The Playground

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Showing 1 - 10 of 87 results in Miscellany & Merriment

The Neuroscience of Creativity By Anna Abraham – Book Review

Credit: David Cassolato I will start with a little story. In 2007 I was beginning University studies and surfing the internet one weekend, when I came across a piano teacher’s blog. This teacher was on about this great new discovery. After teaching for many years…

The War of Art By Steven Pressfield – Book Review

I looked everywhere for the enemy and failed to see it right in front of my face. Sometimes things that should be obvious aren’t. Sometimes an obvious thing only becomes obvious after someone states it in such an articulate and relatable manner that its essence…

This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin – Book Review

By Rebecca Harding This Is Your Brain On Music by Daniel LevitinThis Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel Levitin is a fascinating and in-depth exploration into the neurological processes that make us love and connect with music. Levitin,…

The Great Courses: Creativity & Your Brain

The Great Courses: Creativity & Your Brain I’ve been a fan of The Great Courses for a long time. Typically designed as packages of ‘lectures’ that might mirror a semester of university study, these comprehensive courses cover topics as varied as your imagination. In my…

Quincy Jones

12 Notes by Quincy Jones [Book Review]

Quincy Jones may well be music’s all-time greatest multitalent. From jazz trumpeter to band leader to arranger for the likes of Frank Sinatra, conductor, composer, Broadway and Academy Awards director, producer for the likes of Michael Jackson, record company executive, impresario, educator, activist and more,…

The Molecule of More

The Molecule of More by Daniel Lieberman & Michael Long

Book Review By Katie Schmidt Welp, if I were a psychology professor, I would definitely make this book a requirement for all my students. Although I am not said professor, I do wish all of us would read this book. It gave me a much…

Flow by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi – Book Review

Mihaly reading his book ‘Flow’ War is horrific. There’s no getting away from it. But sometimes out of the horror there’s a contribution to the world that wouldn’t be here otherwise. Such is the life’s work of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi. The study of what he has…

A World Where Everyone Plays by Bernadette E. Ashby – Book Review

A World Where Everyone Plays is a collection of stories of how Simply Music has impacted people’s lives. Each chapter is written by a student, teacher or loved one. The stories vary from a ten-year-old student, to a professional circus clown, to a retired teacher,…

Have You Met Maddalena Casulana?

Have you met Maddalena Casulana? Born 1544 in Italy she was the first woman to publish her own musical compositions! Women’s roles in the early 1500s largely centred around domestic duties and a constrained societal existence with the expectation that they would live humble, demure…

Holiday Reading List

Whether you’re looking for a new book to read or a present for someone this holiday season, we’ve compiled a list of books for you! Some we have read and some are on our own ‘to read’ lists! If you’ve got any recommendations please leave…