Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why
Explore the biological basis of music perception, from sound processing to cultural preferences in scales and emotions.
Explore the biological basis of music perception, from sound processing to cultural preferences in scales and emotions.
This course offers a unique perspective on music, examining it through the lens of biology and evolution. Led by Duke University's Dale Purves, it investigates why humans perceive and enjoy music the way we do. The curriculum covers a wide range of topics, from the basics of sound perception and the human auditory system to complex concepts like consonance, dissonance, and the emotional impact of music. Students will explore the biological underpinnings of musical scales, the relationship between speech and music, and how cultural differences in music can be explained through a biological framework. By analyzing databases of speech and music, the course demonstrates how our musical preferences and emotional responses to music are rooted in the characteristics of human vocalization and the challenges of auditory perception.
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What you'll learn
Understand the structure and function of the human auditory system
Explain the biological basis for perceiving pitch, loudness, and timbre
Analyze the relationship between human vocalization and musical preferences
Evaluate theories of consonance and dissonance from a biological perspective
Explore the evolutionary and biological reasons for the limited number of musical scales used globally
Examine the connection between speech patterns and musical traditions across cultures
Skills you'll gain
This course includes:
6.07 Hours PreRecorded video
7 assignments
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Batch access
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There are 8 modules in this course
This course explores the biological foundations of music perception and appreciation. It begins with an overview of the human auditory system and the physics of sound, then delves into how we perceive various aspects of sound such as pitch, loudness, and timbre. The curriculum examines the relationship between human vocalization and music, providing a biological framework for understanding musical phenomena like consonance, dissonance, and scale preferences. Students will learn about the chromatic scale, the limited number of musical scales used worldwide, and how these relate to human biology and evolution. The course also covers the emotional aspects of music, exploring how different cultures express emotions through music and the biological basis for these expressions. Throughout the course, students will engage with interdisciplinary content, drawing from fields such as neuroscience, evolutionary biology, physics, and musicology to gain a comprehensive understanding of why we like the music we do.
Course Introduction
Module 1 · 24 Minutes to complete
Sound Signals, Sound Stimuli, and the Human Auditory System
Module 2 · 2 Hours to complete
The Perception of Sound Stimuli
Module 3 · 1 Hours to complete
Vocalization and Vocal Tones
Module 4 · 1 Hours to complete
Defining Music and Exploring Why We Like It
Module 5 · 2 Hours to complete
Musical Scales
Module 6 · 2 Hours to complete
Music, Emotion, and Cultural Differences
Module 7 · 3 Hours to complete
Additional Resources
Module 8 · 3 Hours to complete
Fee Structure
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Instructor
Exploring the Mysteries of Perception: The Journey of Dr. Dale Purves in Neurobiology
Dale Purves holds the position of Geller Professor of Neurobiology at the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, along with additional appointments in the Department of Psychology and Brain Sciences and the Department of Philosophy at Duke University. He earned his B.A. from Yale University in 1960 and an M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1964. Following further clinical training at Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as a Peace Corps physician, and completing postdoctoral training at Harvard and University College London, he joined the faculty at Washington University School of Medicine in 1973. In 1990, he came to Duke as the founding chair of the Department of Neurobiology at Duke Medical Center and later served as Director of Duke's Center for Cognitive Neuroscience from 2003 to 2009. He also directed the Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program at the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in Singapore from 2009 to 2013.
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4.3 course rating
689 ratings
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