Back from Australia – what an amazing Country – expensive as hell but full of some of the nicest people on the planet – will be going back as soon as we can.

I’m already head down and working to finish Wendi – lots of listening over the last couple of weeks opened a few doors and plenty of progress is being made. We shot some fantastic video and stills of sunrise at Byron Bay which will be used in the video – more on that later this week.

But before we get into anything too music2work2 – here’s a video from Paris – from my cousin Alexandre (he’s the awesome dude in the silver lame shirt!) – I can’t get the hook out of my head and it puts a permanent grin on my face. So – if you looking for a feel good track and you wanna “get down with the funk!” – here’s Dropize..

Latest stories from the music2work2 curated page on how music affects us

Click on any image or story that interests you…

Had almost forgotten this video – it’s the kid that makes it.

We were out hustling the new tracks – always thought this track had a chance:

We caught this video when curating our page on
Background music – how music can improve your life – and thought it was well worth posting on the blog.

It’s 2 1/2 minutes long and looks at the work being done by Parag Chordia and the team at Georgia Tech into how music can impact pretty much every area of our lives – but in this case creativity.

A good playlist from music2work2 to stimulate creativity would be the Writers playlist

Download the playlist at 320K when you become a free member of music2work2

Clearly this doesn’t work if you’re listening to the piano after work in the pub, but a report in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that if you’re getting on in years this might just be what you need to stay on your feet.

Dalcroze Eurhythmics

Sure, this may sound like a sweeter version of an 80′s pop group, but it is actually a form of music and movement education. Developed a century ago by the Swiss composer Emile Jaques-Dalcroze, it is a way of using your body to gain a fuller understanding and deeper meaning of musical expression. It sounds a little weird but actually makes a huge amount of sense and you naturally do it anyway when you’re tapping your toes or waving your hand to the beat. If you want to learn more there’s a great write up and explanation on the Dalcroze Society of America website.

Back to the research

The study, conducted by Dr. Andrea Trombetti included 134 adults over the age of 65 who were at an increased risk of falling. Over a 6 month period the study group performed a series of multitask exercises that challenged the body’s balance control system, these included walking in time to piano music and responding to changes in the music’s rhythm. The study found that not only did those in the study group have fewer falls than the control group, they also increased their walking speed and stride length.

Music to Walk to

I think this is brilliant and is just one more piece of information that supports the idea of music being good for you. If you would like to try this out with some piano music I would recommend you try out the Solo Piano Playlist. You can stream the music directly from the site or become a member and download the tracks to your iPod.

Sign up for Free Membership – Download The Writer’s Playlist

Sign up for Annual Membership $15 – Download all Playlists including the Solo Piano Playlist

Here’s one of my favorite piano pieces – written for a very brave lady who survived cancer:

Emma – 20 minutes 4 seconds

Piano track written for a friend who was fighting cancer at the time – Liner notes

We have recently adopted a new approach to the kind of content that will be appearing on music2work2. One of the things that Charlotte and I agreed upon at the beginning of the year was that we wanted to share more about how music really can affect us all.

We’re using a new tool – Scoop.it which helps us stay on top of all the information out there – and when we find something that we think is relevant and that you’d find interesting, we’ll post it here on the blog. We’re also sending out relevant tweets and posting separate content to the new Facebook page.

I thought this article on using music in the classroom was a perfect addition to the site – any teachers out there who would like to do this and would like some music2work2 for their classrooms – get in touch – we’re always happy to help out the Teachers – without you – where would any of us be!

Enjoy…

You might benefit from using background music in your foreign language classroom as a way to help students focus and concentrate while making the learning experience enjoyable. Music has been proven as a …
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Via Scoop.it – Background Music

Hearing specialist and sax player Charles J. Limb says that studying the brain during flights of improvisation may provide new understanding of creativity—as well as insight into the musical genius of John Coltrane

Via Scoop.it – Background Music

Hearing specialist and sax player Charles J.
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Dr. Anneli Haake spent the last 6 years studying the effect of music on office workers in the UK; her results were published in the academic journal Musicae Scientiae in March earlier this year. For those of us not familiar with reading large scientific texts, we asked Annelli to give us a lay person’s overview by answering a few questions. Before we get to her answers, here’s the one thing that hits us from the Abstract:

“Previous research has focused on positive mood and negative effects of distraction on task performance, but this study identified additional significant functions: inspiration, concentration, positive distraction, stress relief and managing personal space. Employees listened to music for a third of their working week, and reported listening to a wide variety of music styles and artists. Music helped them to both engage in and escape from work, and they often used music to seal themselves off from the office environment“

It’s clear that music can and does play a huge role in assisting human beings tackle their daily work. We think that studies like Dr. Haake’s are just scratching the surface and we can’t wait to learn more about how music can help. Here are Anneli’s answers:

Please sum up your study in nice non-technical language

Sure. I studied the experiences of music in offices, and I did three empirical studies: a survey, a listening intervention study, and interviews. I found that music could be distracting if people had not chosen to listen, but otherwise it seemed to help in managing other distractions in the office. It could also be inspiring, relaxing and calming, but irritating if it was imposed. Music was perhaps not the main activity in the office (after all, people are there to work), but it was still very important for those who usually listened.

When people listened, they also carefully considered the context in which they listened. They made sure not to distract others, or to appear unprofessional. They also modified their listening according to whether they felt they needed to really concentrate hard. But sometimes they would still choose to listen to music, especially if they worked in a noisy office.

What was the main take away for you from the research?

How important it is to be able to choose when to listen and what to listen to. And how difficult people found it if they were not able to choose. Also, how important some people found music at work, but how the concept of music at work is still seen as a bit “naughty.” I interpreted this as a remains of the old work/leisure split, which has been so common in the industrialised society. But I think it is changing in some places because of the developments in technology, which makes it easier to bring music into work.

What do you plan to do with the research?

Publish in academic journals, and also other non-academic magazines. Hopefully give talks and guest lectures for anyone interested, share the knowledge, basically.

Is there a difference between instrumental music and songs?

I don’t think it is as easy as simply saying “instrumental music is good for working, and songs are not.” There are so many other factors that can influence: what’s going on around you, and individual music preferences are two major factors, I think.

What are you currently up to?

I have just finished my doctorate in music psychology, where I have researched music listening in offices in the UK. I am currently on the look out for research projects that could suit me. My work has just been published in the academic journal Musicae Scientiae (March, 2011) about music listening in offices. I am also working as a Swedish language teacher and translator (my day job).

Why did you choose music as an area to study?

I have always been fascinated by the fact that music has the ability to touch people to such an extent. When I was 18, I did a small school project about a music therapist and visited him when he was working with people with special needs. It was so interesting. After that, I found out that there was an academic subject called Music Psychology, so I started studying that over 10 years ago, and has been doing so ever since.

Are you a musician yourself?

Well, not at the moment. However, about 10 years ago I was quite active, as a singer and a song writer in Stockholm, Sweden. I was a member of several bands, and one of the bands (I played keyboard and did backing vocals) even managed to land a major record contract with Sony Music. Unfortunately, the band split up before the album was released, but it did give me an insight into the crazy world of the music industry.

What music do you like to listen to when writing?

Because I work mainly at home, I prefer silence most of the time. But if I have to read while travelling on a train, then I would listen to most things I listen to otherwise. When I was writing my doctorate thesis, I worked very well to Fleet Foxes, Lisa Ekdal and Scarlatti sonatas. But I also like Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Kings of Leon, Royksopp and Arcade Fire. And of course ’9 to 5′ with Dolly Parton!

Why do you think music is such a constant in society?

This is a huge question. Maybe because of all the different functions it can have, and all the different emotions and memories it can evoke. The list is endless, which is why it is such a fascinating topic to study.

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Thank you Anneli for taking the time to answer our questions, you can learn more about Dr. Haake’s work at her website: http://musicatwork.net/

We do feel that there is a difference between instrumental music and songs with words when you are using the language centers of your brain – although there haven’t been any specific studies on this area yet. It was interesting to see Anneli answer that question more from the perspective of immediate environment and personal preference. Maybe in the future we could commission Anneli to investigate this – we’ll need to sell a few more memberships before then!

Finally…

If you’re looking for other types of music to work to – check out this post over on the AVclub website on Music to Work by – with 296 comments and thousands of different artists and bands, you should be able to find something to help you.

And finally – if you haven’t tried some music2work2 – then join up – become a free member and download the Writer’s playlist – see how music can work for you.

Came across this study through a post by Tom Jacobs over on Miller-McCune that referenced the original study here. Here’s the Abstract:

The present study investigated whether and how a musical rhythm entrains a listener’s visual attention. To this end, participants were presented with pictures of faces and houses and indicated whether picture orientation was upright or inverted. Participants performed this task in silence or with a musical rhythm playing in the background. In the latter condition, pictures could occur off-beat or on a rhythmically implied, silent beat. Pictures presented without the musical rhythm and off-beat were responded to more slowly than pictures presented on-beat. This effect was comparable for faces and houses. Together these results indicate that musical rhythm both synchronizes and facilitates concurrent stimulus processing.

Kinda cool huh? From my own study – I have seen how music can help performance – but it’s interesting to see a rhythmic component come into play. Tom quotes from the study that they speculate that rhythm can affect "attention allocation policies", which apart from sounding totally awesome – does kinda make sense; once you identify a regular beat – it makes up part of your aural environment that is now predictable – the brain starts to look for it – to expect it. If you expect to see something – i.e. – if you know it is coming and you have an idea of the direction in which it will appear – it is likely that you’re going to see it faster than if you weren’t expecting it.

I believe that music acts like a “warm-up” for the brain; it stimulates background neural activity which enables it to move information faster – analagous to an athlete warming up – you get better performance when the muscles are stimulated than from a cold standing start. Add rhythm as a tool to indicate to the brain when to selectively focus, remove the lyrics so you don’t get distracted by someone else’s story and you’re talking about the best work enhancing tool ever invented.

Image Credit: Dave Makes – Flickr