Being the geek I am, I fell in love with Exploratorium’s Science of Music. Visit the site and you’ll never again look at music in quite the same way.

For example, have you ever heard The Star Spangled Banner played in a Middle Eastern scale? Believe it or not, it is still recognizable. Did you know that the violin has a pitch range very close to the human voice and is often used to mimic human sounds of despair? Fascinating. What kind of music causes goose bumps? It’s not what you think. [Read more…]

Check out the exhibits for entertaining and enlightening ear candy. I spent close to an hour playing around with - and listening to - the Dot Mixer. And when I clicked on the “What’s going on?” link, I gained a new insight into what mixing is all about. Kitchen Sink-o-Pation, besides being fun to play with, is a revealing look at how what we see affects what we hear. Is that a baby crying or a cat howling? Only the eyes will tell.

And “What do you get when you mix a tunnel, two musicians, and a physicist?” The Headlands Experiments, featuring such tunes as Tunnel Duet #1, Weird Balloon Song, and 18 other pieces of “music” made using unlikely items as “instruments.”

Though the question “What is music?” is never answered in so many words, you are certain to have a new viewpoint by the time you finish browsing The Science of Music.

But don’t take my word for it; go see and listen for yourself.