<p>I have a random question that I thought up while looking at some student research projects at my high school. Humans seem to have a tendency to hear major chords and associate these with happiness, and good things. Conversely, people associate minor chords with generally sad or eerie things. </p>
<p>I am wondering if this tendency is because of nature or nurture. Are we predisposed to have a certain reaction to these types of sounds, or do we learn that these sounds are connected with these emotions?</p>
<p>If it is nature, I wonder how our brain makes the distinction; why certain chords would intuitively arise certain emotions in us even as infants.</p>
<p>If it is nurture, I wonder who was the first to think that major chords should be associated with happiness, and minor chords with sadness (generally speaking), and how we learn that these chords are associated with these emotions. </p>
<p>I know it's wierd, but I wanted to post it to see if people thought there was a real semiscientific answer, or if it has no real basis in science. </p>
<p>Have you read the book, "The Golden Ratio". I think a similar topic is covered in the book. Many scientists/mathematicians have shown through experiments that the "golden ratio" (represented by the Greek letter, phi) dictates a surprising amount of our subconscious thinking. I forget whether or not your exact example is discussed in the book, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Basically, humans have this odd relationship with this particular ratio, and it seems to be associated to us in very odd ways. For example, if this ratio is present in the placement of certain parts of our face (eyes, ears, teeth, etc.), then we are considered to be attractive, vice versa. There are a lot of usages for this ratio, if you want to learn more, you could simple type in "Golden Ratio" in a search engine and read away. I hope this helps!</p>
<p>This proposal is not a statement of fact; it is a hypothesis, but one that seems to fit well with the facts as known at present in psychology, biological anthropology and archaeology. Indeed, archaeology tells us that the earliest unambiguously musical artefact identified to date is a bone pipe found near Württemberg in southern Germany; this is dated to around 36,000 BP1, and was uncovered in a context that associates it with modern Homo sapiens sapiens. Its date lies at the farther end of what has been called the "cultural explosion" (Pfeiffer, 1985), the sudden efflorescence of visual art and symbolic artefacts that marks the undoubted emergence of modern human cognitive capacities. The archaeological record would suggest that musicality is human and ancient; it is notable that the pipe predates almost all known visual art, and in any case, a capacity for musicality (most likely, vocally expressed) must predate the construction of a musical artefact, most likely by a considerable period.
This is just one research paper and it provides a number of pathways to go for more answers. It doesn't address your entire question but it does give a decent background and valuable points. </p>
<p>The way that caregivers talk to infants is special. Characteristics of this "parentese" speech include higher pitch, longer duration, and more exaggerated pitch changes than speech that is directed to other adults. This type of speech is observed in parents and caretakers who speak Russian, Zulu, Mandarin and all other languages studied. It appears to be universal. Dr. Kuhl's research shows that parents also make other subtle changes in their speech to infants, changes that make speech clearer and more distinct for children. Mothers "stretch" the vowel triangle, making speech sounds more distinct, when speaking to infants. Kuhl's research also shows that infants as young as 20 weeks mimic the vowel sounds they hear, indicating that parentese may play a tutorial role in helping infants learn about speech.
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<p>Dr. Kuhl's research is slightly tangential but it is very interesting. If you're very interested in her work, Steven Pinker has a book called "The Language Instinct."</p>
<p>Also, I was thinking about personality being nature/nurture. I read somewhere that a bunch of scientists published an article on how it's nature because they breeded "agressive" rats, and then took out the gene for what they thought was making them agressive, and it worked; the rats they breeded from these "altered" rats were less agressive, thus proving that personality is nature based. </p>
<p>Has anyone else heard anything along this vein? Because I think that taste in music (and therefore chord progressions) may also have to do with personality (in such a way that your typical stereotype of a goth kid would like minor chords because they like darker music better?) I guess that still proves that people associate minor chords with dark emotions though, it's just preference. Is that nature or nurture?</p>
<p>Cross' abstract states that some say that music is "central in the evolution of the modern human mind." </p>
<p>I've heard that students that study music are generally "smarter" (i.e. do better on tests) than students that don't. Does this say that these students are talented in music because they have a more developed "human mind" or does music expand their mind, letting it evolve into this "human mind?"</p>
<p>I have to say it is nature. I was discussing with the choral teacher at my old high school why for some reason I have a particular fondness for the C#-Minor scale. He told me that there was a theory that the universe resonates either in A or E Major (I forget which). In the case of A major, C# is the the third of the scale. In the case of E Major, C# minor is the relative minor.</p>
<p>I think that we as humans have a natural disposition to these frequencies and therefore associate certain chords with certain moods and feelings. As a musician who plays four woodwinds (Oboe, English Horn, Alto Sax and Tenor Sax) I can testify that each scale does have a different tonality and vibe. </p>
<p>I have also been interested in how one's ancestory plays into the tonality one hears. In my case, I am of Russian/Slavic Jewish decent. For some reason, I have a very strong pension for harmonic minor scales, which is one of the most (if not the most) used type of scale in Jewish/Russian music. It is an interesting to see how those in different parts of the world write and hear music because it is different to everyone.</p>
<p>While I do believe that we are told during music classes that minor scales are often used to express sad or emotional parts in music and that major scales often emote happiness, I believe that we trust in that idea becuase of a certain natural instinct.</p>
<p>On the idea of the Golden Ratio, it is extremely well connected to music as documented in books. In 8th grade during my geometry class, we spent 3 days on the Golden Ratio and how it is corrolated to music. Very cool stuff on this realm as well.</p>
<p>How is the golden ratio correlated to music? I know that it shows up in some pieces, what immediately comes to mind is Beethoven's Fifth, but does it correlate in other ways?</p>