The Power of Music
The first 8 notes of The Dance.
The first six notes of Take Five.
The first four notes of Friends In Low Places or Oye Como Va.
The first three notes of Smoke On the Water.
The first chord of Hard Day’s Night.
Did you hear those songs in your head as you read the descriptions of the first notes of each? Do the opening moments any of those iconic songs instantly take you back to a moment in your life as fast as Elizabeth Montgomery’s nose scrunch in Bewitched?
Music is a powerful thing. Notes, chords and lyrics tap into our emotions. A song can be a time machine, transporting you back to a concert, a first date, a wedding, a prom. Music might lead to laughing, crying or dancing. Your favorite songs can wrap around you like a warm blanket, providing a little security during the uncertainty of what’s going on right now. A song you hate can cut you like a knife.
“Happy Birthday” may be the first song many of us hear. Songs our parents liked when we were kids instantly take us back to our youth, hopefully to good times in our youth.
The teen years are an emotional time for most of us and specific songs that were part of our lives at that time can switch on both positive and negative emotions in the first few notes. The violin and guitar strums that open “To Sir With Love” by Lulu immediately take my mind to all the little details of the a specific first date; the girl, the movie, the dinner at an Italian restaurant, the couple we went with, the car we were in. “Leaving On A Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul & Mary is a beautiful song but it’s torture to me because it takes me back to the first temporary separation from that same girl a year later.
Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” puts me on the dance floor at a college fraternity party. Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” or songs from “Oklahoma” take me to frequent explorations of my Dad’s record collection.
I began my 45-year radio career as a DJ; Led Zeppelin and David Bowie songs put me in between turntables and microphones at my first radio station in New Orleans. Songs by Gloria Estefan and Neil Diamond create images of the Baltimore skyline view from the studio of the radio station where I returned to DJ-ing after several years of behind-the-scenes radio jobs. The first four notes of “Friends In Low Places” and the first eight notes of “The Dance”, both by Garth Brooks, conjure up images of a cluttered studio on Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC where I first fell in love with Country music.
Do you have similar experiences? Do specific songs transport you to specific parts of your life?
I’m sure there are studies about why certain notes or chord progressions elicit certain feelings. Minor chords feel dark or somber, for example. I tend to over analyze, so maybe I should just listen to music and let it take me where it takes me.
Song structure is interesting. To me anyway. Blues is my favorite: three chords and the truth. Country music is four chords and a story. I think songs by Yes or Dave Matthews tend to be complex artful explorations like paintings by Jackson Pollock or Wassily Kandinsky.
A John Denver song takes you on a mountain hike. The Beachboys take you surfing. Steppenwolf gets your motor running. Earth Wind & Fire, dancing.
Lyrics can paint pictures and tell stories, leading to love, laughter, hate, sadness, joy.
“The first time we kissed, I lost my legs.”
“Baby, this could be our last first kiss. History in the making”
“Something’s happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.”
“War, good god,
What is it good for,
Absolutely nothin’.”
“Come on people now,
Smile on your brother,
Everybody get together,
Try to love one another right now.”
Did you sing along as you read those lyrics? Were you instantly somewhere else for a few seconds? Christopher Lloyd’s DeLorean in Back To the Future isn’t as powerful a time machine a song lyric, is it?
One more thing about music power ... in Western culture there are only twelve notes. Twelve half step intervals of tones. Twelve.
A, B flat, B, C, C sharp, D, E flat, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp.
(FYI, some notes have two names, like B flat/A sharp, but they are the same single note).
Scales, chords and various combinations of just twelve notes add up to MILLIONS of songs.
I’d call that power.
The first six notes of Take Five.
The first four notes of Friends In Low Places or Oye Como Va.
The first three notes of Smoke On the Water.
The first chord of Hard Day’s Night.
Did you hear those songs in your head as you read the descriptions of the first notes of each? Do the opening moments any of those iconic songs instantly take you back to a moment in your life as fast as Elizabeth Montgomery’s nose scrunch in Bewitched?
Music is a powerful thing. Notes, chords and lyrics tap into our emotions. A song can be a time machine, transporting you back to a concert, a first date, a wedding, a prom. Music might lead to laughing, crying or dancing. Your favorite songs can wrap around you like a warm blanket, providing a little security during the uncertainty of what’s going on right now. A song you hate can cut you like a knife.
“Happy Birthday” may be the first song many of us hear. Songs our parents liked when we were kids instantly take us back to our youth, hopefully to good times in our youth.
The teen years are an emotional time for most of us and specific songs that were part of our lives at that time can switch on both positive and negative emotions in the first few notes. The violin and guitar strums that open “To Sir With Love” by Lulu immediately take my mind to all the little details of the a specific first date; the girl, the movie, the dinner at an Italian restaurant, the couple we went with, the car we were in. “Leaving On A Jet Plane” by Peter, Paul & Mary is a beautiful song but it’s torture to me because it takes me back to the first temporary separation from that same girl a year later.
Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride” puts me on the dance floor at a college fraternity party. Glenn Miller’s “In The Mood” or songs from “Oklahoma” take me to frequent explorations of my Dad’s record collection.
I began my 45-year radio career as a DJ; Led Zeppelin and David Bowie songs put me in between turntables and microphones at my first radio station in New Orleans. Songs by Gloria Estefan and Neil Diamond create images of the Baltimore skyline view from the studio of the radio station where I returned to DJ-ing after several years of behind-the-scenes radio jobs. The first four notes of “Friends In Low Places” and the first eight notes of “The Dance”, both by Garth Brooks, conjure up images of a cluttered studio on Connecticut Avenue in Washington DC where I first fell in love with Country music.
Do you have similar experiences? Do specific songs transport you to specific parts of your life?
I’m sure there are studies about why certain notes or chord progressions elicit certain feelings. Minor chords feel dark or somber, for example. I tend to over analyze, so maybe I should just listen to music and let it take me where it takes me.
Song structure is interesting. To me anyway. Blues is my favorite: three chords and the truth. Country music is four chords and a story. I think songs by Yes or Dave Matthews tend to be complex artful explorations like paintings by Jackson Pollock or Wassily Kandinsky.
A John Denver song takes you on a mountain hike. The Beachboys take you surfing. Steppenwolf gets your motor running. Earth Wind & Fire, dancing.
Lyrics can paint pictures and tell stories, leading to love, laughter, hate, sadness, joy.
“The first time we kissed, I lost my legs.”
“Baby, this could be our last first kiss. History in the making”
“Something’s happening here, what it is ain’t exactly clear.”
“War, good god,
What is it good for,
Absolutely nothin’.”
“Come on people now,
Smile on your brother,
Everybody get together,
Try to love one another right now.”
Did you sing along as you read those lyrics? Were you instantly somewhere else for a few seconds? Christopher Lloyd’s DeLorean in Back To the Future isn’t as powerful a time machine a song lyric, is it?
One more thing about music power ... in Western culture there are only twelve notes. Twelve half step intervals of tones. Twelve.
A, B flat, B, C, C sharp, D, E flat, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp.
(FYI, some notes have two names, like B flat/A sharp, but they are the same single note).
Scales, chords and various combinations of just twelve notes add up to MILLIONS of songs.
I’d call that power.
Comments
From your lips the heavens pour out
I cant forget when we are one
You alone and I am free
Dave Matthews with Santana