Art and Humanities Project - Research Paper Example

? Unit 4 Art and Humanities Project Institute’s Music is a term that bears different kinds of definitions depending on different perspectives. It can be defined as an art of sound that expresses feelings, emotions and ideas, in meaningful forms through the elements of harmony, rhythm, and melody. Its other definition is that, it is an art of organizing or arranging note and sounds so as to create a continuous, melodious, rhythmic and harmonious reminiscent composition. Others still define it as the sharped sounds between silences (Anonymous, 2009). Music has lived up to be known as a universal language that expresses that which one cannot afford to remain silent about or put into words. Music has made its position as an extremely significant part of our lives because everyone tends to identify with it. In this paper, I have explained the roles of music in different stages and aspects of our lives. Music psychology is the science that investigates the interaction and relationship between music and the human mind. It uses psychological methods and theory to try to understand and interpret how the brain responds to music. The effect of music on people’s attitude, mind and emotion, is always eminent in their behaviors (Davis, 2010). People do connect to music because it directly relates to all sorts of human feelings and emotions. That is, whether a person feels confused or frustrated, sad and lonely, happy and jovial, or even spiritual, music that rightly suits the mood is always there. The effects of having deep connection to music are always positive not negative. With the help of the following questions, I am going to illustrate the association of music with different stages of life and emotions. What music do you associate with childhood? How did/does this music make you feel? How do your choices reflect your childhood experiences? Studies have shown that music is crucial and vital in the development and of the human brain because it engages and uses all its parts. The music that I associate with childhood would be the ones that capture their attention and mind, intimate to the growing process, and are easy sing along. This music includes be the Lullabies, Birth day songs, Round songs such as Twinkle Twinkle Little Star Alphabet songs, Art songs and some nonsense songs with catchphrases such as Nikkity Nakkity Noo Noo Noo (Anonymous, 2009). I do remember that these songs always made me feel happy, hipper-active and jovial. They gave me an outlet for feelings that I could not always comprehend or find words for. These songs made childhood experience an erasable experience. They made childhood seem to be filled with fun and activities, plays, dances and smiles. They simply made me view the world and all round me as welcoming and full of joy. Oh! How I miss the childhood day. What music do you associate with adolescence? Was this music a way to fit in or rebel? The adolescents are people caught up in the mix of transition between childhood and adulthood. During this period, they tend to copy a lot from the media, want to be heard, and have their decisions respected by their elder. Music plays a great deal in influencing the way they think and acts (Kerchner & Abril, 2009). The music that I associate with them would be those that make them feel that they have a place in society. This music includes Love ballads and blues, Hip pop, Rap, fork songs and Rock (Anonymous, 2009). It is only in rare occasions that one can associate them with Spiritual or religious songs. At this stage of life, most of them want to be associated with a carefree lifestyle. As an adolescent, I used to listen to Rap music, Hip-pop and Rock and roll. I was at locker heads with my parents in most instances because of this music. They yield in me the rebellious spirit because of their precise nature. Most of this music is full or provocative, derogatory and foul language. Most of them are performed with artists who abuse drugs, making them live carefree lifestyle. At this stage in life, I thought that, that was cool and any advice from my elder would be taken as an offence and intrusion to my private life. Rebellion was the only way out. What music do you associate with comfort? How do these songs help you deal with disappointment or stress? Comfort is defined as a state of total mental and physical ease accompanied with freedom from any pain, trouble or constraint. Being an emotional phenomenon, I would associate it to music that relaxes the mind, brings a sense or tranquility and points to a divine being or any other greater power that can take care of all our worries and cares. This music includes the spiritual (Anonymous 2009) music, which reassures Christians take God is there for all their problems, thus giving some sense of relief and comfort. Smooth playing Classical and Instrumental music also plays a part in inducing comfort, after a stressful encounter. Love songs are also to some extend associated with comfort. These songs help in dealing with disappointment or stress by relating to the emotional part of the brain that responds to disappointment or stress. Their soothing rhymes, harmony, melodies and lyrics tend to relax the mind from all it worries. As I have mentioned above some of the comforting music assures you that you are not alone in the disappointment, because there someone supernatural somewhere care. Some of the songs give reassurances that all the stress and disappointment will not last forever. They encourage that, all pains and sorrows will eventually come to pass. Basically, these songs comfort people by diverting their emotion from the stress and disappointment to something more promising. What music do you associate with happiness? Why? Happiness can be defined as a mental state where one attains a sensation of well-being that is usually illustrated by delight and positive emotions. This makes me associate it with celebration songs, peppy beat and up-tempo music such as Techno and funk music and any other music that brings a positive emotion (Davies, 2010). In most instances, soothing music that has pleasant rhymes and melodies has also been associated with happiness. I associate this music with happiness because they trigger pleasant moods, memories and feelings, which in many instances take us back to various pleasant times. Music psychology says that one can anchor feelings that he or she wants through listening to music. These kinds of music always boost happiness and turns on smiles. In conclusion, I’d like to point out that music forms an integral part of our lives. It is one of the things that give most people an easy going with the world’s constraints. It affects people of all creeds, color and ages different, while evoking all sorts of feelings and emotions, which lead to the formation of deep connection with it in all phases of our lives. This makes it inevitable for most people to go through a whole day without listening to any piece of music. Truly, music is food for the soul. References Anonymous. (2009). The Art of Being Human: The Humanities As A Technique For Living, Custom Ed. Pearson Custom Publishing. Kerchner, J. L. Abril, C. R. (2009). Musical Experience In Our Lives: Things We Learn and Meanings We Make. United States of America, USA; Rowman & Littlefield Education. pp, 22- 215. Davies, W. (2010). What Type of Music Makes People Happiest? Positive Psychology Digest. 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