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Good music has direct access to the emotions.As such it's a fantastic tool for tweaking our moods.Saarikallio and Erkkila (2007) investigated the ways people use music to control and improve their mood by interviewing eight adolescents from Finland.The participants may be a small,very specific group,but they actually present a really useful list:
Entertainment - At the most fundamental level music provides stimulation.It lifts the mood before going out,it passes the time while doing the washing up,it accompanies travelling,reading and surfing the web.
Revival - Music revitalises in the morning and calms in the evening.
Strong sensation - Music can provide deep,thrilling emotional experiences,particularly while performing.
Diversion - Music distracts the mind from unpleasant thoughts which can easily fill the silence.
Discharge - Music matching deep moods can release emotions:purging and cleansing.
Mental work - Music encourages daydreaming,sliding into old memories,exploring the past.
Solace - Shared emotion,shared experience,a connection to someone lost.
These seven strategies all aim for two goals:controlling and improving mood.One of the beauties of music is it can accomplish more than one goal at a time.Uplifting music can both divert,entertain and revive.Sad,soulful music can provide solace,encourage mental work and discharge emotions.The examples are endless.
Many of Saarikallio and Erkkila's findings chime with previous research.For example,distraction is considered one of the most effective strategies for regulating mood.Music has also been strongly connected with reflective states.These tend to allow us greater understanding of our emotions.
One of the few negative connections Saarikallio and Erkkila consider is that sad music might promote rumination.Rumination is the constant examination of emotional state which,ironically,can lead to less clarity.On the contrary,however,Saarikallio and Erkkila found that music increased the understanding of feelings,an effect not associated with rumination.
2
Music is a past time,a hobby,and a passion.The claim that music can influence a person’s mood makes perfect sense.Music can actually affect a person’s behavior and mood.It can influence,for example,the length of time that one chooses to spend in a mall.Stores that target older shoppers might play “elevator” type music at a lower volume,while stores that target a younger age group look for more upbeat music played at a higher volume.This can then enhance the shoppers to spend more money in that store.If music didn’t affect a person’s mood,they would play the same music in every store,or none at all.
Have you ever heard the saying “hooked on a feeling?” It really happens.For example,during the Christmas season many people listen to Christmas music.This helps them stay in that state of euphoria all month long and brings them back to happy memories of when they were children who still believed in the miracle of Santa Clause
Another relation of music to a person’s mood is the pitch of the music.The higher the pitch connects with a certain mood,like being able to notice when a person’s voice is a different pitch.When the person’s tone or pitch changes that is a sure sign of a change in mood or emotion.Music is a part of all activities.It is rare for a person to sit down and just listen to music.For some activities like cleaning and exercising upbeat music give motivation.Responses to music are easy to be detected in the body.Most classical music causes the heartbeat and pulse to relax.
Music affects different people in different ways.Therefore,music affects all people.Hearing a certain song usually triggers a certain emotion linked to that song.Some of the emotions are derived from experiences,others from daydreams.For example memories of a time when you had a relative pass away or when you graduated high school.All of these specific and monumental events in your life are brought back to you when you listen to a certain song or type of music.The sensations that come from listen