The Music Psychology

I have been exposed to music since I was a tiny kid as my father introduced me to Eagle with 'Hotel California', Air Supply with 'Goodbye', Stevie Wonder with 'Stuck on You' and George Benson with 'Nothing's Gonna Change My Life for You'. He loves music like singing and playing guitar in his college music band with his dudes, so he supported my music hobby and had me a music training. I never really thought I have such a good music talent (what my teacher and friends said) to play in bands as a keyboardist and every time I played in a gig I kinda enjoyed it, so much. Playing the music and get people listen to and enjoy what I play is the most rewarding thing being on a stage. Nothing but a happy feeling.

As time goes by and my relation with music is growing much more in-depth, I always wonder why I could be so into music and even be so obsessed with it. It almost does affect every aspect of my life in many ways, from driving my mood, uplifting my spirit to stimulating my brain. Though music gives have a different meaning to everyone, I am sure we share a similar situation as you experience a fantastic sensation when listening to a particular type of music especially when it turns out your favourite song. We could be happy, sad or angry, so why music makes us feel that way? This question encourages me to learn about music in more deeply.  I google-searched and as far as I could find, music psychology has the answer to all of my questions. 

The music psychology is divided into three main focuses; the musician, the music, and the listener. We can see the musical process of music as the work of art in sound which is produced by composers as a generator of the 'core product', while musicians were seen as a middleman whose role to pass the 'product' on to the listeners as a passive consumer. We do all agree that music is more than a sound as it conveys a message from the heart and emotion that could be heard and felt by the listeners. On a basic level, music psychology concerns with the underlying mechanisms of that process as a musical experience and behaviour; how it occurs, perceived, and responded in everyday lives. 

From the music psychology topic, music neuropsychology explains how we understand music, for example, from rhythm and pitch perception as well as its effect on our mind and body; music and memory; music and emotion. So, we should understand the fundamental mechanisms of the brain process (in music) as the centre of human nervous system. Anyway, I have been interested in this field, so I took 'cognitive neuroscience' class for one semester from the Psychology Department and made me realise that God is amazing! He creates a fascinating tool called the brain that controls everything. Well, this is a study of how brain structures and process mediate cognitive behaviours, such as learning, memory, language and attention. Next, talking about music education covers the understanding of musical ability and motivation, music participation and the musical development through the lifespan. Besides, if you were curious about music performance world, music psychology also has the explanation about musicians ability to master the skills as well as emotion, expression and communication in music performance, and so on. Since the music is tied up to our daily life, music also plays a leading role on our everyday settings, it explains how the uses and effectiveness of music - in sport, work, commerce and social -  influences our mood, feeling and behaviour also contributes to our health and wellbeing as music healing and therapy does to us. Finally, I would say there are many things we could explore from music, and we always can take the advantage from it since music is around us, also one thing, it has the power to affect our mind and behaviour.

So, I guess I will see you in the next post, and God bless your eyes and ears!

xx

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