I am really excited about a wonderful new project that Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect®, and my son Alex Doman are collaborating on. The SoundSwell™ blog is a place for people to share their experiences with music of all sorts.
“SoundSwell™ is a blog about the rising musical tide around us: the negative effects of noise and the positive effects of organized rhythmic sounds and melodies that improve and sometimes heal us. This is a part of our HATSS™ project that is surveying the hundreds of studies that have been made in the past few years for the purpose of helping teachers, students, parents and healthcare workers improve their lives with music.
This blog is about you and your experiences in your work, home and school with music. From research to interesting stories, we want to listen, learn and share. Are there new trends in your community using music? Have you experienced a surprising and perhaps amazing event with sound?
Over the coming months, we will share with you some of the most interesting projects we’ve encountered. But now, let’s begin to explore the world of music and sound. What’s on your mind?”
Please take a peek and share any interesting stories on their blog that you have about the role music plays in your life. If you know of someone else who has a story to share, please share the link with them: http://soundswell.org
Update 1/22/09
I have gotten a couple of wonderful comments on this post about how people use music in their lives. If you do have comments to share, please go to the SoundSwell blog to do so. That way more people will be able to read your thoughts. Thanks so much, it seems clear that music is an important if not an essential part of many of our lives! Ginger
Ginger Kenney 
I use quiet background music in my classroom. It honestly helps the students with ADHD focus better on their work. I’m a former music teacher, now teaching fourth grade, and I have many stories of music in my life!
Wonderful Daisy! I use quiet music to help me concentrate as well; more uptempo music to recharge and really slow tempo music to help me relax and sleep when I am not sleeping well. I know they would love to know more about your stories. The link is http://soundswell.org. You can also email them at soundswell@advancedbrain.com. Thanks for the share! Ginger
As they say music is the food of the soul…
i like clasical music alot … it helps relieve stress…
when i have some houseworks i like doing them with my favourite songs on…
i used to listen to a certain type of music early in the mornings.. sadly that was long time ago…
Thanks, it does seem like our tastes change over time. What type was it that you listened to early morning?
Hi! This afternoon I was feeling a little frazzled so I stopped everything, set myself down in a quiet space, and listened to “Self-Healing with sound & music” an album by Andrew Weil and Kimba Arem. After just a few minutes I felt myself soothed and quiet. I stayed in that space for about twenty minutes then went back to work refreshed.
On a different note, (so to speak :-), and by way of background, I’m widowed and have recently begun dating again after several years. I had a lovely dinner with a man last night, came home and while doing errands listened to a Rod Stewart album of romantic, upbeat music to remind me of what those feelings were like, so long underground.
I treasure my IPod with it’s wide selection of music, from Gnarls Barkely (my grandchildren were amazed) to “The Sensual Sound of the Oboe”. Music has the potential to bring me up when I need up and soothe me when I need soothing.
One of the treasures of the wisdom of aging has been to learn the broad array of tools I can use to mediate my moods. There’s lots more to choose from than drugs, alcohol, over shopping, over doing.
Thanks for asking and good luck in spreading this sacred message, that music CAN be profoundly useful in our daily lives.
Just the other day I was facing a document to write, a solutions architecture, dry, dry, dry. That and nothing to base it on, all from scratch.
Fortunately I had some CDs with me, The Allman Brothers from a live show in 1973. I’ve listened to it so many times, I don’t need to pay attention to know where I am in the songs. I got several pages done in really short order.
Usually I’m not someone who can put music on and not pay attention to the words, I really love a ballad, Bob Dylan is a favorite writer of mine. There are a few bits of music that I can just get in the zone with, don’t need to pay as much attention to, but it gets me going.
Many folks use quiet music, it’s soothing, it is, but for that’s the problem, I want music that gets me ramped up!
Thankfully there’s so much of it.
This past weekend I watched the musical celebration of the impending Obama administration. One of my favorite musical moments ever is to see Pete Seeger lead the masses in a rendition of “This land is your land”. The song that, while blacklisted, he taught kindergarten classes to sing. Pete Seeger is one of my musical heroes, he’s interested in new things, but at the same time values those who came before him.
Kevin, great comments. I had hoped people would post any at http://www.soundswell.org so they could become part of the conversaation over there. If you don’t have the time or inclination to do so, may I have your permission to forward the comments to Alex Doman and Don Campbell to post on the SoundSwell blog? Of course it would be better coming from you so that people can link to your blog directly.
Thanks, and I was moved to tears by Pete Seeger’s performance, it was superb!
Ginger