5 Amazing ways in which music moulds our perceptions

How many times did it happen that while browsing books in the bookstore, or stopping down to sip some chai in a local roadside dhaba, did you hear a music that you hummed with your friends in your last trekking tour, transported you back to those hills and mountains again? As soon as you hear the music, instantly you forget the dust of the road or the pesky manager of the bookstore and grow nostalgic and sweetly happy reminiscing of those golden moments that you had spent. Well that is the magical effect music can have on our body and soul. Your whole world takes a dip in the cool pool of memories and comes out afresh as you keep hearing the tune. You can’t imagine what a fantastic mind orgasm you manage as the music lulls around.

Visual perceptions get changed with music:

If a music lover gets haunted by the numbers sung by a singer whose genre has been human pain, loss of love and in general worldly sufferings, then he or she would tend to associate discontent and usual unhappiness with people around them. The lyrics and music of the song will have such an effect over the brain that the individual would start perceiving the sad side of life, they would unknowingly see how unhappy a person have been and what he has suffered. The vice versa is also true, if they listen to happier tunes then they would get to view individuals as happy and gay.

It makes the brain want more:

In reality people tend to ward off anything unhappy, embarrassing and unpleasant in their lives but, when it comes to music, even sad words and sad tunes can make us press repeat. Both sad and happy tones can make us want them more. An ornamental note named “appoggiatura” strikes the usual melody of music to create a sound that is dissonant which in turn creates tension in the brain. With the return of the note to the usual melody the tension gets released bringing about a feel good factor. If back to back such appoggiaturas occur then a vicious cycle of tension and release occurs provoking a stronger reaction. And this could also lead to tears and gooseflesh, and an individual tend to love the music irrespective of how sad or happy the note is.

Expectation increases:

As music has a profound effect on how our moods vary with the kind of music we are listening. The brain is always in the process of comparing the data that comes via the optic nerves from the eyes, with what the brain already knows about the world and expects to see. The outcome of this process is what we finally experience in reality. So the brain builds up expectations based on experience as well as what it sees depending upon the mood of the brain as influenced by musical notes.

Structurally complicated music can make the brain work better:

Music that has an unusually complicated structure can give different pulses to the brain. If affects the cognition better than any other kind of music. There have been reports where people say that listening to complicated music like jazz make them perform their calculations, analysis or general Math better.

Musical scales affect the moods significantly:

The way we perceive musical notes cast a significant effect on the brain. The up notes or ascending notes lifts up the mood while down notes or descending scales make the brain associate with “down” going visuals and hence mood.