What are your music playlists?
I have completed all my data-gathering for my doctoral thesis and now it’s down to analysis and writing. I am starting to appreciate how important music is to my process, especially having to work around my time engaging and caring for my darling nine-month old daughter. My supervisors have been so supportive and have pointed out that raising children while writing papers meant that there was hardly any time to procrastinate any more. I find myself writing in between my daughter’s naps, structuring thesis outlines on my phone while waiting for her during child care orientation, and so on. I started with just having one “Ember’s writing music” playlist and then I found myself needing different kinds of music for different types of music. I have Jane Austen-esque music for when I am composing words for this blog. When I’m trying to re-organise spreadsheets and data, or when I need to revise references and citations and don’t necessarily need to be thinking I put on music I can sing to. Sometimes they’re guilty pleasure type pop songs or the Beatles, or playlists from different decades or sometimes funk and soul classics. When I’m writing for a deadline, or writing with purpose, I have a playlist of instrumental music from movie soundtracks. Sometimes it’s from the Godfather, or Legends of the Fall or Cinema Paradiso or even Indiana Jones, among many others. I also created a playlist I listen to when I am trying to boost my confidence prior to a presentation or a talk.
Music may be the activity that prepared our pre-human ancestors for speech communication and for the very cognitive, representational flexibility necessary to become humans.Daniel Levitin
Music has also been a fundamental part of everyday activities with my little one. I have a playlist of nursery rhymes played classically by symphony orchestras and another playlist of songs I play in the morning for her which consists mostly of the Wiggles, Playschool, Disney and various other nursery rhymes we can sing to. Of course I also have a playlist of lullabies or music for when we’re winding down for a sleep or a nap. I also have a playlist of just a whole bunch of different genres of music which I hope she learns to appreciate as she grows up and finds the ones that makes her spirit dance.
These are all playlists on top of your standard lists for workouts, road trips, house parties, etcetera. What are your music playlists? How does music enhance your life?
Music imprints itself on the brain deeper than any other human experience. Music evokes emotion and emotion can bring with it memory, Music brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.Oliver Sacks