Why Do Birds (Actually) Sing?
In this lengthy explainer learn why and how bird songs vary in their purpose, how birds customize their calls to their environment, and more.
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How Emotion Affects Learning — and Why That’s Great for Musicians
A brief look at the ways in which leaning into the emotionality of music whether joyful or sad, can help us learn and retain new information.
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The Brain Needs Novelty: What Dopamine and Newness Have to Do With Learning Music
How introducing “new” information can help you retain and utilize the familiar stuff you already know, in new ways… Read on to learn more.
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The Zeigarnik Effect — and What the Heck It Has to Do With Music
Learn what a behavioral pattern discovered in the 1920s can do to help you stick to your To-Do list and achieve your goals…
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What Makes a Song “Catchy?”
This article looks at some of the psychological explanations around why songs are considered catchy and how they get stuck in our heads.
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Chorus Writing Strategy 101
+ Improve your songwriting with Soundfly! Explore our range of courses on emotional chord progressions, basic songwriting technique, songwriting for producers, and many more. Subscribe for unlimited access here. If ever you needed proof that there is joy in repetition, the contemporary pop music chorus is the smoking gun. The chorus gives the listener the entire point of the song summed up […]
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How to Improve Your Well-Being through Music
Dr. Victoria Williamson still remembers the first time she saw the brain scan of someone who was listening to their favorite piece of music. The scan showed a scene of intense activation — it looked like the entire brain was lit up and buzzing. The moment confirmed something she’s always believed and has since spent […]
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Improvisation and the Brain
We recently found this fantastic piece on how musical improvisation affects the brain on Vicky Williamson’s blog Music Psychology and she graciously allowed us to post it here. Vicky teaches and researches on the relationship between music and the brain at The University of Sheffield. Check out more of her writing here. Hello Dear Reader, It is […]
