by Erin Barker

Created on: December 03, 2009

Music by definition is the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre (The Free Dictionary, 2009). Music encompasses single notes to create groups of notes, leading to music phrases and developing periods and extensive compositions. Compositions can be written in major or minor keys, with simple or complex phrases. The key of the music has the potential to elicit an emotion and/or mood. A small study of college students was completed on the effect of music on mood (Barker, 2007). Participants were given a list of questions pertaining to their current state of mind, emotions, physical feelings, and thoughts for before and after listening to a set of music. The music included was that of varying tempos including allegro and andante, four pieces that were played in a major key. The conclusion of this study was almost half of the individuals had a 4-point improvement on their mood after listening to the music. Levitin (2006) also discussed the brain function and how the brain processes music, both biologically and emotionally. Biologically, sound is first heard at the eardrum and is divided by pitch, timbre, contour and rhythm (Levitin, 2006). The brain utilizes the frontal lobe to access the hippocampus to search the memory for any familiarity. Emotionally, the amygdala, hippocampus and cerebellum are interrelated in the sense of emotion, learned processes and memory. Sound passes through these areas via neurons and influences the person's emotions. This is similar to the way movement and emotion effects the heart rate, releasing hormones and mood altering hormones into the blood stream (Levitin, 2006).

The type of music that is played will effect individuals differently. Different personalities can be more or less receptive to certain types of music. Based on this information, an individual who has developed a certain taste of music will generally utilize this music to relax and refocus. Certain situations will also require individuals to utilize music for stressful situations such as labor and delivery of their child. Calming music can assist a female in labor to concentrate on the music, tone and type of music rather than the discomfort of labor. Other individuals may use music as an anger interruption and decompress from a highly stressful situation. Music therapy is a type of therapy in which individuals use the science of music (separating chords, hearing individual melody lines, listening to a specific instrument when hearing an ensemble play) to focus on breathing, concentrating and stabilizing heart rate and relaxation.

References

Levitin, D. (2006) This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. Penguin Group, Inc.: New York, NY

www.thefreedictionary.com. The Free Dictionary. Retrieved December 3, 2009

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