you listen especially with music that switches back and forth between minor and major quite often The Beatles use this technique in some of their best songs like While My Guitar Gently Weeps and When I'm 64 thanks to the magic of Technology you can also hear a lot of famous songs out there that have been switched from their original key to the opposite so minor to major or vice versa one of the examples of this is uh the Game of Thrones theme so if you Google songs switch from minor to Major you'll find things like this weirdly happy version of Game of Thrones where nothing ever goes wrong and you can also find uh like a cheerful version of Michael Jackson's Beat It yeah just two of many examples go go out there find it amuse yourself just as film music is written to evoke a mood and to inspire our emotions to complement the visual aspect on screen classical music is also designed to tell a story and to elicit our emotions all the music you heard day was meant to take you on a journey where you go is up to you even music with lyrics you think gives us a tangible narrative but I encourage you to keep listening listen perceptively beyond the singer's words pick out the Rhythm the tempo the melody and the harmony use your newfound sensitivity if you can identify these four elements just the way a musician would you're going to get a lot more out of all the music You Love and I hope that you'll feel inspired to explore other genres of music things less familiar to you I challenge you think about the music surrounding you whether you're at the movies in a restaurant at the gym don't just let it wash over you experience it with your brain as well as your heart I believe that if we can get more out of Music we will also get more out of life thank you