Chapter 8: They Snooze, You Lose Synopsis

Chapter 8 Playing Music

In chapter 8, Dr. Burmark focuses on how important music is in ones presentation.  During silent films, the music played a big part on how the audience is going express their emotions by corresponding to the music they heard.  According to Norman Weinberger, University of California research professor states, “the audience needed the music to engage its [appropriate] emotional reactions and involvement” (141).  Without the music how would one know how to feel when they say Charlie Chaplin do a comedy skit, music was a reflection of the actor during the silent film age.

According Weinberger films today still need music “to supply the actual emotional states and feelings [the audience needs] to identify with [the action] and the characters involved” (142). I have to agree with Mr. Weinberger because music plays an important factor in movies, television shows, and presentations. I believe if music wasn’t used in movies or television shows how would the audience know what emotion to feel throughout the movies or show. Imagine watching an action movie, during a fast car chase, how can the audience connect what the actor is feeling if there is no music to connect their emotion to that scene. If you attend a horror movie the audience is expecting to jump out of their seats based on the music that is playing in the background.

According to Dr. Burmark in order to give our audience a great presentation the presenter needs to include both images and music. I agree with Dr. Burmark, because the images are going to be your vital piece of information that your going to present, while the music is going to charge your audiences emotions and help them remember your presentation.  I say this because Dr. Burmark states, “we are not even consciously aware that the music is dictating our emotional state” (142). By dictating what the audience is going to feel during the presentation will help them remember important content of the presentation.

Music is very important to ones health according to Carol Krumhansl. Music helps people exhibit emotional response, happy music changes the timing of your respiration, whereas fearful music changes the rate of blood flow, and sad music changes skin temperature, blood pressure and heart rate.  When conducting your next presentation think about how you want you audience to feel when your presenting.

Before reading this chapter I knew music was important because one can relate songs they hear to current or past events that have happened in their life. But I never took a close look on how music impacts a person’s way of thinking, a person is able to retain and decode information just by the music they hear.

Burmark, L. (2011). They Snooze, You Lose: The Educator's Guide to Successful Presentations. San Francsico, California: Wiley, John & Sons, Incorporated