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Blog posts
1 - 30 of 753 results

Watch the TEDActive 2011 music video

Aboard the Lennon Bus, a crew of TEDActive musicians created this lovely song -- and a video! -- in one week. Feel the vibe of TEDActive ... Musicians on this track include Jill Sobule, Wendy Melvoin, Annie Clark, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, Lisa Coleman and Aaron Sterling. Video created by Hiro Murai / Isaac Hagy. Lennon Bus crew: Brian...
Posted March 5, 2011
https://blog.ted.com/2011/03/05/tedactive-2011-music-video

How a contortionist plays music

We are thoroughly impressed with contortionist Anudari, who performed last week at TEDxUlaanbaatar in Mongolia. She has been studying contortion since she was 6-years-old. But it’s not just her outrageous flexibility and ability to fold in impossible ways that makes her so fascinating to watch. It’s the fact that she can play a musical instru...
Posted October 4, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/10/04/how-a-contortionist-plays-music

Music makes me lose control

The photo above is Mark Ronson on a Thursday night at TED, in the midst of teaching a four-hour seminar in pop music history. Working backward and forward in time, he proved to a sweaty crowd how everything with a beat is connected to everything else. Old heads in the audience broke into horrible, grimacing dances when he dropped Diana Ross’ 198...
Posted May 9, 2014
https://ideas.ted.com/music-makes-me-lose-control

What making music does to your brain

What's it like to have a song inside your head, itching to get out? A neuroscientist and a songwriter compare notes from the frontier of music and science. Music is the most complicated sound the brain can process. But why did our brains evolve such advanced tools to create and enjoy it? Neuroscientist and jazz musician Charles Limb (TED Talk: ...
Posted November 10, 2015
https://ideas.ted.com/what-making-music-does-to-your-brain

Mouth music: Wang Li at TED2013

It sounds like music that could be pumping from the sound system of a packed nightclub. But these electronic-tinged sounds actually come from the mouth of one man, Wang Li, a master mouth harp musician, as he plays the kouxiang. In session 7 of TED2013, Li gives the audience a taste of his sonic stylings. Raised in Northeastern China, Wan...
Posted February 27, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/02/27/mouth-music-wang-li-at-ted2013

Transforming energy into music: Cameron Carpenter at TED2012

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Opening Session 6 of TED2012: Cameron Carpenter, one of the world's top organists -- he's brought the "king of instruments" out of the church and into concert halls. He starts with "Slaughter on 10th Avenue," by Richard Rodgers. The organ sounds are first out of place, then mesmerizing. He then moves into C...
Posted February 29, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/02/29/transforming-energy-into-music-cameron-carpenter-at-ted2012

Found Sound Nation: Making music together at TED2017

Our friends at Found Sound Nation made this great 3-minute video to show us what's going on at TED2017 this week -- a collaborative music-making experience. If you're here, stop by, and if you're watching online ... check back in on Friday to hear what people created together. Credits: Found Sound Nation: Jeremy Thal Christopher M...
Posted April 25, 2017
https://blog.ted.com/2017/04/25/found-sound-nation-making-music-together-at-ted2017

The secret life of plant music

Barreling through the high-visibility, high-tech exhibits on the TED2019 circuit, you’d be forgiven for mistaking The Data Garden for just another chillout zone, with its oasis of potted houseplants and people lying draped, spaced out, across bean bags. Yet an arresting sound beckons from this unassuming island – a soothing patter of gently ...
Posted April 18, 2019
https://blog.ted.com/2019/04/18/the-secret-life-of-plant-music

The music teacher you wish you had

Far too many of us still have flashbacks to piano lessons, when an uber-serious teacher would rap our knuckles after every wrong note. If only we had taken bass lessons from Victor Wooten of the band Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. In the video above -- the first ever live-action TED-Ed lesson -- five-time Grammy winner Wooten explains that mu...
Posted August 13, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/08/13/the-music-teacher-you-wish-you-had

What great leadership and music have in common

Jim Crupi is a management consultant with a long, brilliant resume. (Heard of CNN? He helped set the strategic stage that led to its creation.) Here, he distills some of his best leadership advice into one memorable metaphor. Music is all-consuming. Our reaction to a great song can be so visceral that we are forever connected to it. Hearing tha...
Posted October 18, 2016
https://ideas.ted.com/what-great-leadership-and-music-have-in-common

Gallery: Beautiful drawings show the music of sign language

Deaf artist Christine Sun Kim describes how she combines American Sign Language and musical notation systems in her drawings. Several writing systems “code” American Sign Language (ASL) on paper, and some of them function very much like the staffs, symbols and notes of musical notation systems. Both ASL and music are somewhat “closed” -- unless...
Posted December 11, 2015
https://ideas.ted.com/gallery-beautiful-drawings-show-the-music-of-sign-language

On our reading list: David Byrne’s book, How Music Works

Many people simply listen to music. Not David Byrne, the solo artist and former frontman of the Talking Heads. Even beyond making music, Byrne thinks deeply about how music functions on a perceptual level. At TED2010, Byrne spoke about how the nature of a space effects what kind of music is played there, from a gritty club like New York’s CBG...
Posted September 26, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/09/26/on-our-reading-list-david-byrnes-book-how-music-works

Building a house of music: Blood Orange at TED2014

Devonté Hynes is a producer, singer, composer, author, and more. He's spent a lot of his career helping other musicians produce their work, or writing for others. But he also has an amazing solo career as Blood Orange. At TED, he plays the piano and explains how he sees music. And he really sees music -- he's a synesthete. He says, "Every so...
Posted March 20, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/03/20/building-a-house-of-music-blood-orange-at-ted2014

DJ prodigy Cole Plante: "Music is always there for you"

When Cole Plante starts to DJ, you'd never guess he's only 17. His hands move over the mixing board with the confidence of someone older, purposefully weaving over the knobs that adjust the sounds and beats. On some of the adjustments, his grip holds a few beats, while others are so fleeting his reflex gives the impression that the controls are ...
Posted November 22, 2013
https://ideas.ted.com/dj-prodigy-cole-plante-music-is-always-there-for-you

A littleBit rock ‘n’ roll: Reggie Watts rocks the newly launched SynthKit, and electronic music goes mini-modular

Above: Reggie Watts demonstrates the littleBits SynthKit For the last week, the internet has been grooving to the video above of Reggie Watts making some funky noise with the newly launched SynthKit -- the latest offering from TED Fellow Ayah Bdeir’s littleBits electronic building block company, and the product of a three-way partnership b...
Posted November 21, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/11/21/a-littlebit-rock-n-roll-reggie-watts-rocks-the-newly-launched-synthkit-and-electronic-music-goes-mini-modular

Trust people to pay for music: Amanda Palmer at TED2013

Amanda Fucking Palmer wants us to re-think how we think about paying for music. She is known for her music, first as half of the Dresden Dolls, now as a solo artist. But for 5 years after graduating, Palmer made her living as a living statue called the Eight Foot Bride. ("Everyone always wanted to know, 'Who are these people in real life?...
Posted February 27, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/02/27/trust-people-to-pay-for-music-amanda-palmer-at-ted2013

Let classical music rock your world: Ji-Hae Park at TED2013

"The TED Salon in Seoul was lit up by this performer, by her extraordinary passion for her music," says TED curator Chris Anderson by way of introduction. He's referring to the Talent Search auditions held in 14 cities around the world that provided the conference with 33 speakers this year. And in particular, he's talking about Ji-Hae Park,...
Posted February 27, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/02/27/let-classical-music-rock-your-world-ji-hae-park-at-ted2013

A brief history of classical music: Michael Tilson Thomas at TED2012

Photo: James Duncan Davidson Michael Tilson Thomas is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony, founder and artistic director of the New World Symphony and principal guest conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Now he's up to round off this session in style, seated at a grand piano that's been wheeled onto the stage just for ...
Posted February 28, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/02/28/a-brief-history-of-classical-music-michael-tilson-thomas-at-ted2012

She has music in her hands: Imogen Heap at TEDGlobal 2012

Imogen Heap bounds onto the stage wearing black, a glittering, cosmically ruffled jacket and some musical gloves. You know, as you do. The gloves are the way that she activates the music around her, while where she stands on the stage also impacts the treatments on her voice. "I have music in my hands," she says, "and the playground of the s...
Posted June 29, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/06/29/she-has-music-in-her-hands-imogen-heap-at-tedglobal-2012

Why I make music for cats (and monkeys and dogs and horses)

Raise your hand if you’ve ever sung to your pets or turned on Spotify for them. Well, cellist David Teie has carried that impulse a few steps -- OK, many steps -- further and written music for specific species of animals. David Teie is on a mission to bring music to the masses -- not just to all of humanity but to the animal kingdom, too. When ...
Posted May 30, 2018
https://ideas.ted.com/the-composer-who-writes-music-for-cats-monkeys-horses-and-dogs-and-the-humans-who-love-them

Music, the mind, and medicine: A Q&A with Robert Gupta

Can music be a medical instrument? In a moving talk from TEDMed, Robert Gupta reveals that it certainly can be. He gives as an example the work of neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug, one of the pioneers of melodic intonation therapy. Schlaug noticed that, while stroke victims with aphasia could not utter a sentence, they could still sing the l...
Posted October 2, 2012
https://blog.ted.com/2012/10/02/music-the-mind-and-medicine-a-qa-with-robert-gupta

From A-ha to OK Go: A museum exhibit all about the music video

In the early ‘80s, before MTV turned its attention to reality TV, David Bowie, Madonna and the Pretenders lit up small screens, using a new medium to showcase their songs: the music video. Recently, we’ve seen a resurgence of this art form as cinematographers, musicians and artists join together to supersize their visual creativity. But now, ins...
Posted April 5, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/04/05/from-a-ha-to-ok-go-a-museum-exhibit-all-about-the-music-video

Somi unveils an odyssey of song and soul in 'The Lagos Music Salon'

This week, East African singer Somi releases her first major-label album, The Lagos Music Salon, in the United States. Already, it is #1 on the iTunes Jazz Chart, #1 on the Amazon Jazz Vocal Chart, and #1 on the Amazon Pop Vocal Chart. The TED Blog caught up with the jazz-soul vocalist and songwriter—who was was born in Illinois to Rwandan and...
Posted August 8, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/08/08/somi-unveils-an-odyssey-of-song-and-soul-in-the-lagos-music-salon

10 talks that involve highly unusual instruments

Music comes in all shapes and sizes, as these talks illustrate. From an electric drum suit called "thunderwear" to an ancient stringed wheel to an arresting rare organ, the instruments featured in these talks reshape our soundscape and offer inspiration in the cacophonous world around us. David Holt plays mountain music In this amiable t...
Posted January 3, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/01/03/10-talks-that-involve-highly-unusual-instruments

The Moneyball Effect: How smart data is transforming criminal justice, healthcare, music, and even government spending

When Anne Milgram became the Attorney General of New Jersey in 2007, she was stunned to find out just how little data was available on who was being arrested, who was being charged, who was serving time in jails and prisons, and who was being released. “It turns out that most big criminal justice agencies like my own didn’t track the thin...
Posted January 28, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/01/28/the-moneyball-effect-how-smart-data-is-transforming-criminal-justice-healthcare-music-and-even-government-spending

Celebrating the cultural in-between: Fellows Friday with musician Meklit Hadero

Meklit Hadero's voice is earthy and soulful, sinuous and untethered, and she's about to unleash a new album on the world. She has just launched  a crowdfunding campaign for her second solo recording, We Are Alive, and is currently touring the East Coast of the United States.We caught up with her between shows to ask about her musical vision an...
Posted January 17, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/01/17/celebrating-the-cultural-in-between-fellows-friday-with-musician-meklit-hadero

How I fell in love with the drums

By Clayton Cameron As a 5-year-old kid, I barely knew what the word rhythm meant. At least no one told me what banging on inanimate objects and creating my own little beats might be called. It was like rhythm chose me and I really had no say in the matter. My favorite elementary school pastime was tabletop drum battles with my friends. I’d pl...
Posted March 11, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/03/11/how-i-fell-in-love-with-the-drums

How 50 music teachers are creating 5,000 musician-citizens across the US, thanks to a TED Prize wish

On a drizzly spring day in Boston earlier this month, three dozen musicians mingled in the President’s Library of the New England Conservatory (NEC), one of the most prestigious music institutions in the country. The weather did not dampen the infectious enthusiasm in the room. After all, 10 of these musicians were about to mark a milestone:...
Posted May 28, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/05/28/how-50-music-teachers-are-creating-5000-musician-citizens-in-us

Why we need to build the stuff of science fiction: A teen reporter talks to a music technologist

Gil Weinberg creates musically included robots so good they can improvise. The founder of the Music Technology program at Georgia Tech, he also creates innovative music apps and has contributed his technologies to many a band and ensemble. Sam Roth, an 11th grader in New York City, was excited to interview Weinberg about his experience sp...
Posted November 19, 2014
https://blog.ted.com/2014/11/19/a-teen-reporter-talks-to-a-music-technologist

Sanctuaries of sound in New York City: Fellows Friday with Susie Ibarra

Percussionist and composer Susie Ibarra is creating virtual sanctuaries for real cities. Working in collaboration with local artists, historians, architects, city planners and musicians, Ibarra and her partner Roberto Rodriguez -- who together form Electric Kulintang -- have created a musical pilgrimage that takes the public on a sound walk ...
Posted November 8, 2013
https://blog.ted.com/2013/11/08/sanctuaries-of-sound-in-new-york-city-fellows-friday-with-susie-ibarra
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