Music for life

Half an hour of classical music a day is mandatory for all children in the US state of Florida – this is what law No. 660, adopted there six years ago, otherwise called Beethoven’s Babies Bill, says. State legislators are confident that music not only helps babies fall asleep during “quiet time”, but also contributes to the harmonious development of the child’s brain activity.

In France, the beneficial effects of music are used in some metropolitan children’s hospitals. Their pre-op rooms are like concert halls: little patients, parents and staff can play musical instruments, improvise or just listen to cassettes.

Classical melodies accompany the child to the very doors of the operating room; beautiful and soothing sounds are heard in the labyrinths of corridors, elevators, enlivening and warming the hospital atmosphere. Doctors are convinced that music helps children to more successfully endure anesthesia, and the stay in the clinic itself.

In the English city of Newcastle, the metro security service replaced the rock music broadcast in the subway with baroque melodies – and the number of cases of vandalism and aggression at the stations was halved! The facts, you see, are amazing. Although today for many of us music is just entertainment, a kind of consumer product or just the usual “noise background”. Few people know that musical sounds have a special power.

Sounds are material

The ringing of a bell or the rumble of a jackhammer – all sounds are transmitted through the air, creating “acoustic pressure” that caresses or hits our eardrums. Each sound has its own frequency. Too high or too low sounds we do not hear, but they are also material. American scientists from the Jet Propulsion laboratory in Pasadena discovered the phenomenon of “sound glow”.

Directing powerful ultrasounds into a glass vessel with water, they saw how tiny bubbles were formed, emitting a bluish light. This phenomenon proves the reality of the physical impact of sounds on matter, not only audible, but also those that the human ear is not able to perceive.

body rhythms

Our body itself is like an orchestra: the heartbeat, the rhythm of brain activity, contractions of the lungs, blood circulation, impulses of nerve cells … If the rhythms of external life are too aggressive, the work of the internal “orchestra” is disrupted: the body, trying to adapt, “picks up” a fast rhythm, tension grows, stress arises. Conversely, if the music matches our biorhythms, we feel harmony.

Based on this principle, London-based French scientist Fabien Maman developed an original therapy technique. He installs conventional musical tuning forks on biologically active points, in particular those used in acupuncture, and the sound wave passes through all the tissues and organs of the patient’s body, “tuning” them to a favorable frequency for them.

Мы чувствуем себя хорошо, когда звуки музыки или окружающей среды вступают в резонанс с частотами нашей нервной системы. С этой физической закономерностью связан успокаивающий эффект так называемых мелодий для релаксации: мозг адаптируется к их темпу, а интенсивность его работы замедляется настолько, что мы можем погрузиться в глубокий сон.

The brain of a music lover

Howard Gardner, professor of psychology at Harvard University, proved that music, like speech or mathematical logic, activates the brain, affects the development of many mental functions: memory, attention, imagination, thinking. Physicist Gordon Shaw and psychologist Francis Roscher conducted an interesting experiment at the California Neuroscience Center for Learning and Memory.

50 детей трех и четырех лет распределили по трем группам. В течение восьми месяцев малыши из первой группы индивидуально учились пению и игре на фортепиано; вторая группа «прошла» курс информатики; а третья не получила никакого специального обучения. Затем всем участникам эксперимента были предложены тесты на пространственное восприятие (складывание пазлов, кубиков и т. д.). Группа маленьких пианистов показала высший результат — 31 %.

The experiment confirmed: in the first years of life, the perception of surrounding sounds, as well as visual perception, affects the formation of the human brain. Any communication with music helps the development of the child. If he is still very small, acquaintance should not begin with too “heavy”, complex works: Prokofiev, Schumann and many other classics also wrote for children. In general, it is better to listen and play the music that you like.

Its own melody

Почему одни мелодии нам по душе, а другие, мягко говоря, раздражают? Многие музыкотерапевты пытаются установить связь между психологическими типами личности и музыкальными формами… Тщетно: два человека с близкими по типу темпераментами могут иметь абсолютно разные музыкальные вкусы. На формирование музыкальных (как, кстати, и кулинарных) предпочтений оказывает влияние прежде всего семья, в которой растет ребенок.

Music preserves our feelings for years: a special rhythm, a forgotten melody, a musical phrase or just some kind of sound after many years can evoke pictures of the past in our soul. If as a child you were rocked to the serenades of Schubert or Albinoni’s adagio, as adults, you will certainly have warm feelings for them. And a child who was once frightened, for example, by the roar of circus drums and fanfare, can retain an unconscious dislike for such a musical genre for life …

The perception of music is very individual. In addition, it changes depending on the environment, our mood, general psychological and physical condition. Some people work best with music, while others, on the contrary, interfere with concentration. And yet, something can definitely be said about how different styles of music affect us.

• Классика: легкость, «невесомость» Гайдна или Моцарта помогают сосредоточиться, улучшают память и пространственное восприятие.
• Baroque: slow melodies by Bach, Handel or Corelli give a sense of stability, calmness, security and encourage intellectual work.
• Church music: Eastern and Western, traditional and modern, it seems to have the ability to expand time and space. Such music not only awakens the spirit, but also relaxes the body and reduces pain.
• Romantic music: speech about the most emotional works of Chopin, Liszt, Wagner. They contain the whole gamut of feelings, from deep sadness to enthusiastic mysticism.
• Jazz, Blues: The numerous forms of classical jazz, like romantic music, can evoke all human emotions, but jazz is more tonic.
• Rock: Some forms of classic rock evoke passionate feelings, others relieve tension. The effect of this music is very different for different people.
• Heavy metal, punk, grunge: as a rule, very loud music directly affects our nervous system, extremely straining the eardrums and auditory nerves. Hence the immediate physiological consequences: increased heart rate and breathing, high blood pressure.
• Techno: The bass pulsing found in all “commercial” techno music alters the rhythms of brain activity. The listener is forced to tune in to the techno-frequencies and, as a result, can plunge into a kind of trance. By the way, some experts in Chinese medicine seriously argue that such music disrupts the flow of energy that connects us with the past and future life.