your knowledge of the world, you learned just by passive listening how music works. The process begins in the womb, and the auditory system is fully functional by 20 weeks of gestation. Music is filtered through the amniotic fluid, and the developing brain becomes accustomed to the rhythmic and melodic patterns it hears, constructing a representation of what is to be expected in music. As infants, and through childhood, we construct our mental model of music based on what we hear. If you grew up listening to Chinese opera, your brain became wired to recognize its typical patterns, as opposed
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