The Powerful Effects of Music on the Mind

WRITERS’ WORLD STORY with Bisi Daniels Blog: www.bisidaniels.com, 08093618000

Just as we don’t have to be chefs to know good food, it doesn’t take only a professional musician to know good music. However, music writing is not an all-comers game. It takes a powerful natural gift and immense skills to write original, soul-touching music. And the results are songs that transform an ordinary day into something magical, even spiritual. Exactly what many people benefit from the songs of great writers and performers like Bob Marley and Fela Anikulapo Kuti. (Great musicians don’t die) Their songs provide solace, release, and strong sensations.

Researchers continue to discover more benefits of good music to the mind. This compilation by Psyblog are some of the magical effects of music.

Music lifts moods
‘Mood management’ is the number one reason people love music. And, all music fans know that music can have a cathartic effect. But, it’s still odd that, for some people, sad music can, under the right circumstances, improve their mood. Why?
According to a study, sad music is enjoyable because it creates an interesting mix of emotions; some negative, some positive.
Crucially, we perceive the negative emotions in the music, but don’t feel them strongly.

Seeing happy faces
One of the effects of music is that it can make you feel different, but as little as 15 seconds of music can change the way you judge the emotions on other people’s faces as well.
A study in 2009 found that a quick blast of happy music made participants perceive other’s faces as happier. The same was true for a snatch of sad music. The biggest effect was seen when people looked at faces with a neutral expression.
In other words: people projected the mood of the music they were listening to onto other people’s faces.

Improve verbal IQ
Practising the piano won’t just improve your musical abilities, it can also improve your visual and verbal skills. A study of 8 to 11-year-olds found that, those who had extra-curricular music classes, developed higher verbal IQ, and visual abilities, in comparison to those with no musical training.) This shows the benefits of learning an instrument are not purely musical, but extend into cognition and visual perception.

Feeling the chills
Have you ever felt chills down your spine while listening to music? According to a study, over 90% of us have. How powerful the effects of music, though, depends on your personality. People who are high in one of the five personality dimensions called ‘openness to experience’ are likely to feel the most chills while listening to music.
In the study, people high in openness to experience were more likely to play a musical instrument, and more likely to rate music as important to them.

The happiness effects of music
One of the effects of music should be feeling the chills; if not, perhaps you should try a little harder. A recent study contradicts the old advice that actively trying to feel happier is useless.
In research by Ferguson and Sheldon, participants who listened to upbeat classical compositions by Aaron Copland, while actively trying to feel happier, felt their moods lift more than those who passively listened to the music.
This suggests that engaging with music, rather than allowing it to wash over us, gives the experience extra emotional power.

Singing together brings us together
Since music is often a social activity, making it together can help bring us together.
A study of almost one thousand Finnish pupils who took part in extended music classes, found they reported higher satisfaction at school in almost every area, even those not related to the music classes themselves (Eerola & Eerola, 2013)

Explaining the results, the lead researcher Päivi-Sisko Eerola, said:
“Singing in a choir and ensemble performance are popular activities at extended music classes. Other studies have established that people find it very satisfying to synchronize with one another. That increases affiliation within the group and may even make people like each other more than before.”

Effects of music on heart disease
Music can help deal with the stress and anxiety associated with having treatment for coronary heart disease.
A review of 23 studies covering almost 1,500 patients found that listening to music reduced heart rate, blood pressure and anxiety in heart disease patients.

The colour of music
Music naturally makes people think of certain colours. Across different cultures, people pair particular types of music with particular colours.
In a study, people from both Mexico and the US showed remarkable similarities in connecting duller, darker colours with sadder pieces of music and lighter, more vivid colours with happier music.
A follow-up study showed that these music-to-colour associations were seen because of the emotional content of the music.

Babies are born to dance!
Infants as young as five-months-old respond rhythmically to music and seem to find it more interesting than speech.
In a study by Zentner and Eerola, the babies spontaneously danced to all different types of music, and those that were most in time also smiled the most.
Maybe the effects of music really are in our genes!

Amazon Books Releases Photo Documentary on Lagos City
Amazon Books has released worldwide, the “Lagos in Motion: Photo Documentary of Africa’s Largest Megacity” in both Amazon Kindle tablets and paperback versions.

The worldwide release dates are:
Amazon America: From August 6, 2016.
Amazon Europe: From August 10, 2016.
Expanded Distribution channels: From August 30 – October 30, 2016.
The “Lagos in Motion” photo documentary is the book edition of the documentary film that will be shown on Afrinolly to more than 92 million people using the internet on all the GSM networks in Nigeria.

It will also be distributed by Dotstudio Pro of America for VOD, AVOD and SVOD worldwide. The documentary will be on cable TV networks in selected countries.

“Lagos in Motion Photo Documentary On Africa’s Largest Megacity is a must have for everyone who wants to know more about the most dynamic city in Africa and the heartbeat of the continent,” said Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima, the author and producer/director of the documentary film.

This is Lagos in 2016, the Golden Jubilee of Lagos State.
The Lagos, the famous architect, Rem Koolhaas called “an exploding city” in his Harvard Project on the City for one of the first groundbreaking interactive documentary films.

“What is the Brazilian connection to Lagos?
What happened to the Brazilian Quarters in Lagos?
Why did the Portuguese explorers name it after their famous Lagos in Portugal?
What is the “Conspiracy of Lagos”?
See the “never say die” Igbo Obioma itinerant street tailor still in business since the 1970s to date and featured in a documentary for the first time.

See the Hausa “Mai Ruwa” street water supplier on the move.
See the white woman jogging and striding alone on the road in Ikoyi.
See the happy millennials having fun at the shopping malls and unwinding at the beach.

See the Mountain of Fire and Miracles (MFM) Sunday Market for the first time in a documentary.
Lagos has changed over the years since the colonial era to the post colonial period with the influx of people from different parts of Nigeria and the world and they all come with their peculiar cultures like the Hausas from the North and the Igbos from the East.

According to Chima, “Documenting the changes is very important for the knowledge of history and the benefits of the legacies for posterity. A new generation will not know about the ways of life of the old generation without any document of it in print or electronic media for them to see. There are magical and precious moments you can capture on camera as they occur which you cannot see again. Even if it is a regular daily activity in the same particular place or spot, it will never be exactly the same every day, because there will be something different the next time you see it.

“Landmarks may remain for years and decades, but may have been renovated or totally removed and in such situations, reconstructions will be required to capture the past environment and reenactments are necessary when producing a historical documentary film if there is no available footage.

The famous Falomo Shopping Mall on Awolowo Road in Ikoyi was totally demolished last year and we are only left with our memories of the popular Bata footwear store, Glendora and Bestseller bookshops and Swedish-Nigerian Aino Oni-Okpaku’s famous Quintessence Arts and Crafts Gallery. The Sandgrouse Market in Lafiaji on Lagos Island is also gone and will be replaced by a new one like the Tejuosho Market in Yaba.

The Bar Beach on Victoria Island is now replaced by the construction of the Eko Atlantic City!
Chima says, “The sights and sounds of Lagos I am documenting today will be different from the sights and sounds of Lagos in the future. There were no BRT Lanes until the former Governor of Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu introduced the Lagos Bus Rapid Transit System and opened the first phase on March 17, 2008.

“Lagos in Motion: Sights and Sounds of Africa’s Lagos Megacity” is the first of three documentary films on Lagos and will be followed by “Lagos in Celebration” on social events and festivities and “Lagos is Working” on Lagosians at work on land, sea and air, from traders on the streets and markets to factory workers and office workers to show the dynamic manpower making Lagos the commercial capital of Africa’s largest economy and one of the most resilient cities in the world in motion picture.

––Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima who lives in Lagos, is the leading writer on Nollywood, Publisher/Editor of the NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® series and one of the most popular travel reviewers on Trip Advisor.