The Mood of Music.
Finding the balance between my music and how it affects people’s moods.
A few days ago my dad told me that he had spoken to a friend whose son, a young musician, was studying Music Therapy. After talking with my dad about possible future careers, I decided to do some research about Music Therapy. While doing some research, I accidentally found myself reading about Musicophilia, a book by neurologist Oliver Sacks, which discusses music and the human brain. I've never considered studying psychology, however, I'm starting to find the connection between psychology and music very interesting.
I haven't read Musicophilia, however, as I kept researching, I discovered some pretty interesting things that stood out from Dr. Sacks and his book. Throughout Musicophilia, Sacks uses the lives of different people as examples to describes how music can have an impact on their life. In a summary about Musicophilia, I read that music could “animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer’s or amnesia”. I was amazed at how music could be used to change people’s lives. I never thought of the psychology behind music and how it can lift people’s emotions up and down, persuade people to buy something, make us remember our first date or even make us dance.
As I read about Musicophilia, I was inspired to keep learning more about the power of music on the human brain. What really stood out to me was how music has the power to make people happy, reduce stress, change perception and motivate some to do things. People can also be touched and feel sad by listening to blue music. This type of music transmits feelings of sadness or unwellness. It can be associated with depression or unhappiness, but it can also make you reflect. While reflecting is good, still, I believe that music is essential in mood improvement and with a better mood people have a better lifestyle.
The effect of music on humans isn't all generated by just the music itself and all of its components. The change of people's emotions caused by a simple song is the result of the different melodies and lyrics created by the emotions of musicians themselves. I've always believed that the goal of a musician is to have an impact on the people who hear their music. This reminds me of me, of who I am, and the reasons behind the creation of my music. After all, I’m also trying to move people emotionally through my music.
For those who don't know me, you might be asking yourself why I'm interested in music. I'm a musician, I love hearing it, playing it and writing it. I've always created music because I see it as the perfect way of communicating and expressing my feelings and emotions. Whether I write a song about an anecdote or a love story, I always have in mind the effect it’s going to have when people hear it. After reading about Musicophilia and the effect of music in the mind, I really want to learn more about this and apply it in my music. Dr. Sack´s book made me realize that my music can impact people’s psychology and their emotional state. It could motivate some and depress others. What I'm starting to realize is that most of the music I make is sad and depressive.
I'm currently working on a new folk rock music album called “Carreteras”, which means “highways” in Spanish. Many of the songs I've created carry a sort of blue emotion. All of the lyrics I've created talk about broken relationships, broken hearts, and broken friendships. The majority of the stories I try to tell throughout music are sad. There's nothing wrong with sad songs, however, I don’t want to make people feel bad by listening to my music. All this research about music and the mind has made me realize that my current album is more depressing than I thought it was. As I listen to my music and reflect about it, I've come to the conclusion that I want to change my music and create happier songs. I prefer transmitting positive feelings and emotions rather than depressing ones.
My desire to transmit happy emotions has led me to research about chords and how they fit with different moods and genres. I've been experimenting with major and minor chords and finding the balance between which type of chords fit in with specific types of music. The problem is that I love minor chords. Minor chords, in comparison to major chords, sound more sad and depressing. I've found that minor chords sound pretty cool when they go along with fast tempo music such as reggae music, however, having a slow tempo song with only minor chords tends to sadden people. What I am doing to solve this problem is listening to existing songs that are uplifting to give me an idea of what I am looking for.
As days pass, I’m starting to find a new interest in my life: psychology and how the brain works. Now that I think of it, I’m actually sort of a psychologist. I never thought of this before, but I think that I’m interested in changing people’s moods with music. I might include psychology in my life, I believe that understanding how the human brain works and learning about the moods and emotions of people could make me a better person as well as a better composer. I'm definitely planning on changing the way I create music. From now on I won't be able to ignore the fact that my music can change and create a permanent effect on someone's life.
