Music: The Peephole To The Soul

1. Music: The Peephole To The Soul By: Katarina Knowles

2. Music In Society • Music has a significant affect on its listeners and is used to inform the masses. • Music can influence the way we dance, dress, talk and it also sets the tone for cultures. • I feel that music of a particular time seems to reflect the opposite of what's going on in society. • For example, Mozart's music, is some of the most beautiful music ever written, same with Beethoven. Yet both of these composers lives weren't easy because of the suffering they went through: loss of their families and constantly struggling, with either money or social acceptance.  • Artists have been proving over decades how to overcome life’s short comings.

4. Music & The Brain • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rVDLUwztf0 • Music influences humans in good and bad ways. • Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe and can also be used to change a person's mood. • Has been found to cause like physical responses in many people simultaneously. • Musicians—from karaoke singers to professional cello players—are better able to hear targeted sounds in a noisy environment, according to new research that adds to evidence that music makes the brain work better.

5. Music & Language • Most recently brain-imaging studies have shown that music activates many diverse parts of the brain, including an overlap in where the brain processes music and language.  • Music and language are equally as universal as the other. • They are both strong learning components and can carry complex meanings. • Nina Kraus’ research shows that when a person listens to a sound, the brain wave recorded in response is physically the same as the sound wave itself. • If played back, the brain wave produces a nearly identical sound. • The overall effect is like a person learning to drive a manual transmission.

6. Music & Our Emotions • How many times have you turned to music to uplift you even further in happy times, or sought the comfort of music when melancholy strikes? • Listening to and playing music actually can alter how our brains, and therefore our bodies, function. • Michael DeBakey, • Doctors now believe using music therapy in hospitals and nursing homes not only makes people feel better, but also makes them heal faster. • Across the nation, medical experts are beginning to apply the new revelations about music’s impact on the brain to treating patients.

7. Music’s Effect On Our Emotions • Listening to music has been said to be good for your cardiovascular system.  • Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore have shown for the first time that emotions evoked while listening to joyful music do indeed have a healthy effect on blood vessel function.

8. Music & I • Music is my life. My rock. My means of going on. My happiness and my definition. Without music, I don’t know what I would do because it has helped me through so much in my life. • I would always choose music because I can feel my emotions pulsate from my eardrums to my heart capturing every beat and breathe through me while enveloping my being and making me feel at peace with myself and whatever I am going through. • Music has been there through my tears and my happiness. It has endured me to scream out in utter hatred and to smile overjoyed. The one thing I love about music more than anything is that through all of these emotions, music has never judged me. It will always be there to understand.