4 ms·

I wonder if that is why we like music. We can experience emotions without worrying that they are permanent or need to be resolved.

by hnick 6y ago

fergal 6y ago
This is along the lines of how I've come to think of music; music is a temporary emotional stimulant.
agumonkey 6y ago
If there's something sacred to me it's music (or harmony). It's weird because it's not as foundational as smell or vision but it revives my soul like nothing else. That's the closest substitute to drug I know of. I have no idea why our emotions are so tangled with it and how comes it can untie knots in our minds like this.
- throwaway_kufu 6y ago
  > it revives my soul like nothing else. Beautifully said. I have numerous sayings about music, for example I used to do 20 mile runs every Saturday and Sunday and 10 miles every weekday. No David goggins but people always ask question, I tend to tell them I don’t run, I listen to music and the miles run themselves. And I used to tell people that the music allows me to feel every single cell in my body and the music makes them happy. And truthfully I think there is something to that down to the quantum level, where the music causes your atoms to vibrate putting them in higher states of energy.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    I don't subscribe to quantum / soul connection but I guess the abstract relationships between notes and rhythm tickles the brain very very deep.
- adkadskhj 6y ago
  I rely on music for emotional regulation. Not only does it help push me towards moods/states i want, like focus, energy, calm, etc - but it helps me manage moods i don't want. If i'm feeling sad, embracing the sadness with music can be enriching in a unique way. Almost like "having a good cry", but far easier to achieve, and with application for almost all moods and circumstances. Music really is the center of my life, even though i don't play it. .. though i do dabble, and am currently learning Piano, so /shrug.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    I dabbled and everybody should dabble, smoothly just for the thrill of hearing notes in time. I wish I had a piano, weighted keys are so sweet. Another fun thing is large congas.. the depth of the sound is surprising.
- Fern_Blossom 6y ago
  You said that perfectly. From beginning to end, it's amazingly spot on.
- achillesheels 6y ago
  That’s exactly why the Pythagoreans were obsessed with music! An arcane text which I highly recommend for those curious is The Manual of Harmonics by Nichomacus the Pythagorean. It’s a series of ancient lectures which dives into why the Pythagoreans were obsessed with how numerical the musical scales are.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    Did pythagoreans have notions of chromatic scales ? I worry that without it you're losing a huge emotional space. I'll look your book at once.
    - achillesheels 6y ago
      He speaks profusely about tetrachords. I believe his best examination of the chromatic scale is in chapter 12. I have a version translated and commentated upon by Flora R. Levin which provides exquisite anthropological background of how the ancient Greeks thought of music and provides context for what amounts to as lectures given by Nichomachus.
- rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago
  > The inexpressible depth of all music, by virtue of which it floats past us as a paradise quite familiar and yet eternally remote, and is so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain. Schopenhauer, the father of philosophical pessimism, would agree with you: he thought of music as one of the few pure respites from the suffering of the world.
unFou 6y ago
This touched a chord. For me it's a combination of both music and dance. It's amazing to feel emotions I'd normally not want to express in everyday life and just let them flow out. Rage, jealousy, lust. The music is such a great trigger to tap into these primal feelings, and then expressing them through movement just feels incredible. It feels real and amazingly cathartic, but the transience of the experience leaves no consequences. I guess that's why there's the saying dance like nobody's watching. Because for many people, that expression of feeling strips us down and leaves our feelings exposed and vulnerable .

I wonder if that is why we like music. We can experience emotions without worrying that they are permanent or need to be resolved.

by hnick 6y ago

I wonder if that is why we like music. We can experience emotions without worrying that they are permanent or need to be resolved.

fergal 6y ago

This is along the lines of how I've come to think of music; music is a temporary emotional stimulant.

agumonkey 6y ago

If there's something sacred to me it's music (or harmony). It's weird because it's not as foundational as smell or vision but it revives my soul like nothing else. That's the closest substitute to drug I know of. I have no idea why our emotions are so tangled with it and how comes it can untie knots in our minds like this.

throwaway_kufu 6y ago
> it revives my soul like nothing else. Beautifully said. I have numerous sayings about music, for example I used to do 20 mile runs every Saturday and Sunday and 10 miles every weekday. No David goggins but people always ask question, I tend to tell them I don’t run, I listen to music and the miles run themselves. And I used to tell people that the music allows me to feel every single cell in my body and the music makes them happy. And truthfully I think there is something to that down to the quantum level, where the music causes your atoms to vibrate putting them in higher states of energy.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  I don't subscribe to quantum / soul connection but I guess the abstract relationships between notes and rhythm tickles the brain very very deep.
adkadskhj 6y ago
I rely on music for emotional regulation. Not only does it help push me towards moods/states i want, like focus, energy, calm, etc - but it helps me manage moods i don't want. If i'm feeling sad, embracing the sadness with music can be enriching in a unique way. Almost like "having a good cry", but far easier to achieve, and with application for almost all moods and circumstances. Music really is the center of my life, even though i don't play it. .. though i do dabble, and am currently learning Piano, so /shrug.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  I dabbled and everybody should dabble, smoothly just for the thrill of hearing notes in time. I wish I had a piano, weighted keys are so sweet. Another fun thing is large congas.. the depth of the sound is surprising.
Fern_Blossom 6y ago
You said that perfectly. From beginning to end, it's amazingly spot on.
achillesheels 6y ago
That’s exactly why the Pythagoreans were obsessed with music! An arcane text which I highly recommend for those curious is The Manual of Harmonics by Nichomacus the Pythagorean. It’s a series of ancient lectures which dives into why the Pythagoreans were obsessed with how numerical the musical scales are.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  Did pythagoreans have notions of chromatic scales ? I worry that without it you're losing a huge emotional space. I'll look your book at once.
  - achillesheels 6y ago
    He speaks profusely about tetrachords. I believe his best examination of the chromatic scale is in chapter 12. I have a version translated and commentated upon by Flora R. Levin which provides exquisite anthropological background of how the ancient Greeks thought of music and provides context for what amounts to as lectures given by Nichomachus.
rrrrrrrrrrrryan 6y ago
> The inexpressible depth of all music, by virtue of which it floats past us as a paradise quite familiar and yet eternally remote, and is so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain. Schopenhauer, the father of philosophical pessimism, would agree with you: he thought of music as one of the few pure respites from the suffering of the world.

unFou 6y ago

This touched a chord. For me it's a combination of both music and dance. It's amazing to feel emotions I'd normally not want to express in everyday life and just let them flow out. Rage, jealousy, lust. The music is such a great trigger to tap into these primal feelings, and then expressing them through movement just feels incredible. It feels real and amazingly cathartic, but the transience of the experience leaves no consequences. I guess that's why there's the saying dance like nobody's watching. Because for many people, that expression of feeling strips us down and leaves our feelings exposed and vulnerable .