Viewing entries tagged
Human Interest
Part of keeping on top of music2work2 means that Charlotte and I spend a little time every day curating a page over on
Scoop.it on the effect of background music. We are interested in the psychology and science behind what is going on when we are listening to music and the positive effects that listening to music can have on seemingly every part of our lives.
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I love the saxophone – whether it’s Baker Street or Just the Way You Are – Lisa Simpson or Charlie Parker – there’s something about the instrument which is just – excuse me – fucking cool.
Clarence Clemons died this weekend and I’ve been thinking about his music; his playing touched me and made me smile. I remember being blown away by Born to Run – the album cover: this dude with a telecaster – clean and white – simple typesetting – a handful of songs and a big ass black dude with a saxophone. I sat up half the night listening to it
And the music; strings, guitars, stunning piano playing, that amazing horn and the stories…the stories were pure genius. I wanted to be the Rat, I wanted to be the Poet, I sure as hell wanted the girls and ended up marrying a Wendi.
I fell over laughing listening to New York City Serenade from The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle. The first three minutes of that song let me be a piano player in a rock band – it enabled me to pursue music in a way that made sense to me. David Sancious – and Bruce Springsteen – thank you too!
This Sunday morning’s playlist included Bat out of Hell; if you haven’t listened to it for a while – go take 45 minutes out of your day and crank it up - Paradise by the Dashboard Light taught me everything I needed to know about rock and roll.
More amazing music – more E street band players – and similarly to Born to Run – long songs. Funny that two of the best selling albums eschewed the single format.
It was Richard who left me alone with Born to Run 25 years ago – one of those evenings that imprinted hard on my 16 year old brain. He’s a super guitar player, singer songwriter and I love to play music with him.
We haven’t played together for a year – possibly more – but we grabbed an hour the other week – iPhone recording in the room...
If you watched the Julian Treasure video on the power of sound, you’ll already know why listening to birdsong has a calming affect on us humans. But I bet you didn’t know that there is an Internet Radio station that plays bird song 24/7!
powered by birdsong radio
The thinking goes that over the years humans have learned to relax when birds are singing – it’s when the birds stop singing that we need to worry. I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently and was about to start a piece of music that incorporated bird song along with a few other tricks when Charlotte discovered Birdsong Radio. I couldn’t help but laugh on reading her write up:
Recently I have been listening to Internet Radio stations, looking for ones that play music that would be categorizable as music2work2. Even though I listen for quite a while to get a good feel for the music they play, it seems that very few only play instrumental music.
I have also found that the name of a station or particular program does not necessarily indicate the type of music they play, except for that is, Birdsong Radio; I discovered that "bird songs," the sound of birds singing, is the only thing they play. I really appreciate nature and animals & I love to sit on the porch, relax and listen to the birds chirping and singing in my yard. But after a while, listening to only bird sounds directly through the radio starts to become annoying. Julian reckons there is no maximum dose but to my ears it became an irritation and I had the change the channel.
I’ve been listening to Birdsong radio while I write this post and found it to be a great accompaniment, but I guess I can see where after a while your brain is looking for a different stimulus. I think like most things in life it’s about balance – I’m certainly going to incorporate some birdsong in the next piece of music2work2 – along with a variation of the New York Jets fight song – but that’s a different kind of science all together.
