![\"Elton](\"https:\/\/images.newscientist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/26162759\/SEI_193420820.jpg?width=1200\")
<\/div>Elton John performing at Glastonbury Festival in June 2023<\/p>\n
Matt Crossick\/Alamy<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
Hearing live music may be more stirring than listening to a recording of the same tune because it triggers greater activity in the part of the brain linked to processing emotions.<\/p>\n
Sascha Fru\u0308hholz<\/a> at the University of Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues composed 12 pieces of music, each lasting 30 seconds. Half were written with the aim of conveying negative emotions, such as sadness and anger. These were slower, less harmonious and included more minor chords than the remaining songs, written to evoke positive emotions.<\/p>\n They then recruited 27 people, who weren\u2019t musically trained, to listen to these 12 pieces twice \u2013 once performed by a live pianist, which the participants heard through a speaker, and once as a recording.<\/p>\n The order they heard them was randomly assigned, with 30 seconds of silence in between. The participants didn\u2019t know when they were hearing a recording or live music<\/a>.<\/p>\n