Have you ever noticed how a cheerful tune can instantly lift your spirits, or how a mournful melody can send shivers down your spine? The power of music to evoke emotions is undeniable, but did you know that specific frequencies within music might play a key role in its emotional impact?
Let me elaborate a little on the well-known song “hatina musha panyika” and what it does to you instantly. Some of you may recall the Rangariro song by Noel Zembe, which goes, “Hama zvayanyarara.” Alternatively, we may discuss the Zimbabwean song that is always played after a hero dies and everyone knows what comes next. Yet, the music is what matters, not just the depressing tunes. The list is vast, and I know you have your playlists ready, but let me clarify what music is. To start, the song “Ma Ex Ese Gaffa” by Winky Dee or Chiname by Jah Prayzah will make you feel happy and joyful.the list is endless but lets jump into it.
Sound waves are vibrations that travel through the air or other mediums, reaching our ears and being interpreted by our brains. But it’s not just about hearing; it’s about feeling, too. Research shows that certain frequencies and rhythms can elicit emotional responses. For instance, a study published in the journal “Emotion” found that low-frequency sounds might be more likely to induce sadness, while high-frequency sounds can invoke happiness or excitement.
The Science of Sound and Feeling
Music is a complex tapestry of frequencies, rhythms, and harmonies. Here’s how the frequency of sound waves might influence your mood:
- Brainwave Entrainment: Our brains naturally produce different types of brainwaves associated with various states of mind. Slower frequencies are linked to relaxation and meditation, while faster frequencies are connected with alertness and focus. Music with certain frequencies may encourage our brainwaves to sync up, influencing our emotional state.
- Cultural Associations: Through repeated exposure, we develop associations between tempos and sounds with specific emotions. A fast tempo in a major key often equates to joy, while a slower tempo in a minor key can evoke sadness.
- Personal Memories: Music has the profound ability to connect with our memories. Hearing a song tied to a particular experience can transport us back emotionally, making us feel nostalgic, happy, or bittersweet.
Slower music lowers heart rate, but faster music increases arterial blood pressure and heart rate, according to studies. Music does much more than slow heart rate. It can sharpen mental abilities and is a means to relieve tension by increasing the release of endorphins by the body. Music produces powerful effects on the brain (one should not forget the antipodal model role), promotes the development of cognitive abilities, verbal skills and emotional intelligence. Musical training has a profound, positive effect on the brain for the cognitive functions, and IQ results and specific skills (such as literacy, visual, verbal and mathematical memory) are improved.
Music can create better readers. Brain responses during music performing improve the same communication skills needed for speaking, reading, vocabulary and pronunciation. Music is also a whole different language through which communication is made between it and the brain. It develops emotional intelligence. Latest studies have shown that musical training improves the child’s ability to express emotion through sound. When music is taught in the classroom, it helps children to acquire useful skills for listening and concentration, provokes their patience and perseverance, which are important for the future and coping with life’s problems.
Suvorov, a Ukrainian cyber specialist, shared his fears that already seem to be a reality, “We have every reason to talk about „scissors” between the emotional and intellectual development of a person. Intellectual development often overtakes the emotional one. The danger lies not in the fact that machines will begin to think like people, but that people will begin to think like machines. If the child is not brought up emotionally, it will become a robot. It will cease to dream, love and empathise.”
The renowned educator Suhomlinski noticed that juvenile delinquents living in detention centres did not like serious music. “We think this is not accidental”, Anatoly Zak, a child psychologist, and Lev Madorskiy, a music school teacher, wrote in their article “Music education and health”, “Classical music affects positively the spiritual and emotional nature of man. At the same time, the lost interest of young people to serious music and increased juvenile delinquency worldwide are parts of one and the same chain.”
Therefore, music saves literally – not only at an emotional level for spiritual elevation and other virtues, but it has an exceptionally strong anti-criminal effect. Neurologists (Neuroscience 2013 conference of scientists and neurologists in San Diego) found that musical training increased brain volume and strengthened communication between brain areas! The knowledge of a musical instrument changes the way the brain interprets and integrates a wide range of sensory information.
Frequencies and Their Potential Emotional Effects
While research is ongoing, the following musical elements are often associated with these effects:
- High Frequencies: These can create a sense of alertness, focus, and even mild agitation.
- Low Frequencies: These promote relaxation, calmness, and sometimes even introspection or melancholy.
- Minor Keys: Often evoke feelings of sadness, longing, or introspection.
- Major Keys: Typically associated with happiness, optimism, and energy.
Harnessing Music’s Power
Understanding the potential connection between frequencies and mood lets you turn music into a tool for emotional wellbeing:
- Energy Boost: Start your day with upbeat, fast-paced music to increase alertness.
- Stress Relief: Unwind with slow, calming melodies in the evenings.
- Focus and Concentration: Explore instrumental music with steady rhythms to aid concentration.
Cultural influences on sound perception
It’s fascinating to consider how cultural background influences our emotional response to sounds. Research published in “Palgrave Communications” explores how different cultures interpret the emotional content of music, suggesting that our upbringing and cultural exposure can shape how we emotionally react to sounds.
A person’s auditory ecology is determined, in part, by the noise levels experienced and how this noise affects their ability to extract behaviorally relevant auditory information from their immediate environment.
Cultural diversity is recognized across nations with regional distinctions in values and virtues, which makes it difficult for people to truly empathize with another’s culture, therein being an obstacle in gaining accurate understanding of the other. Noting this undeniable barrier, music is of great significance in that it is an artistic channel for us to put ourselves into others’ shoes. (Hallam 2015) Listening to music about others’ stories and feelings bridges through differences and misunderstanding among people, communities and nations.
Through listening to others’ musical creations, we can gain better insights into the values, rationales and concerns of other cultures. It is a remarkable experience when music bonds people with a resonance in which similarity and empathy maintains trusting and sincere relationships. The power of music is infinite as it further connects the world and brings depth and quality to world cultural diversification, preservation and exploration.
Music influences our life greatly by acting as an archive of world cultural evolution. Since music could be a presentation of personal feelings and interpretations about social, economic and cultural issues of the times, a collection of it illustrates the society where we live in the past and present. Lady Gaga, a well-known American singer, has published her song “til it happens to you” which reflects her personal concern about sexual harassment towards woman.
The healing potential of sound
The therapeutic use of sound waves, known as sound therapy, has gained attention for its potential to heal and soothe. Techniques like guided meditation with soundscapes or music therapy sessions have shown promising results in improving mental health outcomes, as evidenced by research in the “International Journal of Nursing Studies.”
However, certain music can have a counterproductive effect. “Avoid music that has harmful effects”, Pythagoras advised. Music invades our lives forcefully from TV screens and at public places in shops and buses. Some types of music have a harmful effect on our body comparable with the use of drugs, alcohol, cigarettes. But if a man can give up drugs, alcohol, cigarettes by one’s free will, music is imposed in a compulsory way and has a lasting effect. As there are bans on certain words, similarly there should be a ban on certain sounds. And particularly, those which, according to Pythagoras, have a “harmful effect” on man.
It is no coincidence that around concert halls where hard rock is played are present law enforcement officers. And it is no coincidence that after Nova Rock music festival patients with mental disorders increase drastically. After such “concerts” the teenager audience whose mentality is easily vulnerable, becomes highly aggressive. The music that can be described as harmful is characterized by its frequent dissonance, lack of form and irregular rhythm.
Any loud music leads to nervous breakdown. The arteries begin to shrink and obstruct blood flow to the heart at sound level of 70 decibels. In recent years, more and more widely spread are musical subgenres in which the number of beats per minute reaches 240, or 4 GHz!!! Such music lowers the frequency of vibration of the body which leads to a reduction of awareness or perception of reality. In other words, people who listen to such music lose control of their thoughts, emotions and behaviour. According to Professor B. Rauch, listening to hard rock leads to the release of the so-called stress hormones that erase a significant part of information from the brain.
The Takeaway
While individual responses to music will always vary, there’s compelling evidence that the frequencies woven into musical pieces have the ability to shape our emotional state. The next time you put on your favorite playlist, pay attention to not just the melody and lyrics, but the underlying frequencies and how they make you feel.
Conclusion
The relationship between sound waves and emotions is a testament to the complexity of human perception and experience. As we’ve explored, sound can evoke a wide range of emotional responses influenced by factors like frequency, rhythm, cultural background, and personal associations. The power of sound to affect our emotions offers a fascinating glimpse into the human psyche, as well as potential pathways for therapeutic interventions. As research continues to unravel the mysteries of this connection, it reminds us of the profound impact that sound can have on our emotional well-being.