Yes, well, we all know this, don’t we? But music offers us far more than a mood-elevating ‘quick fix’ – although that’s no bad thing!

It is well known that babies in the womb respond to music, and it is thought that babies are born with pre-determined musical preferences, rooted in the music to which they responded positively before birth. As early as four months, babies will turn away from dissonant sounds in a melody, and turn towards sounds which they perceive to be melodic.

My Mother has always told me that before I was even a year old, I would not sleep until she had played me an Elvis record. Now, it is probable that this should be filed under ‘myths and legends of the Keen family’, but I don’t doubt that it is based in truth.

As a singing teacher, I am often told by my students that they still love the music that their parents played to them as children. That same music also seems to have a profound effect on their own singing voices, and how they interpret melody, even if music was not a central part of their young lives. It is a regular and very pleasant side-effect of teaching to watch students coming to their lessons, perhaps after a hard day at work, or experiencing stress in their lives, leaving my studio feeling confident, happy and uplifted. Now, that is not down to me – it is the act of singing that engenders that elevation of mood.

There are many easy ways in which we can use music to improve aspects of our health and well-being. To begin with the simplest of ideas, music is of course a mood—altering commodity; so if you are feeling particularly worried, anxious or stressed, then take just ten minutes to sit down somewhere and listen to some carefully-chosen, calming and relaxing music. This could be anything from Mozart’s Eine Kleine Nachtmusic or Tchaikovsky’s Polonaise to specially-written ‘new age’ relaxation music, or your favourite pop or jazz standards. It really doesn’t matter what music you choose, only that you find the music calming and peaceful, and that you take the time to actually sit and listen to it, without doing anything else.

Many people make the mistake of not taking some genuine ‘time out’ from everything, even if it’s only ten minutes. If you give yourself those ten minutes – and really, the world will not stop turning if you take them – then you can ‘re-charge’ your mental and emotional batteries enough to cope better with the rest of the day. During that time you can also slow down your breathing, and lower both your heart rate and your blood pressure – just by listening to a few minutes of relaxing music!
If on the other hand you are feeling a little low and de-energised, then putting on some lively, vibrant and exciting music will have an uplifting effect. Choose something that makes you want to tap your foot, or hum, or sing along, or dance!  If you choose something that has really happy, positive memories attached to it, then so much the better. Using music to change your mood is so easy to do – even music played in the background will have a positive effect, provided that it is music that you have chosen specifically for these purposes. However, the effects have been shown to be greater if you listen ‘actively’ rather than ‘passively’. In other words, music played in the background is good, but music that’s given your full attention is better!