Music Therapy
This is kind of funny. I was listening to just some random music while I was writing and a song came on that I haven’t heard in a while—“My Stupid Mouth” by John Mayer. As I was listening to this song, it really began to ring more true to how I’ve felt the past two weeks. I started laughing when I was listening to it. Has anyone ever noticed that music has a tendency to speak to you in whatever situation you’re going through? More specifically, if you’re infatuated w/ someone at the time, you start to notice all the songs you hear are ones that are more happy and wishful. If you’re going through a time where you’re missing someone/thing, you hear songs that speak of the yearning feeling for the future or the comforting memories of the past. If you’re feeling depressed, you hear songs that speak about heartbreak, loneliness, a sort of pessimistic optimism, or maybe even death. And all of these categories can be mixed and matched to fit each other in their own weird way and somehow will have songs to go along w/ them. Maybe its bc I’m a music nut that I notice these things, but I have also noticed I can tell it in other people. Is this done on purpose (by us)? Well, of course many times it's bc we put in the cds that speak to our situation and join in w/ the singer to rejoice or lament about our current emotional state, and not just talk about it, but sing it.....very loudly. However, I also had instances where I have bought new cds and they are all about what I’m going through. I know it’s a bit stupid to think about this kind of stuff sometimes and much of it can be very well argued to be things that are being way too over analyzed, but hey, you’re looking at (figuratively) Johnny-Over-Analyzer. Anyways, I think most of the time it’s not so much what we listen to, but what we are hearing. We want to hear those songs that speak to our situations in order that—like I stated earlier—we don’t feel alone in them since we are joining in w/ the singer who seems to best understand us at the time.
Anyone have any thoughts or theories as to how and why music is so therapeutic? I’d love to hear anyone’s input, so please feel free to holla at ya boy on the comment thingamabobber right below. You don’t even have to be a fellow blogspot blogger to post a comment, so go ahead and let me (and everyone else who reads this, which probably isn’t a whole heap of people) know what you’re thinking! Blessings be w/ you all!
posted by One of Us @ 6:10 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
I feel you brother. Music is such a cool thing. It's art like Terry said. You put it out there and people recieve and understand it in various ways. Another cool thing I've noticed about music is that my tast changes at different stages of my life. In Jr. High, when I got my heartbroken, I listened to non-stop country. In high school, when I was so Hillary Faye, I only listened to Christian music. Post college, it's a mixture of everything with a lot of folk music that tells stories about life and home. It's kind of funny what our hearts and ears gravitate towards musically.
"It's like a message in a bottle and you take all your best hopes and dreams and send it out in a bottle, toss it in the ocean, and whoever gets it and when they get it, well it has more to do with the ocean than it has to do with you." That, of course, is not my own comment, but a quote from David Wilcox paraphrasing Sting. But what you write is truth, that there is some invisible connection between life and song, between what we do day in and day out and what any number of songs communicate. Perhaps this is why, as Christians, we hold so dear to our worship tradition the singing and playing of music. Somewhere, the gospel cannot be expressed so good as it can on the flow of a melody, made by whatever instrument, sung by whomever's voice.
A few days ago one of my youth asked me, "What do you think will happen when we finally have placed every combination of words together, or notes, so that there is no longer the ability to write new songs - they've all been written?" I just laughed and said that won't happen, but inside, I thought, maybe it is possible that one day, in a great and far future, such a thing could mathematically happen, but it is almost as impossible to imagine that as it is to imagine heaven ... or life outside of time ... or a cuddly insect. All I can take confidence in is that, this gift of music, that is so therapeutic to the soul, seems an astonishingly big enterprise, and as long as humans have experiences, there will surely be songs to communicate them.
Music -- melodies themselves -- is very interesting, in that it is another form of communication. Even without words, we can tell what emotion a piece is playing. Even a poet's words cannot express the kind of deep sorrow, or true elation that a symphony can.
I think that I take it for granted too often, and forget to truly think about music's reality. Our senses become so jaded, living in this incredible world, full of God's amazing creations. From the paw of a little kitten, to the soft swaying of tree branches in the wind, the singing of a violin, to my very own hands, they all are amazing and different, yet all stir something within you, and they all say something. I think it's the fact that they were all made by a loving God, and show what kind of Person He is.
Also, to Vernon: There ARE cuddley insects. At least, I believe so. Moths, for example, are very cuddley and soft. A bit like small mice with wings. (:
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