Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - Amusia

[Task5003]

I love Oliver Sacks. Reading his book The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, it's a great book and he's a great guy.

[DannyDaWriter]

I'm a musician and honestly there is nothing more that I want than amusia.

[shelbielynnVEVO]

Only very, VERY few people have absolute pitch. That's a shame....

[electrovox1212]

FWIW,I suffer from non-congenital(??) aphasia..the inability to comprehend word

meanings/sentence structure(English)..love the subject matter of this vid!!

[shrinerspark]

I am basically the complete opposite of this... extremely musically sensitive... but I can understand how someone might have this condition. I certainly wouldn't enjoy listening to pots and pans rattling, that's for sure!

[ellandelachapelle]

Congenital amusia? Rubbish. They haven´t gone far enough into this! (I might. Since I am a musicologist. The subject intruiges me.)

[PhysiPhile]

@ellandelachapelle It's pretty simple. The experience of music is both recognizing sound pressure (volume) and. more importantly, musical information (i.e. the feelings of the song). If for whatever reason (e.g. birth defect, tumor, stroke, etc) there are no connections between the emotional and sound pressure action potential you experience just noise because noise is more fundamental and more ingrained than musical cognition.

[ellandelachapelle]

@PhysiPhile How can you be so certain that the EMOTIONAL ability is blocked by these damages? Most people who have had a stroke react very much to music. (and it is often used in rehabilitation.) The best example (that I know of) is 2011 Nobel Prize winner poet Tomas Tranströmer. Who is a great left hand pianist after his stroke! (paralyzed in his right side and suffering from aphasia since 1990.)

[PhysiPhile]

@ellandelachapelle Oh yeah there are tons of cool case studies showing certain lesions can enhanced musical cognition. But I think you're misunderstanding me. It's not musical ability that is blocked - it is the physical connection between external input (cranial nerve eight) and the circuits that make the experience of music occur. So I would predict that those who have this problem after previously being able to experience music can still imagine music like in a dream, just not from the radio.

[mittROMNEY666]

i am tone deaf but not that bad

[charmiejung]

amazing. better start writing my case presentation about this. hahaha

great oliver sacks! :D

[bboydee]

I wonder if an ammusic person could study art and appreciate other forms of art then attempt to manipulate the "noise" so he/she could appreciate it in their own way. much like noise artists etc. I wonder if it would sound like real music to all of us with rhythms and harmonies!

[edsaundershn]

that sucks...I felt sorry for the girl he was talking about

[mateo3470]

Poor things. They don't even know what they are missing!

[PauleQueenie]

I am very amused

[cannabisdeathmorbs]

sacks hah

[Ralph7862523843]

haha your name is Sacks!

[TheBestGuitarSoloEVR]

TONAL AGNOSIA, his writing style is too fucking intense, its like reading a whole novel e very chapter jesus

[bloggsie45]

I have had this all my life. It's only horrible in concept because you don't miss what you have never known. Most classical music is just another noise I hear. Loud music of the popular kind is a horrible, roaring noise which does my head in. I keep away from places where its played as much as I can. The worst of all is the music which goes with TV shows. It so irritating that one has to play the DVD at least twice to work out what is being said. As for free-to-air shows, least said the better.

[MisterProfiler]

@bloggsie45

So there is no music whatsoever you are capable of enjoying? An honest question ;)

[bloggsie45]

@MisterProfiler

Basically that's true. Thinking about it, some single instrument music is a series of really quite pleasant sounds. I quite like the sounds made by: a harp; a pipe organ; a flute; and, perhaps strangely, the bagpipes. To lesser degrees many other wind instruments. As soon as more than one, or possibly two, instruments are playing together the sounds combine to create a noise which I can either ignore, or otherwise, as the case may be. I can't relate emotionally to music at all.

[MisterProfiler]

@bloggsie45

I see. Do you regret having amusia? Or does it come without feelings because you don't really know what you're 'missing'?

[burf69]

Interesting that Dr. Sacks seems to keep some pots and pans at arms length for whenever he happens to tell this story. ;)

[EmPtY7even]

i couldn't imagine life without music. I have not gone a day since i got my first ipod without the constant sound of music in my ears and to me this seems like an unjustifiable curse that no human deserves. Music is amazing unto itself, it can make people cry or laugh and do amazing things. Why what ever forces are at work would do this to someone is beyond my comprehension.

[PEZKateW]

That would be awful, to never undrstand why music effects everyone else so wonderfully but never experience it.

[xxtiaan]

Id love to have oliver sacks round for tea, he seems really interesting.

[JulietheQueen]

Oh my god it must be terrible. Music is such a big part of my life, my source of inspiration and an instrument to calm myself down or cheer myself up. I just can't imagine people not hearing music harmony or rhythm. Fortunately, there are very few people like this.

But I really enjoyed a joke someone made about major labels' executives xDDDD

[maartjechiel]

the sames goes for me, but if you dont know what you are missing, you cant miss it:P

[JulietheQueen]

You're right. :)

My mother isn't amusic and still hates music. That's what is terrible I guess xD

[elf4life420]

burf69 just won the "thread"

nothing new to see here.

[burf69]

Most major record label executives suffer from this condition.

[carbondecay]

HAHAHAH good one!

[4SCARECROWS]

@burf69 Heh Heh... I could draw a whole bunch of jokes from that.

[themooddisorders]

@burf69 true! They think of money above all!

[StarChrissy]

@burf69 Classic.

[MINMICHELE67]

its the vibrations...

[j2plase]

Most senior pastors suffer from this.

[albionmoonlight1]

play that bitch some stevie wonder,

[Cameigons]

Music is such an important part of my life. It is the reason to, if I had too choose, I would much rather prefer becoming blind than deaf.

But I guess when you are born with such condition, it's not like you can miss something you never experienced..

[afterbabel]

i have always wondered whether animals are amusic, i.e. perceive music as mere noise

[kurtzrepublican]

My dog, for whatever reason, always sits in front of me when i'm playing my guitar. I'm not sure if he can interprut the sound as music or not though.

[Ephemerance]

song birds would one type of animal that recognize music.

[leakeg]

birds singing is a language to them, they don't realise it's musical.

[Ephemerance]

Perhaps music is a language of emotion in our subconscious mind. What we mistake for musical feeling is just emotional language.

[framed0000]

my intuition is that no they can not. they can't understand language because they can't understand syntax, so they probably can't understand music because it too involves rule-governed combinations of a finite number of discrete elements (syntax)

[Ephemerance]

Many animals do in fact have a syntax based language system. Mostly more simplistic than English per se, but nonetheless it is there.

[Ephemerance]

Whales perceive music.

[2menace]

ah... no. cause it has no rithm. making sounds is not music. or would you say that chickens do music?

[Ephemerance]

I would argue that what some people call music, isn't really music at all. That doesn't change the fact that they perceive it to be musically natured.

I think it's an interesting question though. What constitutes music?

[Svanvit666]

melody and harmony. simple.

hence why i dont consider rap real music, it's a dude talking over a drum beat :p

[orangesfromlondon]

You forgot rhythm. The most vital element in my opinion.

[araless]

This video should have strengthened the idea that everything is relative. Rap is not real music to you, even it includes melody harmony and rhythm. However, the Beatles would be just noise to sufferers of amusia, and Mozart would be nonsense. Your criteria is not absolute. Music is like everything else, and the beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

[aldichiara]

I agree. I also see powerful corporate and other interests, such as the state (e.g., USSR), having a hand in the production or management of interest in styles and interpretations of music, such as throught licensing laws and distribution.

[araless]

Most definitely. I think big business ultimately shapes people's perception of music through marketing, making "good" and "popular" synonymous, and through lobbyists they legislate who has that power of perception.

[BloodiCheeseCake]

I can see why some people don't consider rap music real music. But I personally think it is.

Everytime there is a new type of music, people can be critical of it either by saying it's terrible or by saying it isn't music at all.

Same things can be said about jazz music when it first came out, because people back then call it the devil's music since it used certain dissonant chords that weren't conventional.

Rap isn't very conventional for this day but it takes getting used to.

[kukiepukie]

I do think animals have preferences, but maybe that's because of the scales that are used in that particular music.

For example, my cat loves it when I play classical music on guitar (Barrios), but she hátes, absolutely hates Jeff Beck's Nadia, especially when the drums kick in. She runs away.

[2menace]

yeah, the kick in of the drums is more the base problem. secondly it is something different if you actually play a instrument or if you're just play it on the stereo. thats what I realysed with my cat.

[EdVidz]

Well, Jeff Beck is Jeff Beck. Some cats can stand him. Some can't stand him.

[cliffworks4321]

I am interested to know what sounds this lady hears when pots and pans are banged together, what she hears when encountering any other non music audio signals.

[leegee23]

What a lovely man!

[ufo5440]

Am I mistaken, or is this the real guy responsible for the miracle of 1969 with L-Dopa as portrayed in the movie "Awakenings"?

[Wetterwachs]

Yep, that's him!

[lovelysprinkles]

imagine that......being unable to enjoy music or tell tunes apart.....wow.

[averyellis]

how horrible..

at least someone explained to to her... even sixty years later

[melanbelle]

I used to be exceptional at rocognition of music by tones. Yeah, amusia sucks. I became amusic because of a stroke 10 years ago, and can identify with Oliver Sacks describing music as noise. I just think that I came away lucky not to have further or worse problems from the stroke.

[dubassaves]

are you still amusic?

[jesuschrustpizza]

Has she ever experienced anything that sounded "musical" to her?

[BloggerMusicMan]

That would really suck to have ammusia. Music is one of the most precious things that humanity and life and has to offer. No one deserves to live without it.

[Joshbuckler]

@BloggerMusicMan wrote "That would really suck to have ammusia. Music is one of the most precious things that humanity and life and has to offer. No one deserves to live without it."

I used to think that too, but there are so many other places to derive pleasure and witness beauty. Think of mathematics, for example. Also, poetry can still be appreciated. Not to mention the graphic arts.

[BloggerMusicMan]

@Joshbuckler

I don't deny what you say. Anyone who has ever looked at a Tom Thompson painting and has been to Algonquin Park for example have seen two great kinds of beauty through art and through scenery.

I just find subjectively music to be especially precious. I think it's because it enhances all other art forms. Muslims read the Qu'ran through melody, and music makes poetry much better (songwriting). Theatre has created a whole genre based on music, movies require it, and so on.

[thyran]

@BloggerMusicMan

Pretty much comes with the package for deaf people.

[noemiansay]

Estou lendo o livro e realmente é surpreendente o poder da música sobre o homem. Noemi

[awaitingInLine]

Oh Gosh i wasnt aware of this illness.. imagine the people who has music as an obligatory class :/

[allegrolou]

I wonder how people who are tone deaf can speak a language.Any language utilzes pitch and rhythm and those elements are important in oral communication.

[originalrhombus]

It turns out that the speech and music centres of the brain are distinct. This is one reason why stutterers can often sing without difficulty.

[dincz]

Tone deafness is about perception of pitch - nothing to do with rhythm.

As far as pitch is concerned, people with amusia could simply learn Czech - hardly any pitch variation required.

[BushmenKing]

Yes, but what about the tonal languages, such as Chinese and Vietnamese? In that case, wouldn't a child have difficulties learning to speak?

[Mark0Brazil]

Until to read this Great Book I, as the majority, had dificulty to deal with people with Amusia, worse I not even aware about the existence of this term