Psychology of Music

Goodness, it has been a long time since I have last blogged.
[Me:"I've been too exhausted and busy to attend to you, surely you can handle that for a few days, or rather months!" My blog: "Excuses, excuses. I feel so very hurt that you neglect me as you do. I shall have to make you do something about that." Me: "Is that a threat?" My blog: "Yes, now get to work!" ::battle of wills takes place, girlish slap fights, name calling and nasty looks procede:: Me: "All right! Alright already!"] Dear world, I *cough* humbly apologise for my cruel abuse of my 'precious, abused, neglected, and orphaned' blog :: tones dripping with sarcasm, glares at the strong willed blog::

My blog has been.. rather abused as of late, but I have very little to talk about. So I'll go back to a familiar topic: Music and Poetry. [::sticks tongue at blog:: nana nana booboo! ::feels childish, and obviously doesn't care::]

I have been listening to a wide spread of music as of late. A variety of alternative punk, country, swing, classic Disney tunes and metal and emo core. No, that wouldn't be because my mood has been swinging like a pendulum, but rather there's nothing that could change it. And sheer curiousity. Ive been a bit blue lately... but that's not what this blog post is about. Its about the psychology of music

Lets start with music.

I find that depending on the key signature, and the literal notes of a song, it can sway ones emotions, as assisted by a pre-existing mood, to an extent.
I have experimented (read: rationalised) listening to drastically emotional songs to see how I subconsciously react. I worked this for about the past 4 or 5 months.

I spent a week listening exclusively to Owl City and Sailship and was entirely bubbly and cheerful without trying. I couldn't help it! Not only are the words happy, but the music is in a major chord with few to no accidentals. Its light-hearted. Its cheerful It is happy music.

Next I moved on to Alternative/soft rock such as Fleet Foxes, the Avett Brothers, The Goo Goo Dolls , Coldplay, Lady Antebellum and Jon Foreman. I felt, on most days rather passive, slightly morose and apathetic, but not entirely sad, and that was possibly caused by the memories tied to those particular songs. I looked at my own transpositions of a few of the songs and noted that they were mostly in minor keys, with few accidentals, not inherently sad music (read: notes in and of themselves) but with mellow tenancies. It was the lyrics I supposed that caused my subtle mellowness. Curiously, I felt slightly weak in strength after the first five days. That puzzles me.

I moved next wordless string quartets. Primarily The Section Quartet, The Sisters of the Road, Apocolyptica, Haggard, Escala, Mike Marshal and The Vitamin String Quartet. Why a quartet? No particular reason. I just like the sound of the quartet above that of a soloist. Hehe ^.^. Note that the two I listed first, and listened to most are electric, rather punkish (Ok, sorry, I didn't expect you to know that right off the bat...). I broke this week into three parts. Haggard, Escala, and the Vitamin String Quartet in the first third of the week, bringing about a creative, gentle, musical mood in me. The next two days were entirely the Sisters of the Road and Mike Marshal for their swingy, folk feel. I had to dance to them. Again, not happy music, but this music causes me to be happy for it resonates with my soul. It is my very favourite go-to music. (Much like EK and bagpipes, Ceeweera and the Beatles, or, um, or... ok. skip that. ) The third portion of the week was the Section Quartet and Apocolyptica. It was punkish as I already stated. It made me feel slightly angsty, moody, temperamental. I hate how much I loved it.

Ill go with three more examples of music I played with.

I had a metal/screamo week too. I listened to bands like Underoath, Plea for Purging, Bullet for my Valentine, Eyes Set to Kill, Alesana and whatever else Pandora gave me. I had nightmares. No joke. I like that kind of music when i am angry at myself, or when I am exercising. I have learned that I shall never, or ought to never listen to it on a mere whim. End of story.

Then I had an Irish Punk week that lasted much more than a week. Flogging Molly, The Dubliners, The Chieftains and Gaelic Storm were my constant flow. Yep! I found myself full of energy, restless, pumped and wanting to fight for something. The words and instruments were more the cause of this example. When I transposed them to violin I did not get the same effect. I shall be playing more!

Finally I went to bands such as Bright Eyes, Eisley, Augustana, Avett Brothers (again... I REALLY like them), Iron and Wine, Regina Spektor, Between the Trees, Taylor Swift, Lady Antebellum Secondhand Serenade. This was rather confusing to me. I loved the music, the words and everything, though I could not identify a consistent emotion even after inspecting the chord patterns. I do not identify a negative effect so I shall listen to these primarily =).

These are only a few of the 'sets/systems' that I sampled. But these were the most prominent reactions that I saw and recorded.

I can now say I have observed an unobvious trend in myself, made it more apparent and blogged about it. Mission Accomplished? I think so!