Why Is Music Enjoyable in Any Discipline - Essay Example

College Music and Psychology Psychology is the study of the mind and the behaviors of people depending on their personalities.There is an exceedingly wide relationship between music and psychology. In my study, I have learnt that people’s emotions can be controlled by music, their personalities are easy to read depending on the music they listen to, I can recall what I learn more through music. Melodies and harmonies in music are just like emotions and personalities in psychology among many other things. Music and psychology to my surprise are based on the same principles. Music blends in with my discipline in that its elements reflect in the elements of psychology and what causes human beings to act the way they do. Pitch in music requires control. It can be high or low but it is what creates music in the first place. If not controlled, a singer becomes pitchy and the essence of pitch in music is lost. This is similar in psychology. Emotions are only meaningful when they are controlled. Emotional stability is one of the key factors that any psychologist would advise their patients to have. Lack of emotional control like in pitch is hazardous. It leaves the person vulnerable when they are on the lower or higher side. Emotions just like pitch control how a person will behave. Pitch in music controls how the music will sound even without incorporation of other elements such as beat. Like pitch in music, it is important to have control over our emotions and to ensure that we do not get pitchy. Rhythm in music is the beat that is brought about in a song. Mostly, the rhythm of a song is what gives it a genre. It is classical or rock or jazz because of first the rhythm among other musical elements. Just like the pulse creates rhythm which more so determines genre, a persons intellect psychologically creates their personality. We behave the way we do because of our intellects. Our personalities are determined by how our intellects are. When geniuses are compared to people with low IQ, their personalities vary widely because the intellect in each is different. So it is with music, the beat is different and it creates different kinds of song genres. Musical behaviors such as dancing, singing along, crying, getting high spirits is characteristic in different genres. Musical behaviors are a translation of emotional behaviors in psychology. People will act or react how they do because of the emotion they experience. It is also because of emotion that people are either high spirited or low. It is emotions that dictate the state of enjoyment of life in an individual. Musical behaviors are the interpretation of emotional reactions in human beings. People have perceived music differently over the years. With music developing every year and age, during neo colonialism for example, music was a form of enjoyment, it later grew to be a source of encouragement and of peoples opinions. It was used for worship and more so for political interests. However, music has now become a source of solace, mainly entertainment and fun for most listeners. Music creates expectations with every rising beat and rhythm. Perception in psychology is what also builds peoples behaviors. How they perceive influences how they behave. Like in music, perception is similarly that tool that controls behavior just like in music; it is what creates a difference in people. How they perceive being different is similar to how people enjoy music and understand it differently. This way, it serves different purposes. Melody in music creates sensation. In music, the melody of a song is what comes out from the rhythm and the pitch of a song. In a psychological perspective, melody is similar to the nerves that detect sensation and send it to the brain. The nerves are what transfer the sensed stimuli to the brain for interpretation. Melody is what creates the music and the understanding of it. It is what draws a listener to listen to a certain song. Depending on the genre, different music attracts different people because of the melody. They are the nerves that send the message to the brain about different senses. Most people prefer a certain genre of music because they understand it. They enjoy it and get the flow of its beat, message and melody. This is similar in psychology. Most people are accustomed only to behave positively towards what they can understand. Cognition in psychology is part of memory whereby one can react towards something because they have the knowledge of it. People tend to shy away from what the mind does not understand. In music, many people love a certain genre such as classical music of the 80s and will not change to other genres such as hip hop because they understand the genre more; they are comfortable thus it creates enjoyment for them. People look forward to new hits by different composers of the genre they like more than others. Similarly, people are positive and more welcoming to what they understand in their minds than what is new to them. Dynamics in music are an element that determines the softness or loudness of a song. In psychology, it is easy to read the personality of an individual with the type of music they listen to. One may tell whether they are introverts or extroverts depending on the dynamics of the music they listen to. Personalities just like dynamics vary and give music the uniqueness they have just like personalities in people. Music is like psychology in that, it demands attention. Ones behaviors are what draw attention to others or away from others. The genres of music being different either draw a listener or put them off depending on preference. Other people pay attention to music even when it is meant to be background music playing because the musician draws them into listening to it. The harmonies mostly draw people to listening. The same way, in psychology, it is behavior that draws people to either interest or lack of interest. The language of music is similar to the language of the mind. Music has its cultural touch, its history, theme and meaning and its purpose. The language of the mind is about perceiving intention and interpreting what is perceived and sensed by the body. The same way, music intends to communicate to its listeners. The mind seeks to communicate to the body in order to understand every message brought in by the nerves. Music to its listeners is also about perception. The language of music is such that, a composer seeks to connect to the audience to arouse emotion, an understanding, enjoyment among other feelings. On a bigger picture, music is a blend of more than one element. What makes a genre, is the difference in elements of music a composer seeks to c4reate their own character in music. The same way, psychology involves more than one aspect in the study of human behavior. The mind, emotions, personality, sensation, intellect among other elements determines ones behaviors. Similarly, elements of music such as pitch, melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, dynamics among others make up what music is and its classification. In conclusion, it is clear that music is enjoyable in any discipline. In my discipline, so much relates to music. So many genres reflect who you are and what kind of personality you have. Music is more than enjoyable. The history of music, its development and its growth to more genres and the entry of more artists reflect its growth. Similarly, more comparisons can be made from the elements of music to psychology. Many would say that music is the food to the mind. It is the same to psychology. It gives us an interpretation of our minds. References Patel, Aniruddh D. Music, Language, and the Brain. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print. Read More