Music is a fundamental attribute of the human species. Virtually all cultures, from the most primitive to the most advanced, make music. It's been true through history, and it's true throughout an individual's lifespan.

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This feature is part of Music and Your Mind, a series exploring how music affects your brain. Read part 2 on healing and part 3 on torture. CNN Music is present in every part of our lives. Our spiritual rituals are framed with songs, children learn the alphabet through song and the malls and cafes we visit during our leisure time are rarely silent. Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what's happening in the world as it unfolds. But just how much can this ever-present thing impact us -- and the way we act and feel? Research suggests music can influence us a lot.
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Have you ever listened to a beautiful piano piece and wished you could produce such enchanting music? After all, to play the piano well, you have to start as a…. Are you ready to get jazzy? Jazz piano is a crowd-pleasing genre that you find at weddings, restaurants, and bars. Have you been wanting to get in on the jazz….
We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. The idea that artificial intelligence can compose music is scary for a lot of people, including me. This raises the question: could artificial intelligence one day replace musicians? Using AI as a tool to make music or aid musicians has been in practice for quite some time. In , researchers at Sony used software called Flow Machines to create a melody in the style of The Beatles. Basically, you feed the software tons of source material, from dance hits to disco classics, which it then analyzes to find patterns. It picks up on things like chords, tempo, length, and how notes relate to one another, learning from all the input so it can write its own melodies. There are differences between platforms: some deliver MIDI while others deliver audio. Some learn purely by examining data, while others rely on hard-coded rules based on musical theory to guide their output.