The Power of MusicEssays on music, mind, and the lives music shapes. Published by Resonate Music School & Studio in Edmonton.https://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/The man who returned for three minuteshttps://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/the-man-who-returned-for-three-minutes/https://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/the-man-who-returned-for-three-minutes/An 89-year-old in a nursing home, almost entirely silent for years, sat up and sang along when someone placed headphones playing Cab Calloway over his ears. Sixty million people watched the clip. The story behind it is more careful than the headlines suggest.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe OPERA hypothesis: why musicians hear speech differentlyhttps://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/the-opera-hypothesis/https://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/the-opera-hypothesis/A neuroscientist named Aniruddh Patel proposed in 2011 that musical training rewires speech processing under five specific conditions. Each one is mundane on its own. Together they explain why a violinist can hear a conversation in a noisy room more clearly than a non-musician of the same age.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat a chill down your back is doinghttps://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/what-a-chill-is-doing/https://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/what-a-chill-is-doing/When music gives you goosebumps, your brain has just released dopamine in two distinct waves. The same neural circuits that fire for food, sex, and cocaine fire for a violin entrance. The strangeness of this finding is worth sitting with.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhat music to listen to while you workhttps://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/what-music-to-listen-to-while-you-work/https://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/what-music-to-listen-to-while-you-work/A short, useful summary of what the research actually says about music and focus. Some of it lines up with intuition. Some of it does not. Lo-fi beats fans may want to look away.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMTWhy fourteen-month-olds help the people who bounce them in timehttps://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/why-fourteen-month-olds-help/https://powerofmusic.resonatemusic.ca/why-fourteen-month-olds-help/A McMaster researcher bounced infants in time with a stranger across the room. Minutes later, the babies who had been bounced in sync were more likely to help that stranger when they dropped something. The finding rearranges a small piece of what music does.Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT