Already in ancient Greece it was believed that certain sounds could affect a person’s physical and mental state: the noise of the surf to calm, and a drum roll to energize. Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle alluded to the therapeutic effects of music and believed that it restored harmony to the human body.

Music theorist Bernd Willimack believes that music does not convey emotions, but that it evokes them if the listener has some association with it. It’s not enough to make the listener feel sad, just as it’s not enough to make the listener feel happy just because the tune is funny if the song doesn’t create any associations in him or her.

You empathize with the main character in your favorite movie, don’t you? This is because, according to the laws of drama, most often the main character must have in common with the potential moviegoer – you empathize with him because he is something like you.

There is no melody that will make the same impression on every listener, says Ethan Hayne, professor of music at Montclair State University. He once loved the soulful song “Der Gasn Nigun”, considering it a funeral song, but it turned out that it was a wedding hymn.

The culture in the West is such that cheerful music has major tones and sad music has minor tones. But then there is rhythm: fast tempo is activity and dancing, and slow tempo is rest or even sleep.

The emotionality of music also depends on musical intervals: “happy” contains simple proportions – these are octaves, quintas, major thirds. But here, too, everything depends on the cultural affiliation of the listener, because different peoples’ tastes in music are formed independently of each other. For example, K-pop may sound sad to most of us, but it sounds festive to Koreans.

So we’ve found out that the emotions we feel when we listen to a piece of music are our reaction to the associations we make when we listen to it. So in terms of emotions, the same piece of music can evoke completely different emotions in different people. If you want, it’s easy to check if you listen to the same song with a friend and then honestly share what emotions it evokes in you and him. Why not do such an experiment?

The Influence Of Music On The Human Brain

It has long been known that music and singing have a great influence on a person’s spiritual world, their habits, behavior, etc. This influence can be both positive and negative. For example, music that is inflammatory, loud, having an aggressive mood, deprives a person of balance and calm, but music of a calm nature, causes a feeling of joy and peace, can harmonize (improve or stabilize) the emotional state, not only adults, but also children. Therefore, since ancient times, both singing and music were used in the education of children.                                                    

We can highlight the main points emphasizing the special importance of music and singing to evoke feelings of joy and peace for the individual:

• One’s emotional state gains stability and harmony;
• It inspires and directs human thoughts in a positive direction, sets a person to moral action;
• Positions people toward mutual understanding and agreement;
• Is the best means to the abandonment of bad thoughts, and encourages good deeds.
• Exciting, loud music, which has an aggressive attitude, is contraindicated to hyper-excitable children, because it intensifies the manifestation of negative qualities in the child’s behavior.

Since there are so many different styles of music in our time, let’s look at the effects on the spiritual world of the most common ones.

Spiritual (church) music is a living spring of spirituality, a spring of morality. Church singing is a means of aesthetic education, promoting a sense of love and compassion for man. It helps to reveal such qualities as mercy, kindness and nobility.

Folk music – beautiful sounding music, it is also called “spiritual”, because it captures the spirit of the listener, because in each piece of music of any nation it is embedded. Folk music can be fun, sad and epic. This type of music is perceived by listeners very easily, inspires and directs in a positive direction, helps to appreciate the identity of our culture, to remember their ancestors and their traditions.

Classical music – this style of music forms the basis of musical culture and spiritual consciousness. Classical music contributes to the development of emotional responsiveness, aesthetic sublime taste, as well as arouses creative activity.

Music of military marches – this type of music gives confidence in one’s strength. This is invigorating and mobilizing music, which inspires people to perform feats.

Rock – it is based on rhythm, it is very heavy and expressive music with a piling up of unnecessary sounds (hysterical screams and shrieks of the performers). This style is very destructive to the human spiritual world, because while listening to this music concentration is lost, the mind is suppressed, and the mind generates hatred, anger, jealousy, etc.

Jazz is a distinctive style. The sounds of jazz have a positive effect on a person if this style is close to the listener.

Pop music (popular music) has uncomplicated lyrics and easy, catchy melodies. Perhaps this is the only style of music that can bring harm to a person, depending on the mood of the lyrics of the song.

I would like to remind you that children perceive music differently than adults. In order for music to have a beneficial effect on a child, it must match their emotional state. In preschool, many musical experiences a child receives are not so much from the music itself, but from the emotional reactions of loved ones to the music (emotional example).

To summarize, the impact of music on the spiritual world of man is enormous, and so it is important to learn how to use music properly in life and not overload your consciousness with heavy and depressing music.

Energetic Music Triggers The Release Of The Happiness Hormone

Listening to lively and upbeat music can boost your mood, an effect that is used by online casinos as a form of entertainment. All popular online casinos have realized this phenomenon and use energetic tunes to attract customers in search of happy hormones. Listening to the jubilant sounds while playing slots, blackjack or other casino games gives a satisfying emotion of excitement, invigoration and joy. So it seems like there is some truth behind the saying “winning feels great”. List of Online Casinos, such as 888casino, Genesis Casino and Slots Magic are examples of places where players can experience this vibrant atmosphere while having the time of their lives.

Conclusion Review Influence of Music on a Person’s Mood

Music is a very powerful tool that can be used to influence a person’s mood. The right kind of music can have a positive effect on a person’s mood, while the wrong kind of music can have a negative effect. Therefore, it is important to choose the right type of music when trying to influence someone’s mood. If you are looking for recommendations on what type of music to listen to in order to improve your mood, be sure to check out our reviews on the website.

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Listening and playing music reduces stress

Music can not only reduce stress levels psychologically – distract from everyday troubles, suppress or defuse negative emotions – but also regulate biological response. There are two main biological systems associated with a stress response. One of them is the sympathetic nervous system, which quickly reacts to stress and affects the work of many organs: our pulse quickens and blood pressure rises, as well as adrenaline. 

The second system is the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. It is part of our endocrine or hormonal system that triggers a cascade of hormones in response to a stressful situation or event. One of them is cortisol, a well-known stress hormone.

We often go to concerts to relax. Cortisol levels decrease similarly after attending different types of concerts, both pop, and classical music, although the psychological mechanisms of stress reduction work in different ways.

Stress can be reduced when playing music, but this is highly context-dependent. When professional singers play music for each other in a relaxed environment, their cortisol levels decrease, but when they do it in front of a huge audience, on the contrary, it increases.

Music is a brain gym

Music perception is the process in which we try to interpret musical information in order to get an image of it. Music is complexly organized: it is based on many components, such as tonality, instrument timbres, rhythm, melody movement. The brain processes this information, and on its basis, an image of the composition is created.

We enjoy listening to music, although it is useless for survival. But there is a theory that such a complex structure of music helps our brains develop. While listening to the song, predictive mechanisms are triggered, which make assumptions about how it will develop, where the melody will turn, what kind of break at the end of the chorus the drummer will make. When we judge the accuracy of our guesses, reward systems kick in in the brain, and we experience pleasure. Listening to music is a great opportunity to train predictive mechanisms to better predict possible scenarios in real life.

Music can be used in perinatal care

Singing and music are useful in intensive care for premature babies: babies become calmer, move less, and eat better, which is important for weight gain. In addition, music helps to develop language skills in babies, since the music is easy to perceive and the language is contained in simple melodic phrases.

Music has a positive effect on mothers too. Listening to music during pregnancy is associated with lower levels of stress and anxiety, as well as lower levels of depression in mothers. Women who listen to music during labor need less pain relievers, and some studies have shown that labor is faster. In addition, singing and listening to music can help cope with postpartum depression. A study by British psychologist Daisy Fancourt and her colleagues found that group therapy, in which young mothers sing, helps to recover faster than conventional group therapy. The respondents from the singing group noted that after singing, they felt a closer connection with the child; in addition, songs helped them to throw out the accumulated negative emotions. Their cortisol levels declined more strongly than those of women who received conventional group therapy.

Music influences brand perception

In many everyday situations, our decisions are irrational: we often do not think about spending money when it comes to small purchases. We can take an absolutely unnecessary small item that is on sale or get a chocolate bar of a famous brand while standing in line at the checkout. It is these quick fixes that are prone to cognitive biases.

The purchase decision can be influenced by music, which brings emotional context to any information. Nice music from the ads creates a positive mood associated with the brand. These associations are stored in long-term memory. When choosing a product, they float to the surface and influence your choice. This happens subtly: associations are often associated with very rapid emotional processing of information that we are not critical of. If information from ads can be disputed by comparing it with data from other sources, then there is no cognitive defense against music that you like.

Music helps people with autism interact with the world around 

The perception of music in autistic people is very diverse, and it cannot be said that it differs from the perception of music in neurotypical people. But music therapy can be effective. Art can help people with autism spectrum disorder learn to interact with others and understand their emotions. They often have alexithymia – difficulty in distinguishing between emotions and bodily sensations and in describing their condition. 

Even though they know they are emotionally aroused and are aware of the cause, they cannot associate it with anger as an emotion. In addition, people with autism find it difficult to recognize other people’s emotions by their facial expressions and voices. But they distinguish emotions in music much better. Psychologists are trying to figure out if this ability can be used so that they learn to recognize emotions in other contexts – for example, in themselves and in other people.

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