I Heard There Was a Secret Chord
Music as Medicine
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Narrated by:
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Daniel J. Levitin
About this listen
In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.
Levitin is not your typical scientist—he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration.
I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.
“Daniel J. Levitin is a visionary neuroscientist, an extraordinary musician, a brilliant writer—and this is his best book yet. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord is inspiring and illuminating, as deep as it is delightful. I couldn’t put it down. So full of great ideas and delicious stories, it made me want to rewind my entire life and spend more of it making music.”—Daniel Gilbert, New York Times best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness
This enhanced audiobook features original music by the author.©2024 Daniel J. Levitin (P)2024 Recorded Books
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- Unabridged
-
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Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut best seller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted audiences as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times best seller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.
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Interesting concept for a book
- By Shannon on 06-23-24
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Successful Aging
- A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Levitin
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
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Levitin looks at the science behind what we all can learn from those who age joyously, as well as how to adapt our culture to take full advantage of older people's wisdom and experience. Throughout his exploration of what aging really means, using research from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences, Levitin reveals resilience strategies and practical, cognitive enhancing tricks everyone should do as they age.
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Prejudiced and snooty
- By Mother of Chickens on 01-30-20
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Music and Mind
- Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness
- By: Renée Fleming - editor, Francis S. Collins MD PhD
- Narrated by: Gina Daniels, Carin Gilfry, Patty Nieman, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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A compelling and growing body of research has shown music and arts therapies to be effective tools for addressing a widening array of conditions, from providing pain relief and alleviating anxiety and depression to regaining speech after stroke or traumatic brain injury, and improving mobility for people with disorders that include Parkinson’s disease and MS.
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Sound Matters
- By trusting shopper on 04-22-24
By: Renée Fleming - editor, and others
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This Is Your Brain on Music
- The Science of a Human Obsession
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
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In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music - its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain. Levitin draws on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen.
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Interesting, but Abridged?
- By ROLANDO on 03-12-08
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The Organized Mind
- Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel - and how readers can use their methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and time. With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to executive office workflow, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to the challenges of our daily lives.
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Finally a book about productivity that delivers!
- By Oliver Nielsen on 09-16-14
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This Is Your Brain on Music
- The Science of a Human Obsession
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Levitin
- Length: 11 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
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Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life - even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last becoming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature.
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Really boring.
- By alex velasquez on 11-24-20
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The World in Six Songs
- How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Levitin
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut best seller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted audiences as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times best seller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.
-
-
Interesting concept for a book
- By Shannon on 06-23-24
-
Successful Aging
- A Neuroscientist Explores the Power and Potential of Our Lives
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Daniel J. Levitin
- Length: 18 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Levitin looks at the science behind what we all can learn from those who age joyously, as well as how to adapt our culture to take full advantage of older people's wisdom and experience. Throughout his exploration of what aging really means, using research from developmental neuroscience and the psychology of individual differences, Levitin reveals resilience strategies and practical, cognitive enhancing tricks everyone should do as they age.
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Prejudiced and snooty
- By Mother of Chickens on 01-30-20
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Music and Mind
- Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness
- By: Renée Fleming - editor, Francis S. Collins MD PhD
- Narrated by: Gina Daniels, Carin Gilfry, Patty Nieman, and others
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
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Performance
-
Story
A compelling and growing body of research has shown music and arts therapies to be effective tools for addressing a widening array of conditions, from providing pain relief and alleviating anxiety and depression to regaining speech after stroke or traumatic brain injury, and improving mobility for people with disorders that include Parkinson’s disease and MS.
-
-
Sound Matters
- By trusting shopper on 04-22-24
By: Renée Fleming - editor, and others
-
This Is Your Brain on Music
- The Science of a Human Obsession
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Edward Herrmann
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music - its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain. Levitin draws on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen.
-
-
Interesting, but Abridged?
- By ROLANDO on 03-12-08
-
The Organized Mind
- Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 16 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Organized Mind, Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, uses the latest brain science to demonstrate how those people excel - and how readers can use their methods to regain a sense of mastery over the way they organize their homes, workplaces, and time. With lively, entertaining chapters on everything from the kitchen junk drawer to health care to executive office workflow, Levitin reveals how new research into the cognitive neuroscience of attention and memory can be applied to the challenges of our daily lives.
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Finally a book about productivity that delivers!
- By Oliver Nielsen on 09-16-14
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Weaponized Lies
- How to Think Critically in the Post-Truth Era
- By: Daniel J. Levitin
- Narrated by: Dan Piraro
- Length: 7 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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We're surrounded by fringe theories, fake news, and pseudofacts. These lies are getting repeated. New York Times best-selling author Daniel Levitin shows how to disarm these socially devastating inventions and get the American mind back on track. Here are the fundamental lessons in critical thinking that we need to know and share now. Investigating numerical misinformation, Daniel Levitin shows how mishandled statistics and graphs can give a grossly distorted perspective and lead us to terrible decisions.
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Pretty basic stuff
- By Trebla on 08-22-17
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Musicophilia
- Tales of Music and the Brain
- By: Oliver Sacks
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
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Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does - humans are a musical species.
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The Best Of Sacks...
- By Douglas on 11-23-12
By: Oliver Sacks
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Meet the Neighbors
- Animal Minds and Life in a More-than-Human World
- By: Brandon Keim
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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In this wide-ranging exploration of animals' inner lives, Keim takes us into courtrooms and wildlife hospitals, under backyard decks and into deserts, to meet anew the wild creatures who populate our communities and the philosophers, rogue pest controllers, ecologists, wildlife doctors, and others who are reimagining our relationships to them.
By: Brandon Keim
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The Inner Game of Music
- By: Barry Green, W. Timothy Gallwey - contributor
- Narrated by: Roxanne Abbott
- Length: 8 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The Inner Game of music is that which takes place in the mind, played against such elusive opponents as nervousness, self doubt, and fear of failure. Using the same principles of "natural learning" W. Timothy Gallwey developed so successfully for tennis, golf, and skiing and applying them to his own field, noted musician Barry Green shows how to acknowledge and overcome these internal obstacles in order to bring a new quality to the experience and learning of music.
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Good book, poor narrator
- By Kristine E. Valencia on 10-18-24
By: Barry Green, and others
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Sacred Vibrations
- The Transformative Power of Crystalline Sound and Music
- By: Jeralyn Glass
- Narrated by: Jeralyn Glass
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Fascinating discoveries in science and medicine are revealing the many ways sound affects us at both a biological and an emotional level. At a time when people are seeking solace and healing as never before, distinguished musician and crystal singing bowl master teacher Jeralyn Glass has penned an intriguing narrative that impactfully shows how you can embrace the healing power of music. Sacred Vibrations shares the remarkable story of Glass’s rise to acclaim as a Broadway and opera singer who graced some of the world’s most celebrated stages.
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Beautiful and I spring
- By Ronda Del Boccio on 09-30-24
By: Jeralyn Glass
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How Music Works
- By: David Byrne
- Narrated by: Andrew Garman, David Byrne
- Length: 13 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Utilizing his incomparable career and inspired collaborations with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and many others, David Byrne taps deeply into his lifetime of knowledge to explore the panoptic elements of music, how it shapes the human experience, and reveals the impetus behind how we create, consume, distribute, and enjoy the songs, symphonies, and rhythms that provide the backbeat of life. Byrne’s magnum opus uncovers thrilling realizations about the redemptive liberation that music brings us all.
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Kind of all over the place
- By Amazon Customer on 02-17-23
By: David Byrne
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This Is What It Sounds Like
- What the Music You Love Says About You
- By: Ogi Ogas, Susan Rogers
- Narrated by: Susan Rogers
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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When you listen to music, do you prefer lyrics or melody? Intricate harmonies or driving rhythm? The “real” sounds of acoustic instruments or those of computerized synthesizers? Drawing from her successful career as a music producer (engineering hits like Prince’s “Purple Rain”), professor of cognitive neuroscience Susan Rogers reveals why your favorite songs move you. She explains that we each possess a unique “listener profile” based on our brain’s reaction to seven key dimensions of any record: authenticity, realism, novelty, melody, lyrics, rhythm, and timbre.
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Needed to include the music
- By Sarah on 01-18-23
By: Ogi Ogas, and others
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We'll Prescribe You a Cat
- By: Syou Ishida, E. Madison Shimoda - translator
- Narrated by: Naruto Komatsu, Natsumi Kuroda
- Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Tucked away in an old building at the end of a narrow alley in Kyoto, the Kokoro Clinic for the Soul can only be found by people who are struggling in their lives and genuinely need help. The mysterious clinic offers a unique treatment to those who find their way there: it prescribes cats as medication. Patients are often puzzled by this unconventional prescription, but when they “take” their cat for the recommended duration, they witness profound transformations in their lives, guided by the playful, empathetic, occasionally challenging yet endearing cats.
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perfection
- By Theasophia on 09-05-24
By: Syou Ishida, and others
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The Musical Human
- A History of Life on Earth
- By: Michael Spitzer
- Narrated by: Daniel Levitin
- Length: 17 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to this music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet music is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages - from Bach to BTS and back - to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species.
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Music across Time and Space
- By Cameron Preston Kruger on 08-15-24
By: Michael Spitzer
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The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved
- How Mathematical Genius Discovered the Language of Symmetry
- By: Mario Livio
- Narrated by: Tom Parks
- Length: 11 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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For thousands of years mathematicians solved progressively more difficult algebraic equations, until they encountered the quintic equation, which resisted solution for three centuries. Working independently, two prodigies ultimately proved that the quintic cannot be solved by a simple formula. The first popular account of the mathematics of symmetry and order, The Equation That Couldn't Be Solved is told not through abstract formulas but in a beautifully written and dramatic account of the lives and work of some of the greatest and most intriguing mathematicians in history.
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Historical Perspective Appreciated
- By Michael Hanrahan on 01-22-20
By: Mario Livio
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Every Good Boy Does Fine
- A Love Story, in Music Lessons
- By: Jeremy Denk
- Narrated by: Jeremy Denk
- Length: 13 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
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In Every Good Boy Does Fine, renowned pianist Jeremy Denk traces an implausible journey. His life is already a little tough as a precocious, temperamental six-year-old piano prodigy in New Jersey, and then a family meltdown forces a move to New Mexico.
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Read by Denk, with music to illustrate examples
- By VT on 04-02-22
By: Jeremy Denk
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The Practice of Practice: Get Better Faster
- By: Jonathan Harnum
- Narrated by: Jonathan Harnum
- Length: 6 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The focus of this book is music practice, but these techniques and mindsets can be applied to any skill you want to improve. The Practice of Practice covers essential practice strategies and mindsets you won't find in any other book. You'll learn what research tells us about practice, but more importantly, you'll learn how great musicians in many genres of music think about practice, and you'll learn the strategies and techniques they use to improve.
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Read the Book Instead
- By Jazz Doc on 11-24-16
By: Jonathan Harnum
What listeners say about I Heard There Was a Secret Chord
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Paleo Petlover
- 01-19-25
Music Therapist Approved
An excellent overview of how music affects us and how we can use it to our advantage for health and wellness. Highly recommend!
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- Joe Mancini
- 12-02-24
A kaleidoscopic treatment of mind and music
As a composer who has Parkinson’s disease, this book spoke to me in a way that was deeply personal yet full of profound scientific insights. Brilliant!
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- Ann Arbor shopper
- 01-11-25
This book has wonderful depth. I loved it and learned so much.
I read this because it was given to me by a wonderful trainer and friend who knows that I love music and has been working with me on my recovery from a debilitating stroke. It’s a very helpful book for that purpose, and it also goes into lots of fascinating information about music theory and historical/cross cultural analysis.
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- tony.indian
- 10-16-24
probably the most important about music and brain in 2024
though the book is awesome this one of those cases that a professional voice actor would have been better suited for the task. it's not bad, I just can't keep listening to the way the author reads for long. sorry. so back to the book then.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jurisa-San
- 09-12-24
This audiobook is a gem in my library.
Daniel J. Levitin, a neuroscientist and musician, brings a unique and trustworthy perspective to this book. His dual expertise makes this book a compelling read.
At 66, I recently retired and began taking piano lessons—a lifelong dream. While learning at my age isn’t easy, this book has shown me that music can be a powerful remedy for maintaining brain health. Levitin presents research demonstrating that regular piano lessons can increase the grey matter in the brains of older adults. Isn’t that amazing?
The book is filled with equally important facts relevant to all ages and various types of disabilities. If music plays any role in your life, this book is a treasure trove of insights.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Anne F. Oneill
- 09-22-24
Various health issues impacted by music.
Enjoyed this a lot. A collection of many themes I’ve read short news items on. Wonderful to see it all in one place and elucidated so fully.
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2 people found this helpful