Of course, I don't know that's what it's doing. All I CAN say is that there are certain pieces of music that have the effect of making my brain EFFICIENT.
I suppose I could play them all the time...
"Listening to music stimulates the whole brain through diverse neural circuitry that stimulate better brain metabolism," says Maximised Living doctor, David Jockers. (Maximised Living doctor? Uh?)
Here is the Number One Piece of Efficient Music for me:
(I apologise to people looking at this on an iPad which doesn't support Flash, if that proves to be a problem. Blooming Apple!)
I listen to music a lot when I'm working - and have certain things that I play if I want to create a particular mood but all the time I'm finding new stuff that I love.
As a young thing, it was Pick of The Pops and Radio 1 and Top of the Pops - but now - how do I discover music? I'll tell you - and it ISN'T mentioned in this article from the Telegraph.
The latest, greatest source for me is BBC TV trailers. The people who put them together are nothing short of genius. The musicians' agents, or whoever decides to allow the music to be used, are Very Clever Marketers.
Recently - thanks to the trailer for the new drama series The Village, I've discovered Beck Goldsmith.(the wonders of Google searches!)
And a few weeks ago - my Number One Favourite So Far This Year - for BBC Drama's general trailer:
Tom Odell.
Keeps me alive, keeps me young, keeps me inspired and uplifted, discovering new things.
...said Bono, from behind his dark glasses, inside, on a dull day.
Can music change people? I know it can change moods. This is what livened me up this morning.
First movement of the English Folk Song Suite. I'm always fascinated to know if what makes ME feel cheerful and raring to get on with the day has the same effect on other people. Is it something inherent in the music or...is it something inherent in me?
I have a hero in the world of music and I think his use of music as a tool for change is phenomenal. He's called Gareth Malone.
(No, he's not 12 years old, but 36)
His new TV series, "The Choir: Sing While You Work," sees him go into four different work
places – an airport, a hospital, a postal depot and a water processing
plant – to form new choirs from a cross-section of staff. It is, in my opinion, the second best thing on TV at the moment. And Gareth Malone is the best people-person, motivator, self-esteem builder, talent-nurturer I have ever had the privilege to witness.
YES, cynical people amongst my readers, it IS reality TV and yes, OF COURSE, the producers edit, and could be accused of manipulating scenes carefully to put across the desired message and tug at our heart strings...
...but honestly, last night it was magical to see the joy on Royal Mail employees faces when they'd performed and a delight to see the difference the choir had made (maybe temporarily, cynics, but what's wrong with a bit of optimism?) to staff morale right across the organisation.
Perhaps music itself can't change people but it is, for sure, a powerful catalyst for changing communities.
Anni Fryd Lyngstad - of ABBA
fame said this. (well, I put in the 'Discuss') Is listening to Abba a guilty pleasure? Okay, I'm going to say it - 'I LIKE Abba.' There. Got it off my chest.
Particularly their costumes...mmmm!
Back to Discuss. I disagree. Here is my contradictory statement:
"The kind of mood I'm in depends very much on the music I have just listened to."
As an example, THIS music always makes me feel efficient and then I AM efficient.
The track is called Palladio by Karl Jenkins and yes, it was used on a advert for De Beers' diamonds but I'd already bought it, so there.
Then, on the way home from the yard this morning, I was soothed into serenity by THIS: (For once, YouTube let me down and the best recording I found is a guitar solo not piano, but you'll get the idea.)
fame said this. (well, I put in the 'Discuss') Is listening to Abba a guilty pleasure? Okay, I'm going to say it - 'I LIKE Abba.' There. Got it off my chest.
by Karl Jenkins and yes, it was used on a advert for De Beers' diamonds but I'd already bought it, so there.
by Peter Maxwell Davies