Music and creativity

I'm sure you have felt, as I have, how some pieces of music speak to you, they touch your soul, maybe you feel a tingling.

A few years back a group of us were working on an art project. Soft music was playing in the background. After a time, one of the women commented that she no longer felt creative, something had changed and she was now "stuck". One by one we each stated we were feeling the same. What was going on?

Then we realized the problem: the music had stopped. Once we started it up again, we each got back into our creative groove, and continued from where we had left off.

This is the power that music can have on us.

Our children often tell us they feel they do their homework better while listening to music. We tend not to believe them - but they are right. However in both cases - doing homework and being creative - listening to words in music can be distracting and not provide the right kind of energy to allow us to focus on our task. It's much better to listen to music without the sounds. A good friend recently confirmed this to be true, when during a painting day she asked that we change a CD for one without words. Once changed, a different CD brought in better energy and opened us up to being more creative.

So next time our kids tells us that music is helping them with their homework, let them know they are right, and help them to choose the music to enhance their studying.