music and our emotions

I cannot help but discuss the emotional impact of music after the week that I had.  It has been a week of celebrations and also a week of great sadness and death.  On the celebratory side, there is nothing like Irish music during St Patrick Day festivities to bring me back to happy childhood memories.  Growing up with immigrant Irish parents, this music was always close by and always part of celebrations. We would dance and I would always pick up on the rhythm, unknowingly hooked by the music. For me, it is a reminder of simpler times and the music takes me back there and makes me smile. I also spent the week grieving.  Attending a funeral is never easy, but something about hearing the words of Amazing Grace and the sound of bagpipes lets me know that it will be alright.  It is something familiar and comfortable to me. Through tears, people are still able to sing along and somehow it makes us feel better.  Kapilow speaks of emotional attachments to music and that “in times of crisis we reach for simplicity” and [that there is comfort and security in the same rhythms]. A lot of research has been done to show that music affects moods, increases levels of awareness, helps with memory, and slows heart rate.  Now that is a powerful tool.  We can calm a group by playing a familiar calming song. We can increase heart rate and movement by playing a quick dance song we can increase memory with adding words to a catchy tune to help with rote memorization.  The options are endless.  As teachers, we may not have a lot of power to change our architectural setting, but look how easily we can change the mood of a classroom with a song.