How does our brain recognize a sound (musical or otherwise) as pleasant?
In: Biology
We humans are primed for pattern recognition. If we weren’t, we would have never puzzled out that when certain patterns of stars (constellations) were in the sky, it was the ideal time to plant certain crops. When we recognize patters, there’s a certain satisfaction to it. A flower is beautiful because the pedals follow a certain pattern. A note by itself isn’t all that interesting, but notes arranged to make a pattern can be pleasant. This is very much influenced by what we’ve already heard because that shapes what we expect to ‘come next’ in a song. A song that’s a hit in the west will very likely fall flat in the east due to our different expectations.
Too much of a pattern can become repetitive and uninteresting though. If the same constellations were in the sky all the time, there would be no benefit to recognizing their pattern, so our brains are primed to filter out too much repetition as meaningless noise. Crafting a good song is all about balancing the right mix of expected and unexpected notes.
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