Music is not just the beauty of sounds, but music has some power to affect people’s emotion and behavior. First, I thought music could change people’s minds, because when we listen to music, the organization of sounds makes people happy. However, music has more than just bringing happiness to people, music is a kind of art, also I would say music is also a kind of behavior to commemorate people or things.Many times, we like to express our memories through music, because of the power of music. From the reading of musking, we know music is a verb, and in the post I like to expand my understanding of musicking.
Remembering there was a zoom meeting, Songs by Heart, the person Katie, who led the elders from a senior center to sing through many classic songs. I did not think much when I watched them singing at the beginning, I only noticed that they were happy, and that made me happy too. Everyone was in the mood of singing, and they were sharing their voices, music created happiness for everybody, I could feel it even from the screen. Seeing those elders reminded me of my grandfather, who was passionate about music, because of his passion for music, his grandchildren grew up with music. We all played some instruments, sometimes we played as a small orchestra, and everytime he listened to us playing music, he would be so happy and proud. Each performance for my grandfather, I felt closer to him and cousins , and I actually got quite a lot of confidence from playing instruments. Music is not just playing beautiful sounds, but it has positive influences on our mind, it unites people to a grateful community, and it influences our emotions.We could also easily see that from the video of Mr. Rogers used music to unite and influence people’s minds, he sang the song to Jeff (the kid who has disability), and the music brought people who have similar situations together, and it encouraged them.
Moreover, music not only unites people, but it can even bring up people’s memories. From Song by Hearts, most of the time was full of happiness, until one song came up. I am not sure the name of the song, but there was an elder who suddenly changed his emotion from joyful to sad. He was sitting alone, stopping to sing, and wiping his tears out. I was thinking the song may be meaningful, and the elder must have some stories with the song. I was also touched by seeing the old man cry, because I also have similar experiences of them, and I believe that everyone is about the same. The song that you haven’t listened to for a while, but it is somewhere deep in your mind, suddenly, you may hear it from the radio, and all the stories and images refresh in your brain. I believe this does not only happen to me but everyone. As I Mentioned earlier, my cousins and I liked to play instruments to please my grandfather, and we always played his favorite classic and old songs for him. However, my cousins and I went to different places to study, so we had not played music together for him after that. The last time we played together for my grandfather was at his funeral, because we knew that he would be so happy if he listened to those music. While playing those music, I could not stop crying, because those music just keep reminding me about the memories with my grandfather. I wished he could listen to the music in person again, and say he is proud of us. Even though he passed away for years, I still think about him when I heard the music that he liked, and I will never forget the memories with him. Because of music, the memories, and people would exist in our mind.
Seeing the elder crying and connecting with my experience of grandpa, I am curious how music can be that powerful. I researched some information about the relationships between music and memories. There actually exists some bonds. Dr. Jakubowski said: “In Alzheimer’s research, it has been shown that self-selected music can bring back quite self-defining memories, in comparison to just experimenter-selected music that is supposedly popular from a certain era, or compared to a silent condition, where you just ask people to bring back memories.” This information is definitely not only about people who have Alzheimer, but everyone including the elder and I.
Overall, we know that music has that power to refresh people’s memories, and those memories are full of emotions. That is probably one of the reasons that people enjoy music, because music is always meaningful. For example, the elder was probably thinking about his wife or friends, also, the music is definitely priceless and full of memories with my grandfather. Due to music, the things and people who lived in the past can exist for a longer period of time in our heart.
