When you grow up 
in a musical family as I did,

it never occurs to you 
not to be a musician.

As part of family activities 
you sing and dance together.

No, really, that's what we do.

And as you grow older, 
you find your own path.

For me, it's the piano. 
It's become my musical voice.

At some point as you go 
deeper into this musical world,

you typically learn and become conversant

in the formal language 
of your preferred music.

This is true of classical 
musical systems worldwide.

You learn the symbol system 
of your preferred music.

These symbols convey musical concepts 
and practices of your preferred music.

They also make it possible

to preserve musical 
creations for the ages

and to transfer musical ideas 
to other musicians.

So as a result of this kind of process,

the musical score, that written document, 
has become extremely important.

And musicians who know how to "read" 
music are highly valued.

Whether it's the shakuhachi, 
tradition of Japan,

or the chromatic musical system 
of South India,

or Gregorian Chant, Beethoven,

movie music, patriotic songs,

the musical score makes it 
possible to recreate

a musical experience any time, anywhere.

As a result, most of our music 
arrives to us ready-made.

Ready-made for our consumption, 
our entertainment,

our enlightenment.

We are typically passive consumers 
of ready-made music,

delivered to us by musicians who are 
literate in that musical system.

But there is another world of music 
where the emphasis is on doing it.

Everyone, doing it.

Let's go there.

(Singing)

(Singing)

(Stamping and clapping)
Come on.

Shh...
(Softer stamping and clapping)

(Louder clapping)

(Clapping stopped)

(Singing)

(Audience singing together)

Okay, when did you get the music?

When did you get the score? 
When did you learn the music?

This is a fine example of the difference

between music as a product,
meaning the musical score,

and the doing of it,
the musical process.

And this little improvisation

was made possible because 
we're all born musical.

That's right. You are born musical. 
We're all born musical.

What does that mean?

You were born with 
certain musical capacities.

They're innate.

Let's think back on what
we just did as an improvisation.

I sang out a melody to you

and your brain discerned
that those were different pitches.

That's called pitch discrimination.

Then, I set a tempo 
and a rhythmic pattern.

You found the beat 
and used your body to join in.

That's called rhythmic entrainment.

Then, you remembered the melody 
that I sang. You sang it back to me.

That's called musical memory.

Pitch discrimination, 
rhythmic entrainment, musical memory.

These are things that you were born with.

You didn't have to learn it. 
You didn't have to buy it.

They're virtually yours 
for being a Homo sapiens.

We know this because new research 
has focused on infants and babies.

Let's stick right now with
rhythmic entrainment.

(Music)

Here is a baby, just being balanced, 
listening to a drum track.

(Laughter)

She can't get enough with this.

(Laughter)

(Music stops)

What this kind of research 
has shown us

is that our brains are 
beautifully wired for music.

This is not a right-brain, 
left-brain world.

The music receptors in your brain 
are all over the brain.

Regardless of your preferred music.

So this raises a question:

if all of this in innate
and we're all pre-wired for music,

what about other species?

Let's stick with rhythmic 
entrainment for the moment.

(Music)

Here is Snowball.

(Laughter)

(Music) (Laughter)

(End of music) (Applause)

He could do this all day.

(Laughter)

Okay, how about a sea lion? 
Here is Roland.

(Music)

(Same music, with faster tempo)

This is my research with 
our closest primate cousin: bonobo.

(Bonobo drumming)

(Voices of people talking to the bonobos)

Okay, that's rhythmic entrainment.

What about pitch discrimination 
and musical memory?

(Humpback whale calls)

Let me talk a little bit about 
humpback whale song.

All the males in a specific ocean 
sing the same seasonal song.

And they create this seasonal song 
as a collaborative effort.

It's done by one whale singing out phrase

and if it's sung back to him,

it's incorporated in this seasonal song.

And they spend six months creating
this seasonal song together.

Then they go silent for six months, 
while they go to the feeding grounds.

When they resume singing 
six months later,

they start with last year's seasonal song.

Pitch discrimination, musical memory.

So what does all of this mean?

I work in a field called BioMusic,

which studies musical brains
and musical capacities in all species.

Because your ability to interact with 
others and with your environment

is dependent on these musical capacities.

They also forecast 
your ability to survive and to get along.

Let's think about being together 
with our fellow human beings.

Where would marching, 
singing together, dancing,

team sports, even cheerleading be 
without rhythmic entrainment?

In a conversation with another person, 
all speech doesn't have to come

to a grinding halt of silence
for the other person to begin speaking.

No. The uptake of that conversation 
by the other person

happens at that natural rhythmic moment
that has just flowed from you.

This kind of conversational 
turn-taking is rhythmical

and your brain does it automatically.

Think about how you entrain with yourself.

When you're walking, your arms naturally 
rhythmically entrain to your walk.

And if you are gesturing while you speak,

your gestures automatically entrain
to your stress,

and to the tempo of your speech.

Rhythmic entrainment.

As far as pitch discrimination 
is concerned,

in this whole room with cell phones,

you all know what your 
own ringtone sounds like.

(Laughter)

And we could all break out right now 
in the course of Happy Birthday

because of our musical memory.

All these scenarios are supported by 
a magnificent musical communication system

that resides within us and around us.

And what we're finding in this research
is that we're not alone,

that these musical capacities are 
embedded deeply in the wild.

Furthermore,
these musical capacities are primal.

This has really profound implications 
for our species

and for other species.

I'm engaged in soundmapping 
the Meso-American Reef.

We're dropping hydrophones at the 
second largest reef system in the world,

because vision is not 
the best tool in the ocean.

We're capturing the sounds of the animals

that live at the reef 
and migrate by the reef.

And we're learning, in a whole new way, 
how they interact with each other

and with their environment.

Returning to our species, 
new therapies are being developed

that use this magnificent 
musical system in our brain

to reprogram damaged brains.

So by using music-making, 
we can actually recapture lost abilities

due to stroke or traumatic brain injury.

And, when it comes to interventions, 
we have new interventions

that use music-making combination 
with hand-eye coordination

to stimulate an increased learning.

Going forward into the future,

we want to continue to expand 
our understanding

of this fabulous music 
communication system

and to learn better 
how to use it to our advantage.

So in the future, we will design sound 
environments that support wellness.

We will design sound environments 
that are prescriptive,

and individualized, that support healing.

We will manage the sound environments

that will preserve 
and protect other species.

Consider that new technology 
is now on the drawing board,

that is going to be able 
to record the sounds

of individual cells within your body.

That means that 
we can use patterns of sound

and time to listen to cells 
that are healthy

versus cells that are diseased.

This opens up the possibilities for us

to have a diagnostic tool 
that is not invasive,

that listens to the body 
and pinpoints diseased cells.

And it may be possible 
to write a code of sound waves

to neutralize those diseased cells.

You should also know that NASA

has already sent recordings 
of human music-making

and whale songs 
into intergalactic space,

with the possibility

that extraterrestrial intelligent life

will know us by these sounds,

creating the possibility that 
the first communication with an E.T.

may actually be a musical communication.

With all this said, 
perhaps we should reconsider

the importance 
of music-making in our lives

and the role that it plays with educating 
and mentoring our children.

Because they're going to need 
height into musical capacities

to be able to walk 
into these new careers and jobs.

Music is not just a literate activity.

It's a potent communication system

that is embedded in the wild and
that connects all the life on the planet.

So, embrace your musicality.

Experience this world as a musical place.

And know that the future holds
a robust and fast musical conversation.

Thank you.

(Applause)