Using this tonematrix and the magic of looping, you can create music just by clicking squares. See what you can create!

This Aeon Magazine article probes further into the mysterious relationship between music and repetition. Do you think music can exist without repetition? How would you feel about a song that didn’t have some type of repetition?

If that’s not enough, On Repeat: How Music Plays the Mind, by Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, is an entire book that examines the psychology of repetition in music. Listen to this NPR story on Dr. Margulis with excerpts from her work on the “mere exposure effect.” In what other areas can the “mere exposure effect” be applied?

In 1995, Diana Deutsch determined that a phrase repeated over and over begins to sound as if it was sung not spoken. Read about and listen to Diana Deutsch’s Speech to Song Illusion effect here.

Philip Glass on finding repetition in his music.

Why songs have choruses.

From Pitchfork, Ten Meditations on Repetition in Music, With Soundtrack.

If you’re interested in learning more about music cognition, try these blogs:

Henkjan Honing’s Music Matters
Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis’s Looking at Listening
Victoria Williamson’s Music Psychology Blog