This Week in Music to Work to - September 25th, 2014

A sound idea: can ambient noise make us work harder?

Super interesting idea that the Times would add the anachronistic sound of typewriters in the news room - and that as they reach press deadline the volume increases.  I'm not sure this is the way to go but it will be interesting to see the results.  The rest of the article looks at how music has struggled to be utilized as a mass productivity tool, we know from our own studies and research that music is such a personal thing that going for economies of scale isn't going to work.   Still,  there's no doubt that sound and the auditory system has a huge impact on us humans.

The Psychology of Music | Visual.ly

The University of Florida make their case for the Music program by creating a pretty solid infographic on the psychology of music - a good overview and well worth the time to check it out

Interactive lab explores music’s scientific potential

This is super cool - reminds me of the sound room back in my undergraduate days at Westminster University - there was a soundproofed room in the basement of one of the faculty buildings - it was pretty small but you couldn't spend too much time in there 'cos the sound of your own body started to freak you out.  this is that room on a much much bigger scale and by the 'sounds" of it - is going open many doors into how sound and music and auditory experience affects us human beings.  I want to go!!!

Science Shows Your Taste in Music Says More About You Than You Think

Yeah - it reads well - but I'm just not sure about this.  To me it's still putting people in boxes and just by allocating all the different musical genres into 4 categories defined by salient sonic and emotional characteristics - you're still not going to avoid all the things about genre that researchers are trying to ignore.  Studies like this end up delivering big sweeping types of information that people inevitably end up trying to use and then getting it wrong and having arguments blah blah blah....

Scientists Capture The Sound Of A Single Atom

This is frickin' awesome - not so much for the physics - which are pretty amazing - but for the fact that it's a D!  I think I read somewhere about Billy Joel and Elton John talking about what their favorite key to compose in was and both of them agreeing that there's just something about the key of D and D minor in particular that just feels good.    Now whether this has anything to do with some deep subliminal resonance - who knows - but I like playing in D too!

The Music That Has Helped Me Battle Depression

Deeply personal reflection from an author who deals with depression and who uses music to mitigate its effects as best he can.  It's the "No side effects" that seems to resonate throughout the use of music in health related fields - whether its managing mood or impairing energy and memory - music seems to be the one drug you can't overdose on.

Pop music too loud and all sounds the same: official

Yes - this headline will appeal to people over 35 - but I don't think the kids need to get too worried.  We're seeing the expression of technology and economy and while Dr. Luke and Max martin might be behind most of the pop out there - it won't stay that way for long.  Every generation decried the music of the one that comes after it and while data is interesting - has music ever, really, been about datasets and statistics?!?!? 

#musictoworkto #musicresearch #depression #productivity #personality #musicpsychology

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Written while listening to: Stampylongnose Second Edit

Image Credit: Philip Krantz, Huffington Post

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This Week in Music to Work to - July 31st, 2014

Study finds that snowboarders listening to music have less injuries

This is brilliant - seems that if you listen to music while you're snowboarding you're less likely to have an accident.  However, the data does come with the caveat that if you do have an accident while listening to music - it's more likely to be significant and end up with a trip to the ER instead of being handled by the snow patrol on the hill.

It reminds me of driving behavior in Germany back in the day - accidents were pretty infrequent, as most people obeyed the traffic laws, however - when there was an accident it was generally pretty horrendous due to the unlimited speeds allowed on the autobahn.

The takeaway for me is the whole idea that music can encourage and facilitate the development of a state of flow.  That place where you're not really thinking about what you're doing - you're just in the zone and performing effortlessly.  So for our snowboarders they make less mistakes and have less accidents.  the down side could potentially be that they start testing the limits of their ability - resulting in the big accidents that send them off to the ER.

Ah well - no pain - no gain!!!  ;-p 

Not Just for Music: Drumming Is Therapy, Too

When you look at the list of benefits as identified by scientific studies it just makes you wonder why more people aren't shouting about this.  Improved T cell counts, helping Alzheimer patients, reducing drop out rates and even reversing genetic responses to stress!  I wonder if it's just cultural - the idea that a drum circle is typically populated by 60's throwbacks and the whole hippie thing that keeps people from actively attending or doing something with this information.  I guess we're going to need even more studies before people are convinced.

Running to the beat of your own music

Studies over the years have show the clear benefits that music can bring to runners - I particularly remember the one quoted that shows that music can reduce the perception of exertion by 10% and that synchronizing movements to the beat can increase performance by 15%.  Who wouldn't want to get that benefit?

It's going to make runners at least more aware of the tempo of tracks and as the article says move people more into the techno and hip hop worlds!

They're Using Our Biology Against Us? Movie Makers Are Evil Geniuses!

Short primer on how composers use music to manipulate emotions in the movie world.  Although we're all familiar with the sounds of Jaws and the shower scene from Psycho - its the infrasounds used in Paranormal Activity - those deep frequencies that we can't hear but feel - that really - that I think are really interesting!

Does listening to music improve productivity? Here's 8 compelling reasons why it does

It's funny - when we sat down 9 years ago and wrote the business plan for music2work2 we knew that one of the indicators of success would be the arrival of articles that talk about how music can help productivity.  It always puts a smile on my face to read pieces like this.  If you're struggling with someone who says music doesn't have an effect - get them to read this.  but remember - it is all subjective - and even though these studies show a benefit - there are plenty of people for whom music is a terrible distraction - whether its instrumental or not!

#musictoworkto #musictowriteto #musictorunto

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Sound Health - Advanced Brain Technologies

I recently ran across the web site Sound Health - Advanced Brain Technologies. Advanced Brain Technologies is a foundation created by Alex Doman and Brad Boyajian, for the purpose of advancing research, education, and development and access to neurotechnologies that will help people to realize their fullest potential. It is their belief that incorporating Sound Health into your life nourishes mind, body and soul. (Note from Andrew: No Shit!)

They have compiled a series of CDs designed to complement specific activities, such as Concentration, Productivity, Thinking. The music on the CDs are classical pieces, some from the Great Masters and some that were created just for this. Their research gave them the knowledge as to what types of music were effective with the individual activities.(Another note from Andrew: Talking of specific activities check out Sexercise) In addition to the Sound Health section of their work, they have other similar programs such as The Listening Program, BrainBuilder, Music for Babies, and Shelly’s My First Computer Game.

I like the fact that this web site seems to be very thorough; it discusses the research they did prior to forming the foundation, how the musical pieces are chosen for the various activities, and who the participating musicians would be. This is all particularly interesting to me since music2work2 was built on the same premise, that music is good for you and can be helpful in many ways. We spent many hours researching this idea before music2work2 got off the ground.

There are many similarities between Sound Health and music2work2. We both believe that instrumental music is more beneficial than music with lyrics and that the Classical genre is most fittingl. Looking at the notes that accompany each piece of music in the music2work2 catalog, you can see that music2work2 also recognizes the benefit of certain musical pieces with specific activities. In fact, I have been listening to 1218 while writing this post.