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Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why

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Music as Biology: What We Like to Hear and Why

Instructor: Dale Purves

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8 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

729 reviews

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

96%

Most learners liked this course

8 modules

Gain insight into a topic and learn the fundamentals.

729 reviews

2 weeks to complete

at 10 hours a week

Flexible schedule

Learn at your own pace

96%

Most learners liked this course

Skills you'll gain

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Shareable certificate

Add to your LinkedIn profile

Assessments

7 assignments

Taught in English

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There are 8 modules in this course

The course will explore the tone combinations that humans consider consonant or dissonant, the scales we use, and the emotions music elicits, all of which provide a rich set of data for exploring music and auditory aesthetics in a biological framework. Analyses of speech and musical databases are consistent with the idea that the chromatic scale (the set of tones used by humans to create music), consonance and dissonance, worldwide preferences for a few dozen scales from the billions that are possible, and the emotions elicited by music in different cultures all stem from the relative similarity of musical tonalities and the characteristics of voiced (tonal) speech. Like the phenomenology of visual perception, these aspects of auditory perception appear to have arisen from the need to contend with sensory stimuli that are inherently unable to specify their physical sources, leading to the evolution of a common strategy to deal with this fundamental challenge.

Introduction to Music as Biology

What's included

1 video2 readings1 discussion prompt

An overview of the organization of the human auditory system, and how sound signals are transformed into sound stimuli.

What's included

4 videos2 readings1 assignment4 discussion prompts

4 videosTotal 36 minutes

Organization of the Auditory System10 minutes
Sound Signals and Sound Stimuli5 minutes
Tones versus Noise11 minutes
Determining the Sources of Sound Stimuli10 minutes

2 readingsTotal 20 minutes

Module Resources10 minutes
An Overview of the Human Auditory System10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Sound Signals, Sound Stimuli, and the Human Auditory System30 minutes

4 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

Distinction Between Sound Signal and Sound Stimuli10 minutes
Harmonic Series10 minutes
Auditory Perception10 minutes
Thinking About Music as Biology: Week 110 minutes

An introduction to the sound qualities we perceive, and how and why these qualities differ from the information in sound signals.

What's included

5 videos1 reading1 assignment2 discussion prompts

5 videosTotal 45 minutes

Loudness and Intensity15 minutes
Pitch and Frequency13 minutes
Timbre and its Causes5 minutes
Observation and Linguistics6 minutes
Auditory Objects and Scenes5 minutes

1 readingTotal 10 minutes

Module Resources10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

The Perception of Sound Stimuli30 minutes

2 discussion promptsTotal 20 minutes

Correlates and How They Differ10 minutes
Thinking About Music as Biology: Week 210 minutes

A discussion of the nature of vocal sound signals, their biological importance and their role in understanding music.

What's included

5 videos1 reading1 assignment3 discussion prompts

5 videosTotal 45 minutes

The Production of Vocal Sound Signals12 minutes
The Perception of Vocal Sound Signals10 minutes
The Perception of Intensity (Loudness) in Empirical Terms11 minutes
The Perception of Frequency (Pitch) in Empirical Terms5 minutes
Relationship of Vocalization to Music7 minutes

1 readingTotal 10 minutes

Module Resources10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Vocalization and Vocal Tones30 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

Human Vocalization10 minutes
Share Your Work!10 minutes
Thinking About Music as Biology: Week 310 minutes

The tonal phenomena that need to be explained in any theory of music, and different approaches that have been take to provide answers.

What's included

9 videos1 reading1 assignment3 discussion prompts

9 videosTotal 72 minutes

Defining Music12 minutes
The Chromatic Scale and Some More Musical Terminology7 minutes
Consonance and Dissonance7 minutes
Tonality vs. Atonality: Frequency of Consonant vs. Dissonant Intervals4 minutes
Tension and Resolution5 minutes
Cadences9 minutes
Mathematical Explanations of Consonance5 minutes
A Physical Explanation of Consonance8 minutes
A Biological Explanation of Consonance16 minutes

1 readingTotal 10 minutes

Module Resources10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Defining Music and Exploring Why We Like It30 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

Defining Music10 minutes
Share Your Work!10 minutes
Explanations of Consonance10 minutes

Why a small number of basic scales are used in music worldwide, and how a biological framework explains this and related puzzles.

What's included

6 videos1 reading1 assignment3 discussion prompts

6 videosTotal 62 minutes

Defining Scales and Modes19 minutes
The Small Number of Scales Used8 minutes
Testing a Biological Explanation of Scale Preference9 minutes
Why Is the Number of Intervals in Scales So Limited?6 minutes
The Status of the Chromatic Scale and the Semitone in Biological Terms11 minutes
Is Music Uniquely Human?10 minutes

1 readingTotal 10 minutes

Module Resources10 minutes

1 assignmentTotal 30 minutes

Musical Scales30 minutes

3 discussion promptsTotal 30 minutes

Tuning Systems10 minutes
Scales10 minutes
Biological Explanation of Scale Preference10 minutes

How emotion is conveyed by vocal similarity in music across cultures, and how the speech of a culture and its music are related. A summing up of the major points in the course follows.

What's included

7 videos3 readings2 assignments4 discussion prompts

7 videosTotal 65 minutes

Introduction to Emotion9 minutes
Emotions Elicited by Major versus Minor Scales15 minutes
Comparision of Major and Minor Music with Vocalization in Different Emotional States7 minutes
Expression of Emotion in Eastern and Western Music7 minutes
Language, Speech, and Cultural Differences in Music20 minutes
Mbira Music: Background and Cyclical Structures4 minutes
Mbria Music: Nonhamronic Frequencies4 minutes

3 readingsTotal 30 minutes

Module Resources10 minutes
Mozart Variation 8, "Minor"10 minutes
Mozart Variation 9, "Major"10 minutes

2 assignmentsTotal 60 minutes

Music, Emotion, and Cultural Differences30 minutes
Summing Up30 minutes

4 discussion promptsTotal 40 minutes

Relevancy of Emotion10 minutes
Culturally Different Music10 minutes
Your Takeaway10 minutes
Music as Biology: Summing Up10 minutes

Additional demonstrations and commentaries by Ruby Froom on some of the musical issues considered in the course, as well as a glossary of terms and bibliography for references.

What's included

6 videos17 readings

6 videosTotal 38 minutes

Mozart: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star9 minutes
Derivations of the Harmonic and Melodic Minor Scales9 minutes
Cadences9 minutes
Berg Lieder4 minutes
Background and Cyclical Structure4 minutes
Nonharmonic Frequencies4 minutes

17 readingsTotal 170 minutes

Mozart Theme10 minutes
Mozart Variation 2, ornamentation10 minutes
Mozart Variation 5, rhythmic sync10 minutes
Mozart Variation 8, "Minor"10 minutes
Mozart Variation 9, "Major"10 minutes
Minor Scale Analysis in BWV 00210 minutes
Music Theory Rules10 minutes
BWV 002 Harmonic Analysis10 minutes
BWV 65.2 Harmonic Analysis10 minutes
BWV 133.6 Harmonic Analysis10 minutes
Schliesse Mir Die Augen Beide10 minutes
Tonal Version Sheet Music10 minutes
Atonal Version Sheet Music10 minutes
Share your learning experience10 minutes
Glossary A-O10 minutes
Glossary P-W10 minutes
Bibliography10 minutes

Instructor

Instructor ratings

(106 ratings)

Dale Purves

Duke University

2 Courses102,470 learners

Offered by

Duke University

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Reviewed on Apr 2, 2026

The course was very good, and it introduced many concepts I didn't know. However, I would like to see more of how natural sounds have influced music

Reviewed on Sep 17, 2016

This course was fairly interesting. The argument that the notes of our scale are linked to human vocalisation, not just in the West, but the whole world.

Reviewed on Sep 22, 2016

This course has helped me to understand biological psychology of humans towards music. Based on this knowledge i am confident to create music which will seem good to the ears of humans.

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When you purchase a Certificate you get access to all course materials, including graded assignments. Upon completing the course, your electronic Certificate will be added to your Accomplishments page - from there, you can print your Certificate or add it to your LinkedIn profile.