Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Music - the Sound of Life

I've been associated with music since childhood. But music has been associated with me probably since long before, maybe since the time I was in my mother's womb when she was bearing me and listening to some songs of yester years!

What is it in that combination of sounds of different pitches and volumes that sets your heart on fire? I just don't get it!! One moment you're sitting in the hall reading the newspaper with Yanni playing one of his romantic numbers over the music system, the next minute you're thinkning of your lover-to-be, all the crushes you've had, which ones would've been awesome had you proposed to her...... Man, what is it with music??!!

Is it the sequence of notes and pitches, or is it the progression of melodies, is it the rising volume of the music or is it the associated thoughts that stimulate interest? Well, I don't know, and I'm not gonna try to answer that question either cause I'm no expert. But what I will do is share some facts I know about Sound and Music in general. You can draw your own conclusions :)

Bio-resonance frequency therapy is a method of destressing oneself by listening to certain tones of particular frequencies (To know more, you can read
http://www.biowaves.com/ ). Most of us have heard of the Mozart Effect. It is the use of music to influence health and general well-being of individuals. It started off with two pieces of Mozart's music: Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major (K. 448) and Piano Concerto No. 23 (K. 488), were found to have this effect, thus giving it its name. The term "Mozart Effect" arose from the work of University of California at Irvine. Later research also suggested that K. 448 can reduce the number of seizures in people with epilepsy!

What does this mean? Can it be scientfically proven that music influences mental and physical health? New research has revealed a molecular basis for the "Mozart effect" - the observation that a brief stint of Mozart, but not other music, may improve learning and memory.
Rats that heard a Mozart sonata expressed higher levels of several genes involved in stimulating and changing the connections between brain cells, the study showed. The team, including the researcher who first proposed the Mozart effect, hope the results will help them design music therapy treatments for people suffering from neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's (source:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn4918.html).

Higher IQ levels have been recorded in people who otherwise did not exhibit such levels before when exposed to Mozart's music (
http://www.indiana.edu/~intell/mozarteffect2.shtml ). Something I have personally realised about Mozart's music from my sittings at the piano is that Most of his music is melodious, well organised and rhythmic. Unlike Impressionist music (which has sudden bursts of melody and volume), Mozart's is fairly melow and smooth. Does this coordinated & organised sequence of sounds and vibrations transfer to the the listener's auditory system and soothe the disorganised mind of the stressed individual? (thinking aloud).

If music can influence people positively, what about its negative impacts? Yes it can! (source:
http://www.musica.uci.edu/mrn/V2I1S95.html#metal ) Heavy Metal and Rap music have been found to have disturbing effects in adolescents and teens. Children are noted to be pretty consistent with their method of interpretting music (sad music, happy music, excited music and calm music). Could this correlation between sound and emotions trigger behavioural and psychological consequences? (again, I'm thinking aloud).

Why do most youth today like to listen to heavy beat music like Rap and Hip-Hop? It has been found that the major frequency component of such music corresponds with the frequency of the human reproductive system (I can't locate the source for this, but I remeber reading it on some sound research portal). Put the two together and you have a bunch party raving youth whose hormones are running crazy.

So the next time you're at a party watch out for the music! Whatever researchers may conclude, good music is good music, melodious, pleasant to listen to and soothing. But there is more joy in creating music. If you're a musician, you'll know the difference between listening to John Denver's "Country Roads" over the music system and actually playing it on the piano or a guitar. Even when I accidentaly clank a fork against a half-filled wine glass, the sound is wierdly sweet, and then I do it again, just to hear it once more. Deja vu?! You see, the creation of music is almost ecstatic at times when you're alone, no one to look and critique your playing, and you're playing spontaneously. Some day I'll write about that too!

3 comments:

RAJANISH said...

I have only one thing to say. Music is my passion and I can not dream of a life with out it. There is a song always running within me for ever. It is melodious, it is sweet, it is calm and it is my kind of music. The day it stops I think i am dead. Felt like writing this on seeing your thought on music.

wagner said...

That's an interesting thing..... to have a tune or song which you feel is playing on as you live. Goes to say every song has a story to tell!

amit said...

"all the crushes you've had, which ones would've been awesome had you proposed to her..." Let's hear some more of that! ;)