How music rewires and impacts the human body | Michael Spitzer: Full Interview

Music is far older than Homo Sapiens, with its origins traceable to early hominins. The development of bipedalism (4-4.4 million years ago) introduced a fundamental walking rhythm that stamped human music. Concurrently, the creation of symmetrical tools like the bifacial axe (1.5 million years ago) suggests an early capacity for aesthetic appreciation and symmetrical patterns, which inferentially extended to sound (meter and regular rhythm). The subsequent evolution of a descending larynx and hyoid bone allowed for an "excess of sounds" beyond mere functional calls, enabling humans to play with sound for its own sake, distinguishing human music from animal vocalizations.

About 1.5 million years ago, Homo Air... invents what is called a bfacial axe... The capacity to create symmetry in an axe bespeaks... an enjoyment of form for aesthetic reasons... mental capacity is crossodal... symmetrical sound meter or regular rhythm. [00:03:00] What marks... the first hominins apart from apes... was getting up on our feet... the rhythm of walking has stamped human music. [00:04:20] Our vocal tract learned how to produce an infinitely greater variety of sounds... our capacity to make sounds exceeded their function... This is where music starts to become a possibility where you're playing with sound.

The invention of staff notation by Guido in 1020 AD profoundly altered Western music, serving as a tool for church control by standardizing chants across vast empires. This notation became a "sharp end of the stick of globalization," as exemplified by Cortez introducing Spanish polyphony to the Aztecs. However, it also had negative consequences: it "froze" notes into precise, mechanical objects, divorcing them from the natural fluidity of the voice. This objectification created a division between the composer as a divine authority and the performer as a mere reproducer, contrasting sharply with organic oral traditions like those in India, where improvisation and creative interpretation are central.

A thousand years ago in a thousand 20 an Italian monk called Gido invents staff notation and life was never again the same for western music... Staff notation was a tool of church control... Cortez invades Mexico in 1519, he takes notation with him... music notation becomes the um the sharp end of the stick of globalization. [00:21:40] By pinning notes down to a page... you're taking a note away from the voice... Notation freezes a note. It becomes rather cold and mechanical. It also freezes music as an object... you create a division between the composer... and those who merely mechanically reproduce it, a performer.

Engaging in musical training fundamentally alters brain structure and function, particularly shifting activity from the right to the left temporal lobe, which processes language and complex patterns. This training develops a wide array of transferable skills, including discipline, practice, time management, teamwork (in orchestras), attention, and focus. Beyond skill development, music significantly boosts mental health by fostering social connection (combating loneliness), reducing stress (lowering cortisol), increasing pleasure (dopamine release), aiding memory, and providing a unique avenue for expressing identity and deep emotions that language cannot capture.

Musical training rewires the brain. Now most of us are rightrained... If we train a musician they become left brain. They hear music through the same temporal lobe which processes language... so many skills which fall out of the discipline of learning to play an instrument. You learn discipline... practice... organize your time... work together in a team... pay attention... focus on sounds. [00:48:58] Music can bring people together. The biggest draw to mental health is loneliness... Music lowers stress by reducing cortisol. It gives you pleasure, makes you happy by flooding the brain with neurotransmitters like dopamine. Music is an excellent way of tagging memories... expressing your deepest emotions and your identity.