The power of music

I’m going to begin this post with a question.

How many of you notice that you get into different moods when you listen to different kinds of music?

For instance, do you realise that when you’re feeling heartbroken and happen to listen to a love song, the feeling of depression just multiplies a 100 fold? Also, when you’re feeling sleepy, you might listen to loud music with strong, heavy beats to get that additional rush?

That is the power of music, the power of sound.

Sound has been used in many different instances to control the mood of an audience. Music is used in movies to swing the audience between states. The classic example of successful use of sound was in the movie ‘Jaws’. Everytime a shark was about to appear, the same music would play and then ‘wham!’ the shark would appear!

Here’s a thought to think about.

You most probably know that different sounds can put you in different states. How do you think you will benefit if you used sound to constantly keep yourself in your most resourceful state?

Let’s do a quick activity to determine the kinds of sounds that will put you in your best state for peak performance!

1) Think of 4 different resourceful states you must have to perform at your peak.
Eg. For me, I have

i)    feeling powerful
ii)    feeling happy
iii)   feeling loved
iv)   feeling motivated

Quick, do step 1 now! Once you have your 4 states, you are ready to move on to step 2.
2) I need you to think of different sounds to represent the 4 different states listed. In other words, what kind of sound do you listen to, to get yourself motivated, to get yourself to feel powerful, etc.
Eg. For me,
i)    people clapping
ii)    listening to the song ‘Be my girl’ by Jet
iii)    listening to the song ‘Have yourself a merry lil christmas’
iv)    having a crowd of 1000 people saying ‘COME ON!!’

Once you’re done with step 2, give yourself a pat on the back! You are halfway through the process!

3) Once you have all the different sounds, you need to know where these sounds originate from. Are they coming from the top? Is it a kind of surround sound? Are the people shouting at you straight in the face?

In short, you can place your sounds in 6 positions. Front, back, left, right, top and/or bottom.

4) The last thing you need to do is imagine all these sounds coming at you - all at once! Then slowly increase the volume until it becomes deafening and then tadaa! You will suddenly find yourself in a super resourceful state with all the drive and motivation.

Let me know what this does for you! OUT!