WEBVTT

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

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it never occurs to you 
not to be a musician.

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As part of family activities 
you sing and dance together.

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No, really, that's what we do.

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

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

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

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you typically learn and become conversant

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in the formal language 
of your preferred music.

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This is true of classical 
musical systems worldwide.

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You learn the symbol system 
of your preferred music.

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

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They also make it possible

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to preserve musical 
creations for the ages

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and to transfer musical ideas 
to other musicians.

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So as a result of this kind of process,

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

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

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Whether it's the shakuhachi, 
tradition of Japan,

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or the chromatic musical system 
of South India,

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or Gregorian Chant, Beethoven,

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movie music, patriotic songs,

NOTE Paragraph

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the musical score makes it 
possible to recreate 


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a musical experience any time, anywhere.

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

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Ready-made for our consumption, 
our entertainment,

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our enlightenment.

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We are typically passive consumers 
of ready-made music,

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

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

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Everyone, doing it.

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Let's go there.

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(Singing)

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(Singing)

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(Stamping and clapping)
Come on.

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Shh...
(Softer stamping and clapping)

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(Louder clapping)

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(Clapping stopped)

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(Singing)

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(Audience singing together)

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Okay, when did you get the music?

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

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This is a fine example of the difference

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between music as a product,
meaning the musical score,

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and the doing of it,
the musical process.

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And this little improvisation

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was made possible because 
we're all born musical.

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

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What does that mean?

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You were born with 
certain musical capacities. 


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They're innate.

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

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I sang out a melody to you

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and your brain discerned
that those were different pitches.

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That's called pitch discrimination.

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Then, I set a tempo 
and a rhythmic pattern.

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

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That's called rhythmic entrainment.

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

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That's called musical memory.

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Pitch discrimination, 
rhythmic entrainment, musical memory.

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These are things that you were born with.

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

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They're virtually yours 
for being a Homo sapiens.

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

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Let's stick right now with
rhythmic entrainment.

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(Music)

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

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(Laughter)

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She can't get enough with this.

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(Laughter)

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(Music stops)

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What this kind of research 
has shown us

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is that our brains are 
beautifully wired for music.

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

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

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Regardless of your preferred music.

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So this raises a question:

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

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what about other species?

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Let's stick with rhythmic 
entrainment for the moment.

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(Music)

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Here is Snowball.

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(Laughter)

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(Music) (Laughter)

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(End of music) (Applause)

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He could do this all day.

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(Laughter)

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

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(Music)

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(Same music, with faster tempo)

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

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(Bonobo drumming)

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(Voices of people talking to the bonobos)

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Okay, that's rhythmic entrainment.

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What about pitch discrimination 
and musical memory?

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(Humpback whale calls)

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Let me talk a little bit about 
humpback whale song.

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

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And they create this seasonal song 
as a collaborative effort.

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It's done by one whale singing out phrase

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and if it's sung back to him,

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it's incorporated in this seasonal song.

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And they spend six months creating
this seasonal song together.

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

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When they resume singing 
six months later,

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they start with last year's seasonal song.

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Pitch discrimination, musical memory.

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So what does all of this mean?

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I work in a field called BioMusic,

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which studies musical brains
and musical capacities in all species.

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Because your ability to interact with 
others and with your environment

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is dependent on these musical capacities.

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

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

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Where would marching, 
singing together, dancing,

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team sports, even cheerleading be 
without rhythmic entrainment?

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

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

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No. The uptake of that conversation 
by the other person

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

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This kind of conversational 
turn-taking is rhythmical

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and your brain does it automatically.

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Think about how you entrain with yourself.

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

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And if you are gesturing while you speak,

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your gestures automatically entrain
to your stress,

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and to the tempo of your speech.

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Rhythmic entrainment.

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As far as pitch discrimination 
is concerned, 


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in this whole room with cell phones,

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you all know what your 
own ringtone sounds like.

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(Laughter)

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

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because of our musical memory.

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All these scenarios are supported by 
a magnificent musical communication system

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that resides within us and around us.

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

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that these musical capacities are 
embedded deeply in the wild.

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Furthermore,
these musical capacities are primal.

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This has really profound implications 
for our species

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and for other species.

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

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

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because vision is not 
the best tool in the ocean.

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We're capturing the sounds of the animals

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that live at the reef 
and migrate by the reef.

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

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and with their environment.

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Returning to our species, 
new therapies are being developed

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that use this magnificent 
musical system in our brain

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to reprogram damaged brains.

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

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due to stroke or traumatic brain injury.

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

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that use music-making combination 
with hand-eye coordination

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to stimulate an increased learning.

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Going forward into the future,

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we want to continue to expand 
our understanding

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of this fabulous music 
communication system

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

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

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We will design sound environments 
that are prescriptive,

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and individualized, that support healing.

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We will manage the sound environments

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that will preserve 
and protect other species.

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Consider that new technology 
is now on the drawing board,

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that is going to be able 
to record the sounds

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of individual cells within your body.

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That means that 
we can use patterns of sound 


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and time to listen to cells 
that are healthy

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versus cells that are diseased.

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This opens up the possibilities for us

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to have a diagnostic tool 
that is not invasive,

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that listens to the body 
and pinpoints diseased cells.

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

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to neutralize those diseased cells.

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You should also know that NASA

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has already sent recordings 
of human music-making

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and whale songs 
into intergalactic space,

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with the possibility

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that extraterrestrial intelligent life

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will know us by these sounds,

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

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may actually be a musical communication.

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With all this said, 
perhaps we should reconsider

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the importance 
of music-making in our lives

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

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Because they're going to need 
height into musical capacities

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

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Music is not just a literate activity.

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It's a potent communication system

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

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So, embrace your musicality.

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Experience this world as a musical place.

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

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Thank you.

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(Applause)