I hope you are staying cool during these Dog Days of Summer. Mrs. B and I had a broken air conditioner during last week’s record-setting heat wave in Virginia, and thus camped out on a mattress in the basement, which was kind of fun, in an un-fun sort of way.

Camping in general isn’t something Mrs. B and I have done a lot over the years. Neither of us did it much growing up, in our families of origin. In my case, this is because my mom was convinced that campgrounds were full of hippies on LSD waiting for us to fall asleep to sneak into our tent and cut our throats.

Mrs. B and I tried several times as adults, especially early on in our marriage when we went on vacation, mostly because money was too tight to spend on fancy motels (the really nice ones with the empty swimming pools and coin-operated Magic Fingers that shook the bed). However, camping was always awkward because in those days, I couldn’t bring myself to go a single day without practicing my French horn. Very normal and healthy, I know. But playing a horn out in the woods would inevitably create the impression for other campers that a band of English nobles was about to ride through on horses, chasing a fox.

Here is a camping photo from when I was 27, practicing my horn at a campground in the Pyrenees. It looks like I was posing for the cover of what would surely be the worst-selling Harlequin Romance novel of all time: “Ravished by a Malnourished French Hornist.”

I’ve moved on from my obsessive first profession in music, but I still love and am fascinated by music. And that’s today’s newsletter topic.

We have plenty of evidence that music is one of the greatest ways to understand life more deeply. Indeed, our brains are ideally designed to enjoy music, as scientists showed in a 2018 study.1 We’re even hardwired to use music to help us heal. For example, when the brains of patients with Parkinson’s disease are stimulated by hearing a rhythmic piece, their symptoms may diminish and they are able to walk more naturally.2

Neuroscientists have also conducted experiments on the effects of music on human emotions. In general, music amplifies positive and negative emotions most under two circumstances. First, when it’s performed live. Researchers asked participants to listen to classical music in three ways: live, prerecorded, and in an MTV-style video.3 Using sensors attached to the subjects’ scalps, the scholars detected significantly more brain activity for the in-person performance, indicating that this elicited the most engagement and focus in the listeners. Second, when one listens by oneself.4 In a 2018 experiment, researchers showed that happy music seems happier and sad music seems sadder when you listen to it alone, as opposed to listening with others.5

If you want to use music more strategically to heighten your emotional experiences and gain a deeper sense of meaning and self-understanding, here are a few ideas to consider.

  1. Decide what you want from your music. The research indicates that a trade-off takes place between using music to bond socially and using it to intensify emotions. If you want the former result, listen with friends; if you want the latter outcome, listen by yourself.
  2. Follow a recipe. The effects of music depend to a large extent on its underlying ingredients. You could go study at the local conservatory to learn more about these elements, but the shortcut is just to create a catalog of songs you like. Pay attention to how each one makes you feel and write down its characteristics, in your own words; then look for patterns.
  3. Play it yourself. One 2020 study looked at the well-being effects of playing music and found them to be significant and positive.6 Take a few lessons on your favorite instrument and see for yourself. I should note, however, that the researchers on that study included a comparison group of knitters—and they derived even more happiness than the musicians. Perhaps the ideal formula for bliss is to listen to music while knitting.

See you next week,

Arthur

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P.S. If you want a deeper dive on music’s happiness benefits, check out my latest episode of Office Hours, where I cover this topic in detail—and check out my playlist here.

When I was a boy, I remember visiting my grandparents on each side a few times a year. My grandfathers were both good and respectable men. I would NEVER have ridden either one like a pony. Then again, maybe these rowdy gents are just yearning to camp outdoors, where they will tame many a wild beast.

References‍
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​​[1] Sharma, S.R, Silbersweig, D. (2018). Setting the Stage: Neurobiological Effects of Music on the Brain. Crossroads of Music and Medicine, 6.​
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[2] Hughes JR, Fino JJ. (2000). The Mozart Effect: Distinctive Aspects of the Music — A Clue to Brain Coding? Clinical Electroencephalography, 31(20): 94-103.​

[3]UK Research and Innovation (2023). What makes live music special? Medium.​

[4] Sutherland, M.E., Grewe, O., Egermann, H., Nagel, F., Kopiez, R. and Altenmüller, E. (2009), The Influence of Social Situations on Music Listening. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1169: 363-367.​

[5] Zhang, J., Yang, T., Bao, Y. et al. (2018.) Sadness and happiness are amplified in solitary listening to music. Cognitive Processing 19, 133–139.​

[6] Lamont, A., Ranaweera, N.A. (2020). Knit One, Play One: Comparing the Effects of Amateur Knitting and Amateur Music Participation on Happiness and Wellbeing. Applied Research Quality Life 15, 1353–1374.
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