An Introduction to Music Psychology
What is Music Psychology? Music psychology is the combination of psychology and musicology. We can expand this into many other fields of study. In physics, everything exists in a state of vibration. Sound normally vibrates between 20 and 20,000 cycles per second. This is the normal realm of vibrations that can be perceived as music. In biology, hearing, vision, emotions, motor skills, and physical responses are all controlled by the brain. In music, bio music is the study of sounds that are created by animals. This includes but is not limited to birdsongs and dolphin’s singing to communicate to others in their pod. Music has always been in people’s lives and through the study of anthropology, we can see evidence of ancient musical practices. This practice of music is documented by ethnomusicologists along with how music is perceived around the world.
Education in music is extremely important for mental development. Lowell Mason believed in this strongly and convinced the Boston school board to place music in the curriculum. In psychology, there are many topics that are studied in relation to music. Psychologists look at the behavioral, cognitive, developmental, and humanistic effects that music brings to the mind. Within sociology, similar to ethnomusicology, there is an element of response to music surrounding different cultures. Lastly, physics brings in the study of acoustics and how the mind interprets musical sounds. The study of music psychology starts with the ancient Greeks. Such philosophers as Pythagoras, Plato, and Aristotle did experiments around the mono chord and the foundation of music theory. Carl Seashore (1866-1949) has been named the father of music psychology due to his various levels of study in psychology and how it affects music. A good real life example of music psychology is from the book Musicophilla by Oliver Sacks. Within this book, the author discusses many different cases in which individuals experience life altering traumas and as they heal they discover this intense need to listen to classical music or learn how to play classical music.
Within the subject topics discussed above, philosophy is a major factor in how music psychology is perceived in society. There are many philosophical issues within music psychology. Philosophies based around the issue in music psychology are love, play, religion, and many others that do propose questions about the philosophical need for music in our everyday lives. According to the “Philosophy of Music” from the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, “Music's ability to express emotions are paradigm expressed of emotions,” (plato.stanford.edu). Music does evoke many different things that involve emotional, psychological, and physical responses. The field of Philosophy has been continuing to find out why we respond this way.
