Review: Let yourself go with the flow
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 13, 2013
Although I've never had any musical training, I had no difficulty understanding the concepts of rhythm, resonance, and beat explained by musician John Lamb in his short but illuminating book "A Matter of Time." He defines rhythm as repetition in space or time. Since the author's background is in music, the book is primarily about musical rhythm (notes repeated in time to form a repeating pattern). Rhythm is resonance, and the book illustrates a non-musical example of resonance with a story about Nikolai Tesla almost destroying a building when he hit on the structure's resonant frequency.The book isn't just about music theory, however. Rhythms are patterns, and these patterns cause our brains to resonate, in a process known as brain wave entrainment. Entrainment synchronizes neural activity. The author uses this phenomenon to explain why live music will always sound better than recorded music. He also explains the so-called Mozart Effect, where learning to play music improves seemingly unrelated mental skills.Musicians and music students should get a better feel for their music by understanding the concept of rhythm and timing, but as someone with no music background whatsoever, I enjoyed the book and got a better understanding of why I enjoy some musical works better than others.Note: the book includes a number of links to YouTube videos and other web links. My Kindle Paperwhite isn't capable of playing YouTube videos, so I had to use my PC to connect with these.A review copy of the book was provided by the author.