Thanks to the good people at the World Science Festival for posting this fantastic talk by Bobby McFerrin, demonstrating the power of the human brain to instinctively grasp the pentatonic scale.
About This Video: From WSFtv:
We don’t know much about the human brain on music. Do people instinctively know the sound patterns of the pentatonic scale? Is there a base level of musical knowledge in all of us, just waiting to be tapped? Or is the pentatonic scale simply so common in Western music that it has become ingrained in all of our minds? Improvisational genius Bobby McFerrin uses audience participation to demonstrate the power of the pentatonic scale—or at least the audience’s familiarity with it.
The World Science Festival is an annual tribute to imagination, ingenuity, and inventiveness. The 2011 Festival is scheduled for June 1–5, in New York City. Follow them on twitter @WorldSciFest
We don’t know much about the human brain on music. Do people instinctively know the sound patterns of the pentatonic scale? Is there a base level of musical knowledge in all of us, just waiting to be tapped? Or is the pentatonic scale simply so common in Western music that it has become ingrained in all of our minds? Improvisational genius Bobby McFerrin uses audience participation to demonstrate the power of the pentatonic scale—or at least the audience’s familiarity with it.
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