Music: How I Live, How I Breathe

What does music mean to you? For me, its essence in purity ultimately is what drives me to do a lifelong study of everything: delving deep into the inspirations behind the artistry, seeing for whom the composer is, how it affects all of us, and why this language is such that it is the only one universally translated across all cultures and societies. For me, music is all encompassing: as a classical musician studying at a conservatoire I live and breathe it. However, apart from the classical world I draw inspiration and strength from a slew of other genres, and below are a few windows of examples I am ecstatic to share with you.

Humans are social creatures by default; thus, one of the funny advantages (or follies, whichever way you see it) that catch us often is when we hear a language our brains understand, we automatically translate and comprehend the messages, hence why it is difficult to focus on studying while listening to songs from our favourite artists. Focusing on memorizing the definition of prestidigitation or reviewing notes on Ayn Rand's morals behind "Atlas Shrugged" becomes a battle of divided attention while you hum along to Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. While listening to your favourite tunes has in fact been shown to develop creative ideas quicker as well as swifter task completing (see research by Teresa Lesiuk, University of Miami), from experience I would recommend listening to non-lyric, instrumental pieces as a base principle in relation to focused study. Try new songs or playlists you have not heard before, and be creative of what you listen to! Some examples of what I listen to are included in this playlist:

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2v0MXx8NUaRd9iw2Y7QIjy?si=s5HkL6o7QR6RVZcs4DbnyA

Want to dip your feet into the endlessly deep waters of my world? Although there is already the theory of the "Mozart Effect" rolling around in popular media, in essence this is cherry-picking in the evidence as well as putting all of classical music under a giant umbrella of "calming" and "meant for relaxing". See the video by TED of what playing a musical instrument does to the brain. Music is one of the only activities seen so far that utilizes all seven areas of the brain simultaneously and working together. One research study was conducted comparing the brains of a concert pianist, a surgeon, and a U.S. Navy fighter jet pilot while performing (three of arguably some of the most difficult tasks humans are capable of). What they found was ground-breaking: the surgeon had little to no brain activity and carried out repeated procedures as to what they learned before (thus showing the "consolidation" stage in learning inside the brain); the fighter jet pilot's brain areas related most to survival instincts were firing the most, but the brain of the concert pianist was absolute fireworks essentially, where all seven areas were working in tandem with one another. One of the reasons why music improves so much the creativity as well as mathematic, scientific reasoning of people, is because the corpus callosum (the "bridge" between the left and right hemispheres of the brain) is much stronger in classically trained musicians. This "bridge" is thickened the more the left and right hemispheres communicate with one another, and you add the math of the amount of information processed through for instance of a violinist performing a massive concerto, and you get the idea. All that aside, some of my favourites for inspiration lie in (insert here and explain). The depth of understanding the grammar and language of the classical world runs very deep, which has been lost to a lot of the general population today, and it is helping others understand more of the messages/grammar of symphonies that I want to help make so much more easily accessible to the population whose passion lies outside of the classical world (more on that in an upcoming article).

Are you looking more for a playlist that helps you get inspiration, instead of getting things done? (There are a few studies showing listening to music is lowers the activation barrier necessary to get yourself off the couch and do things around the home, such as cleaning, etc.) If you have been finding trouble especially recently of finding songs that you want to help give you that little extra push into your creative endeavours, there is in fact a study that found an answer to that. Dr. Emma Gray - a cognitive behavioural therapist - conducted a research study with Spotify about that very question of what is that "extra oomph", and how do we get it? When the brain is awake, we have a heightened state of awareness with brain-waves between 14-30 hertz (hZ). However, in the more relaxed "alpha" state, where the brain-waves are measured between 7-14 hZ, is where scientists say where the "eureka" moments happen, and deals more with activities involving intuition, imagination and memory. In order to achieve this alpha brain-wave state of mind, listen to songs that range between 50-80 beats per minute: an easy way to find this on your own is downloading a metronome app from the app store for free.

Finally, here's another playlist I have compiled that shows some of my (often confusing!) wide net I have cast across many genres.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3rUThiCgCXHLGq2d3M5z74?si=UuRN2hAtT-uuztRHuHfTyw

Everybody is different and have their own tastes in what really drives them, and for me one of my driving factors for listening to what I decide in the moment is matching what emotion and/or mindset I am desiring in the core of the pieces and songs. Also, you do not have to play an instrument to get the benefits of the super workout a cellist or concert pianist: just doing exercises in focusing on one specific part of your favourite songs and switching between their focus (for instance, figuring out the time signature, harmony, melody, message behind the art, etc.) gives your brain the equivalent of a daily multivitamin. Music and art are needed now more than ever in these times, and should be celebrated in all their forms.

Happy listening!