music

Lost in the love of music

/ dodwalker1 / Leave a comment

A simple story of music and the power it has

Music, it’s one of the loves of my life.

I love to write, painting is also a passion. Nothing though comes close to music.

I can’t play an instrument or read music. My entire enjoyment of music comes from listening.

Over time my tastes have evolved and changed. I listen to and get lost in music which I wouldn’t have before.

As I get older classical, opera, country. They all fight for space and attention with rock, blues, jazz, and more.

It started for me when I was nine years old. I heard the song “supersonic” by the rock band Oasis. Suddenly the world went from back and white to full technicolor.

Nothing has been the same since. I spend my days lost in the music. Constantly exploring new and exciting sounds.

I also use music as a way to make sense of the world. If I want to replay a part of life in my mind, often I’ll use music as a tool to access those memories.

I’m fascinated by the science of it all. How those noises make sense of emotions, strengthen memories, or affect mood.

As I get older I feel a stronger connection to my life through music. Each of us has a soundtrack that accompanies our lives and all that goes with them.

I’m interested if you take the time to read this, what doe’s music do for you?

Please leave a comment, I’m really interested in your opinion on this subject!

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Lost in Music

/ dodwalker1 / Leave a comment

A poem about Music and Humanity

Music a gift as old as the hills,

pots and pans and spoons we use,

children make music with any excuse.

As children grow up we listen some more,

rock music, pop music, jazz and more,

so many genres to explore and enjoy.

We move into our teens and explore it some more,

get lost in music, culture, fashion and more,

all while building our lives soundtrack.

Then it’s out into adulthood and it changes once again,

different music added and we go get lost some more,

then eventually as we get older, we go back to what we know,

rewind the soundtrack and replay our youth,

a lifetime lost in music, what a wonderful truth.

Music, the soundtrack to the journey of life

/ dodwalker1 / Leave a comment

How music frames life and memories as we move through life

Music, its a funny old thing.

So emotive, ever changing. Its also how most of us express ourselves.

How we dress. What culture we follow. Our outlook on life. They are all traced back to music.

Through the course of our lives, the soundtrack changes with us.

Music can affect our mood and our memories.

In many ways its magic and that soundtrack can do many important things for us.

It trigger’s our memories

Music forms a bond to our memories in the brain.

A certain song for example can take us straight to a certain place in time.

Its a time stamp for the up’s, down’s and milestones of life.

When music triggers a memory, it can also trigger the emotions, sights and smells that go with it.

When we replay those memories in our minds, they are much stronger when linked to the music we are hearing.

This is one of the reasons that music can be effective in helping people with Alzheimer’s or Dementia.

It helps people connect to their memories and improves mood amongst other things.

It can shape our outlook on life

Life is unpredictable. Its a journey and an adventure.

Over a lifetime there are more up’s, down’s and bumps in the road than we can count.

When these changes happen in our lives. Music can be a great comfort.

The lyrics empathize with our situation, the music surrounds us and comforts us. It’s familiarity helps us to make sense of the big events in life.

Almost nothing else has the same effect on our mood and emotional state.

Our tastes expand and so does our outlook on life

As time marches on, the soundtrack to our lives evolves. The music we listen to changes.

We explore new genres, new artists, new formats.

When we do that, we also tend to explore the culture that goes with that new music.

As the soundtrack evolves so do our interests and our outlook on life.

Of course reading does the same thing, but music is the more accessible medium of the two.

Final thoughts

Music, its more than something we only listen to.

It adds color and context to our lives and gives us stronger bonds to our memories.

As we go through life, we have this great resource to help us navigate the journey.

When we get to the points where want to take a look behind us. That process can be greatly improved by using the soundtrack of our life to view those memories.

Taste breakers — Music that engages your brain

/ dodwalker1 / Leave a comment

A change can be as good as a rest

’m a massive music fan. To the point that music is essential to my day.

The problem with that is that music can also be very distracting for me. While I’m happy to try and listen to anything once. I do tend to rely on the same old stuff while I’m working.

I get distracted or end up focusing on the music instead of my work. Neither is a good outcome.

I’m not alone here, its an issue for many of us. Over the past few weeks, I have tried three strategies to see what might work well for me.

No music

Yeah, this is as boring as it sounds.

Going through the day with the sound of silence in the background is not my idea of fun at all. I tried this for 3 days and gave up.

No music was if anything more distracting. It was very hard to focus on my work. I found myself looking for other things to do.

The conclusion from this very short experiment?

Working from home, music gives me the noise and external stimulation my brain is used to at work. I’m not designed to work in silence.

I soon moved onto experiment number 2

Binaural beats

This is essentially music designed to help you focus. Played through headphones with different tones, frequencies, and beats in each ear. It’s designed to stimulate the brain.

While it’s very similar to electronic dance, it did nothing at all for me.

Well, that’s not quite true it did give me a headache. Again tried using Binaural beats for 3 days.

While they did increase my focus and reduce distraction. I couldn’t get over the headache issue.

So an improvement and I would recommend trying them out. They just weren’t the solution for me.

I then moved onto experiment number 3

Taste breakers — Something different

Anyone who has ever used Spotify (Other streaming providers are available), will have seen this feature.

Its a playlist of music you would never normally listen to.

This is what has worked for me.

I don’t know the music so its in the background giving me the noise and stimulation I need. But none of the familiarity which leads to distraction.

Ok, more than once I have heard something that I had to investigate and learn more about.

On balance though this is working for me. Listening to jazz or opera or electric swing in the background is doing the trick.

I’m 6 days into this experiment and so far it’s working.

Conclusions

The music is not the point here. How much life changes when we work at home is what has surprised me.

Too often we seek perfection in an imperfect world. I’m used to lots of noise and external stimulation in the background for my brain. Working from my home office AKA the basement. I miss out on that.

While I can replace that noise with something else. There is a chance that what its replaced with becomes a bigger distraction than the silence.

I’m not alone in having this issue. There are many solutions out there. The three I tried were free, easy to implement and ultimately I found a great solution to a big problem.