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The 'How Does Music Affect You?' thread (in association with Shard)

Steven

(Yes, it's yet another thread with which I try to distract myself from myself, and from the troubles I constantly bring both to me and to all-round much better people):

How Does Music Affect You?

There's an interesting article on the NAS website about music therapy for autists. One unfortunate person who struggles to communicate his emotions has been helped by way of this therapy: thankfully, he can now use musical instruments to have a 'voice' when, ordinarily, he might be lost in silence. After reading this feature, I wondered how music affects our lives? Not only in the 'helping' sense but also in music's basic power to change or sustain our moods? It doesn't matter if your own examples are standard or unusual ones. I'll start us off ~

*Cue the obligatory and dreaded 'Simon examples', listed because he has no actual life-experiences beyond those in his mind*:

1. When watching Kate Bush's 'The Sensual World' video, I feel transported to a world of Romance. It's like a Pre-Raphaelite painting come to life. A medieval fairytale in crimson, adorned with Autumn leaves. It is breathtaking. Who needs reality?:

'And how we wished to live in the sensual world...
You don't need words -
Just one kiss, then another

Stepping out of the page
Into the sensual world'

2. I often have images in my mind when listening to music, but sometimes I get it 'wrong'. On hearing a Classical piece, I was unshakeably convinced that it soundtracked a slender ship cutting through the ocean, casting blue waves aside; later, I found out that the piece actually represented the flowering of an English country garden. Doh.

More interestingly, (I hope): How Does Music Affect *You*?

Parents

  • I believe that I have a huge sensory funnel ! [let's not go *there* folks, not in this thread.]

    I use music to fill up my "perception funnel" with something benign, so that my brain does not seek out or become clogged with other inputs that would otherwise, unavoidably, fill that funnel - and overload/distract clear and focused thought.

    I work on the basis that I am "taking in" so much stuff, all the time, whether I want to do not.  If I sit (as I often do) in a sensory void/muted place, then my brain starts spewing up all sorts of nonsense to fill that funnel.....so I have found that I need to find some metaphorically boring brain rice/bread/potatoes fodder to stop that from happening.  Music, or calm speech radio works for me.

    So most of the time, I "listen" to music without listening to it.  I almost always listen to it on repeat and I thoroughly "know" such music for it to fulfil the function I have outlined.

    When I do choose to "focus" on the music, it is wonderful - like staring at a kaleidoscope - so many levels of interest.  Again, I will listen to anything good over and over until I have fully understood and explored it.....then it too can become fodder.

    Certain (normally very short and/or small) features within a piece of music can prompt VERY strong emotion within me.  It can make me cry or feel ecstasy or make me angry and irritated.  I'm a BIG fan of an introduction, riff or modulation - when done well.

    "If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken and so die. That strain again, it had a dying fall." - 12th night.

  • in reply to Deleted User

    That's a wonderfully written and explained post. I can relate strongly to that 'brown rice' thing. Managing the funnel, great way to conceptualise it! I also know what you mean about small features. And it can often be the bit that seemed unexpectedly out of the 'formula' when you first heard the track - some bittersweet intentional discordancy or counterintuitive deviation - that on the third or fourth go you realise creates a new equilibrium to the whole thing you didn't even know you wanted but now can't imagine it without. I'll try and think of an example in a bit. 

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  • in reply to Deleted User

    That's a wonderfully written and explained post. I can relate strongly to that 'brown rice' thing. Managing the funnel, great way to conceptualise it! I also know what you mean about small features. And it can often be the bit that seemed unexpectedly out of the 'formula' when you first heard the track - some bittersweet intentional discordancy or counterintuitive deviation - that on the third or fourth go you realise creates a new equilibrium to the whole thing you didn't even know you wanted but now can't imagine it without. I'll try and think of an example in a bit. 

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