Oliver Sacks - Musicophilia - Amusia

Oliver Sacks, author of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and An Anthropologist on Mars, discusses amusia, the inability or inhibited ability of the brain to process music. The story related in the video comes from Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, Dr. Sacks's latest book. For more information, visit www.oliversacks.com or www.randomhouse.com/catalog/di...

[@LeeGee]

What a lovely man!

[@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.

[@xxtiaan]

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

[@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.

[@MetronomeSenpai]

Has your condition gotten better? I just recently had a stroke and I'm experiencing same thing...I'm very worried :(

[@user-hf5qh6yx1s]

So glad to hear this condition exists and has a name. AMUSIC! About the 'sad' discussion': It is sad in my experience. I can somewhat enjoy hearing music but I cannot make music in the sense of executing music. That means I cannot remember melodies at all, I can not sing, not dance and not experience Rhythm. I can move somehow - it is even fun - but I wouldn't know what the clue is and I cannot dance 'with' someone. I even tried learning an instrument and gave up after some time. I think the music teacher gave uü beforehand ;) All my life I felt very much excluded when musical enjoyment was around. It is the art you can most easily practice 'with' each other. I really miss this sense of enjoying an activity together that everyone seems to have.

[@lovelysprinkles]

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

[@vedamuthu4852]

I hsve never heard about this as a condition people could be born with. I love music so much that i love to listen to some nice one to forget my worties and it relaxes my mind. I know a few who can not understand why and how people listen to music and it is not pleasant to their ears!

[@SpocksSister08]

A very interesting subject. My mother dislikes music, always has done. She can tolerate nursery songs and she sang them to me when I was small - in tune, so I'm sure she is not amusic as such, more music phobic. She seems able to tolerate very simple tunes like jingles, but she covers her ears if more complex music is played. She says it is just noise. She suffered very badly with depression but I don't think it's related. I also suffer from depression but I enjoy music. I think it may be sensory overload in her case. My father adored music, he sang in many amateur choirs and played opera at home. Once I was old enough I attended his concerts in my mother's place.

[@Fluteman422]

There is a very rare condition called ahedonic amusia in which the patient is unable to extract any pleasure from music despite being able to identify tones and pitch contures.

[@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.

[@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.

[@piggnant]

Can still make and enjoy rhythm in percussion or simply clapping hands tapping feet.. 😊

[@don_quijote_delamancha]

I love music above all things. I think it's the most beautiful thing a human being can do on the face of the Earth. However, due to what I believe is a form of amusia, I have had to give it up. I'm 47 years old and I started playing the guitar when I was 15. I learned to play the guitar, I learned everything I could about music theory... but I was never able to sing in tune. I tried everything, I went to teachers, specialists, I watched all the vocal coach videos on the internet, I dedicated years of my life to trying to improve my pitch when singing. It does not worth for anything. When I thought a song was in tune, people told me it wasn't. When I thought a song was out of tune, people liked it. That caused me enormous frustration. On one occasion I tried to tune a song I sang with autotune, just to hear myself well. Just once. The notes sounded better out of pitch to me than in the correct pitch. The correct note was a G and it sounded better to me in F sharp. I discovered that people with musical knowledge, and with a certain skill, are incapable of transmitting knowledge to people like me. I searched and searched for years for solutions, nothing worked. Nothing. Music specialists don't know how to help people like me because they don't understand hearing blockage. If their exercises don't work, they don't know what else to advise. I finally gave up. I sold my guitars and stopped listening to music just to avoid falling into the trap of dreaming again. For me it was not a hobby, nor a profession, but a way of trying to express myself... but I feel that God denied me the possibility of doing it that way. He, in his infinite wisdom, will know why, but for me the idea of ​​music is deeply connected with a bitterness, very deep.

[@nancyschimmel]

I'm a songwriter and I can't begin to imagine your frustration. There's nothing like music, but I do have many musical friends who also do visual art. I wonder if you could find another way to express yourself. Or perhaps through writing lyrics that other people could sing.

[@piggnant]

When covering a song, could you appreciate the difference when listening to recording of your own playing/singing version .. versus the original?

[@AndyPayne42]

@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.

[@bluegrassbaby86]

This would be a horrible condition to have, and I don't say this because I am a musician and hard core music lover, because if you've been that way all your life then it would just be normal for you, but especially today where music is so pervasive in our culture. You can't go anywhere without hearing it. I guess you'd have to have a pretty strong ability to tune stuff out.

[@AndyPayne42]

@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.

[@j2plase]

Most senior pastors suffer from this.

[@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

[@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?

[@afterbabel]

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

[@charmiejung]

amazing. better start writing my case presentation about this. hahaha great oliver sacks! :D

[@LeNZian]

Did ya get that case presentation done in the end?

[@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.)

[@Bellehiek]

ellandelachapelle its a RARE condition where music doesn’t translate to the way we hear music, our brain doesn’t translate it. Again, rare. Doesn’t happen to 99.9% (Idk) of stroke victims

[@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!

[@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.

[@nodrapx3429]

alright so i know this is old but i have congenital amusica and i still very much enjoy music. i know i don’t hear it the same way as everyone else. i hear it how i hear it, and i enjoy it.

[@hieutruong7456]

How do you know you hear differently from others

[@nodrapx3429]

@@hieutruong7456 I was tested for it when I was in 5th grade because I wanted to join band. I have a hard time figuring out about the beat behind the lyrics and music gives me head aches. I truly don’t know how different it is.

[@thyran]

@BloggerMusicMan Pretty much comes with the package for deaf people.

[@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"?

[@orangesfromlondon]

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

[@Glanur2]

@DannyDaWriter why do you say so? Why would someone want to live this way? Listening to music is so easy!

[@Wetterwachs]

Yep, that's him!

[@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.

[@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.

[@HumanoidBoogie]

Can amusic people perceive rhythm? If the music in question was very simple, say someone clapping in time, could they appreciate that? Also, I wonder what they make of very slow music such as that performed by the band Sunn O))).

[@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.

[@averyellis]

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

[@missyhilary8905]

How sad! I guess it’s like what deaf people have to experience. Speaking from a musician’s point of view, though. Very sad, but I’m sure anyone who has this is used to it. If you developed it later, though, it’d be very sad.

[@themooddisorders]

@burf69 true! They think of money above all!

[@StarChrissy]

@burf69 Classic.

[@seanhennessey9869]

Auto tune for amusia🎉

[@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.

[@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.

[@edsaundershn]

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

[@MisterF_1984]

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

[@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.

[@macster1457]

most people I know that suffer from Amusia, have great rhythmic abilities.

[@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!

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

I wish I could have my brain modified to be a total amusic so I will stop wasting so much of my time being addicted to & listening to music.

[@devilsoffspring5519]

Interesting perspective... What would you now do with this time, now that you wouldn't be 'wasting' it on music? I think a person's favourite music is an obsession of the best kind, especially when you're young, but at any age. I'll also be the first to admit that it eats up a lot of time that you could spend learning how to do something that could make you more money than whatever you currently make! So, your point of view is rather intriguing to me!

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

+Devil's Offspring VERY simple answer to your question: MY OWN THING! My OWN creative work! Math & scientific & engineering research & experimentation & creation. THAT is what I would do with all the time I'd free up NOT wasting it on non-essential entertainments.

[@jefolson6989]

The only "good" addiction I can think of. I have spent most of any money I ever earned on records and concert and opera tickets, or travel expenses to travel the world to hear music. For me, it's money well spent. Music has been friend, comforter, inspiration, and joy all my life . Music is the one thing that has never let me down and I've never been saturated to the point if needing a break from it. Many friends like Music when they hear it, but don't seek it out, and could take it or leave it. I simply cannot imagine life without it, so it's natural for me to feel sorry for amusiacs. Not knowing it, they don't miss it, but must have a sense that some great gift has been denied them. They just have to get their fix from something else.

[@jefolson6989]

@@theultimatereductionist7592 for musical people it isn't non-essential. Or even entertainment. Can you appreciate the mathematics and architecture of musical notation? " music is liquid architecture ".

[@mittROMNEY666]

i am tone deaf but not that bad

[@EdVidz]

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

[@2menace]

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

[@4SCARECROWS]

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

[@brandongarrido7580]

I know some people who have a tiny amusia symptom. This is what I call a cursed human being.

[@friedmule5403]

I simply hate music, but have learned to tolerate it. I.e. you can almost never see a movie, a video on KZbin or visit any place without music playing. To me is it at bit like you were sitting in a plane , bus or train with several babies crying very hysterically. A funny side effect is that scary movies is boring to me. Try to put on a horror movie, turn off the sound or even better (without earplugs) look at the movie on your phone while being near road work where an excavator is digging! :-)

[@TheBestGuitarSoloEVR]

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

[@cannabisdeathmorbs]

sacks hah

[@Vaporwave_Mark]

fnf reference

[@astonastonaston]

i swear on my fucking li

[@ellandelachapelle]

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