Let’s Talk

Music Between Your Ears is getting eyes Down Under! Andrea Calilhanna, a pianist, music neuroscientist, and podcaster in Australia interviewed me about my book. Our conversation focused on the essential value of music to human beings.

Listen here: https://networks.h-net.org/group/pages/20147667/podcasts

New Books Network

Recognizing the value of Music Between Your Ears, the New Books Network invited Dr. Markind onto its podcast. Host Greg McNiff’s deep-dive interview with Dr. Markind explores the book’s major themes.

Listen here: https://newbooksnetwork.com/music-between-your-ears

or on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6xpSPyx9cXbXAsteJpCuNc?si=Qsk4xcLuTdSdoeViErYGdg

Using Neuroscience to Understand and Teach Rhythmic Meters

One person’s enduring engagement with musical pedagogy Down Under.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202609/using-neuroscience-to-understand-and-teach-rhythmic-meters

Ski-hill graphs help students better understand and appreciate meter

Source: Photo from Clap, Tap and Map: Meter Fundamentals through Ski-hill Graph Pedagogy by Andrea Calilhanna (2025) ISBN: 979-8266573109. Used here with the author’s permission.

Striking the Balance Between the Music and the Therapy

What musical skill set is necessary to enter the music therapy field?

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202608/striking-the-balance-between-the-music-and-the-therapy

What music skills are required to dream of a future in music therapy?

Source: PublicDomainPictures/Pixabay

Music Plays a Role in Developing Critical Life Skills

A renowned educator reveals insights into executive function.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202607/music-plays-a-role-in-developing-critical-life-skills

Keep your eye on the ball for better executive function skills

Source: Christiane / Pixabay

NRT: From Musical Notes to Nervous System Vibrations

Per neural resonance theory, biology and genes drive our musical preferences.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202606/nrt-from-musical-notes-to-nervous-system-vibrations

Music is neural resonance that matches sound wave vibrations

Source: Gerd Altmann / Pixabay

Why Do We Like the Music We Like?

Per predictive coding, learning and culture form musical preferences.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202605/why-do-we-like-the-music-we-like

Our reactions to music link our brain with our body

Source: Image by Elizabeth Lemos / Pixabay

The Music Is in Us—in Our Brain and in Our Body

We need our body for our brain to think properly.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202604/the-music-is-in-us-in-our-brain-and-in-our-body

The music in us connects body and mind

Source: vat loai / Pixabay

Music Provides Great Value to the Brain

Music’s many benefits point to reasons why we like it so much.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202603/music-provides-great-value-to-the-brain

Songbirds teach us much about why we like music. Image: Thomas Hawkins / Pexels

Engage Actively With Music to Reap Its Greatest Benefits

Personal Perspective: Playing the ukulele is a fun way to enter the music world.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202602/engage-actively-with-music-to-reap-its-greatest-benefits

Image: Playing the ukelele. Source: Catandway / Pixabay

How Music Enhances Our Brains and Our Lives

Insights from the career of Professor Paul Colombo.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202601/how-music-enhances-our-brains-and-our-lives

Image: Music is found just about everywhere in New Orleans, even at a simple beignet stop. Source: Photo by author

Music: When Sound Becomes Feeling and Movement

Why you love the music you do and how it impacts your body and mind.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202512/music-when-sound-becomes-feeling-and-movement

Image by John Zook / Pexels

Science Partnering With the Arts Enhances Medical Education

A retired physician-musician seeks to bring medicine and the arts closer.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202511/science-partnering-with-the-arts-enhances-medical-education

Image: Musicians by Yrjö Ollila (1928) National Library of Finland

Source: Europeana / Unsplash

Let Music Be Your Medicine

Exploring ways to deliver rhythmic frequencies to improve memory.

View the post here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202510/let-music-be-your-medicine

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

The Rhythm of Music Couples Our Bodies and Minds

Keeping the beat is vital to teamwork and human success.

View the post here:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/music-between-your-ears/202509/the-rhythm-of-music-couples-our-bodies-and-minds

Photo by Thiago Miranda / Pexels

The Paradoxical Brain

Thinking creative thoughts and getting those thoughts out of one’s head into the world are separate brain processes. Maurice Ravel’s decline demonstrates this situation. This brief video summarizes how the separation of these processes occurs as well as Ravel’s observations of his own decline. (Video excerpt from the 2025 Creativity & Madness conference with the kind permission of Dr. Amy Vail.)

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The Value of Entrainment

We humans are able to coordinate movements of our body with rhythm.  This property, called entrainment, is one of the foremost attributes of music.  In this brief video, I explain 2 of entrainment’s virtues – it is prosocial and productive.  (Video excerpt from the 2021 Creativity & Madness conference with the kind permission of Dr. Amy Vail.)

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