How Music Can Positively Transform Your Life Forever
Dr. Dunstan leads these fascinating sessions on the Musical Mind.
Music and engaged listening positively transform our lives like nothing else! Through lectures, recorded examples, and live performances, Dr. Dunstan leads participants in discovering how music and the perception of sound are perhaps the most life-enhancing activities we pursue as human beings. Sound is our most primal and experiential sense: as humans we first experience the world in utero through sound and it is the last sense to leave us. Ironically, in today’s modern, noisy world, we frequently take for granted our wonderful sense of hearing. Did you know that the average person experiences at least 4 hours of music every day? Our musical experiences shape our lives in conscious and even subconscious ways. These classes help you learn how to lead a more engaged and enhanced life through a greater apprehension of music and sound.
Contact Dr. Dunstan HERE to engage YOUR musical mind!
(available as a series of four to eight hour-long sessions.)
I. These are the steps of the stairway to Paradise!
This class explains the basic elements of music and how they have evolved over time, with brief glimpses into how western music differs from that of other cultures. With live and recorded examples, you'll learn exactly what is melody; rhythm; tempo; harmony; tonality; modality; texture; form; and medium. You'll experience and perceive music in new ways!
II. Why does the sound of that ol’ banjo make me want to stamp my feet and sing?
Have you ever wondered why certain music makes you happy or sad? Or why you return, again and again, to certain songs? Why does some music make you want to dance, and other music put you at ease? This session explains how your brain/mind/body perceives—and even seems to intuit—the elements of music. You'll learn how music exerts a profound, biological, impact on us.
III. Lions & Tigers & Bears!! Oh my!!! Why does music give me goose bumps?
What is the difference between your musical brain and your musical mind? Building on concepts from the first two sessions, this class examines how music transforms your brain/mind and how engaged listening leads to a much more enhanced life. We will discover how homo sapiens are, above all, creatures of music, and come to understand the biological basis for music in our human culture. This session will explore how we are most fully human when there is music in our lives! We will also begin to explore what types of music we should listen to in order to better modulate our minds towards happiness and fulfillment.
IV. If music be the food of love play on…and on…and on….
This session explores how to make music your most effective medicine and connect to the highest consciousness. Every day modern neuroscience offers the latest scientific findings about the healing and regenerative powers of music. We will discover how engaged listening fuses all parts of our brains, builds new neural networks, and literally expands our brains! Music has the ability to treat, and potentially cure, a full range of ailments ranging from sadness and depression to learning disabilities and infirmities associated with aging. You'll discover the necessary tools to make music the most effective medicine ever for a happy body and soul.
V. How the mind processes words, symbols, and music.
What happens when the best poetry is joined with the best music? Yet, why is it sometimes better to let the music speak for itself, and the poetry to remain as its own music? Why are we humans most naturally troubadours, constantly inventing our own song? This session will reveal the neurological basis for why we are so profoundly moved by words and music and why music makes words even more powerful.
VI. The stunning, stupendous, sublime world of color.
The ability of humans to hear subtle distinctions of tone color in sound (timbre) has been our greatest survival instinct. The sonic world of humans has witnessed an amazing development over the millennia to incorporate an unlimited palette of visual and tonal/musical color. In some respects, the history of the musical and visual arts can best be understood by a new appreciation of how to perceive color in sound. This session explains how we actually listen most attentively to color and why rainbows are Nature’s best music!
VII. Understanding and navigating Sonic Landscapes.
We encounter music in every aspect of our lives! Studies suggest that the average person hears 4 hours of music every day in commercials, radio, TV, movies, and, of course, in music as its own pursuit. Music is a constant in our existence. This session reveals how sound editors and composers use music to fully enhance the “viewing experience” using diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
VIII. Whither music? (A continuance of that great question asked by Ives, Bernstein, and others, more fully revealed.)
This class is about the exquisite poetry of our existence. You'll discover a brief history of the origins of music and why early humans learned to sing, dance, and create art. Music is perhaps our greatest survival tool and you'll learn why it is absolutely necessary in your lives. You'll discover how music is truly “the only international language” and our best hope for a peaceful future. This session will reveal why you treasure the music that most moves you and how this enables you to connect to the eternal.
Music and engaged listening positively transform our lives like nothing else! Through lectures, recorded examples, and live performances, Dr. Dunstan leads participants in discovering how music and the perception of sound are perhaps the most life-enhancing activities we pursue as human beings. Sound is our most primal and experiential sense: as humans we first experience the world in utero through sound and it is the last sense to leave us. Ironically, in today’s modern, noisy world, we frequently take for granted our wonderful sense of hearing. Did you know that the average person experiences at least 4 hours of music every day? Our musical experiences shape our lives in conscious and even subconscious ways. These classes help you learn how to lead a more engaged and enhanced life through a greater apprehension of music and sound.
Contact Dr. Dunstan HERE to engage YOUR musical mind!
(available as a series of four to eight hour-long sessions.)
I. These are the steps of the stairway to Paradise!
This class explains the basic elements of music and how they have evolved over time, with brief glimpses into how western music differs from that of other cultures. With live and recorded examples, you'll learn exactly what is melody; rhythm; tempo; harmony; tonality; modality; texture; form; and medium. You'll experience and perceive music in new ways!
II. Why does the sound of that ol’ banjo make me want to stamp my feet and sing?
Have you ever wondered why certain music makes you happy or sad? Or why you return, again and again, to certain songs? Why does some music make you want to dance, and other music put you at ease? This session explains how your brain/mind/body perceives—and even seems to intuit—the elements of music. You'll learn how music exerts a profound, biological, impact on us.
III. Lions & Tigers & Bears!! Oh my!!! Why does music give me goose bumps?
What is the difference between your musical brain and your musical mind? Building on concepts from the first two sessions, this class examines how music transforms your brain/mind and how engaged listening leads to a much more enhanced life. We will discover how homo sapiens are, above all, creatures of music, and come to understand the biological basis for music in our human culture. This session will explore how we are most fully human when there is music in our lives! We will also begin to explore what types of music we should listen to in order to better modulate our minds towards happiness and fulfillment.
IV. If music be the food of love play on…and on…and on….
This session explores how to make music your most effective medicine and connect to the highest consciousness. Every day modern neuroscience offers the latest scientific findings about the healing and regenerative powers of music. We will discover how engaged listening fuses all parts of our brains, builds new neural networks, and literally expands our brains! Music has the ability to treat, and potentially cure, a full range of ailments ranging from sadness and depression to learning disabilities and infirmities associated with aging. You'll discover the necessary tools to make music the most effective medicine ever for a happy body and soul.
V. How the mind processes words, symbols, and music.
What happens when the best poetry is joined with the best music? Yet, why is it sometimes better to let the music speak for itself, and the poetry to remain as its own music? Why are we humans most naturally troubadours, constantly inventing our own song? This session will reveal the neurological basis for why we are so profoundly moved by words and music and why music makes words even more powerful.
VI. The stunning, stupendous, sublime world of color.
The ability of humans to hear subtle distinctions of tone color in sound (timbre) has been our greatest survival instinct. The sonic world of humans has witnessed an amazing development over the millennia to incorporate an unlimited palette of visual and tonal/musical color. In some respects, the history of the musical and visual arts can best be understood by a new appreciation of how to perceive color in sound. This session explains how we actually listen most attentively to color and why rainbows are Nature’s best music!
VII. Understanding and navigating Sonic Landscapes.
We encounter music in every aspect of our lives! Studies suggest that the average person hears 4 hours of music every day in commercials, radio, TV, movies, and, of course, in music as its own pursuit. Music is a constant in our existence. This session reveals how sound editors and composers use music to fully enhance the “viewing experience” using diegetic and non-diegetic sound.
VIII. Whither music? (A continuance of that great question asked by Ives, Bernstein, and others, more fully revealed.)
This class is about the exquisite poetry of our existence. You'll discover a brief history of the origins of music and why early humans learned to sing, dance, and create art. Music is perhaps our greatest survival tool and you'll learn why it is absolutely necessary in your lives. You'll discover how music is truly “the only international language” and our best hope for a peaceful future. This session will reveal why you treasure the music that most moves you and how this enables you to connect to the eternal.
