MINDFUL MELODY
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • The Magazine
  • The Articles
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • The Magazine
  • The Articles
Search

LATEST POSTS

A selection of articles from all our issues - go to 'The Magazine' to read them all, including exclusive interviews from Aston Barrett Jr., Niko Moon, Serena Ryder, Canaan Smith and many more...

Escaping the Shuffle Society - How to improve mindfulness through music

3/26/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

Maxim Mower


It’s no secret that our attention spans are getting shorter. While it used to be around twelve seconds, that has fallen to an average of just eight. We now have so many things to check on our phones - Instagram, Facebook, Messenger, emails, the Harbinger of Doom…sorry, I mean ‘The News App’.

We even have short attention spans when it comes to music. In general, today’s most popular songs are one minute and thirteen seconds shorter than they were twenty years ago. We’re also increasingly turning to playlists instead of albums. If you take a look at Apple Music’s ‘Browse’ section, the majority of your screen will be taken up by playlist recommendations, with a measly ‘New Releases’ section devoted to albums.

It links back to an article I wrote in Issue 3, about how music is becoming more and more personalised as a result of streaming, meaning we’re less likely to explore songs that are outside our sonic comfort zone. Why would we spend an hour listening to a whole album, where we might only recognise half the songs, when we could listen to a personally curated playlist full of songs that we know we like?

However, I’m here to argue that listening to an album all the way through offers a unique experience that is missing from a playlist, no matter how personalised it might be. There’s often an arc or an evolving story that runs throughout an album, and listening to each track in the right order brings out aspects of the songs that are missed when listening to them individually.

To use a familiar analogy, think about watching a series on Netflix. You wouldn’t just start on episode 7 of The Queen’s Gambit, and then watch episode 4, followed by episode 9. Okay, okay, I know that watching a TV show is in many ways a completely different kettle of fish to listening to an album.

Picture
Photo by Yeasin Chowdhury on Unsplash

But on the other hand, a collection of songs in an album will hang together and take you through a carefully orchestrated succession of emotional peaks and troughs, just as a TV series will take you on a journey in a similar way.

However, the rise of playlists isn’t the only thing that’s hindering our appreciation of albums.

I’m a huge CD and Vinyl obsessive - I love looking through the little booklets that come with each one, enjoying the artwork up close, and, call me old-fashioned, but there’s just something special about putting the disc into the CD player or dropping the needle on a "45" record, compared to just streaming a song on your phone.

I tend to put on a CD or Vinyl whenever I’m writing an essay, sorting through emails, taking a shower, or playing Xbox. I think we can all agree that whatever the task, however mundane it might be, listening to music makes it a little more enjoyable.

​
As usual, over the festive period, the constant feeling of needing to be productive had thankfully vanished. During a pleasant lull in a wintry afternoon, I thought I’d listen to a new Vinyl that I’d gotten for Christmas.

Picture
Photo by Puria Berenji on Unsplash

When I went to play it, I thought, ‘Oh, but what shall I do while I listen?’ It felt too curmudgeonly and too close to Christmas to start my coursework, and I didn’t really fancy playing FIFA at that moment in time. Hmm, what to do? Heaven forbid I simply listen to music on its own.

And that’s when it dawned on me that it had been ages since I simply sat down and enjoyed an album, cover to cover, without doing anything else while I listened. This reminded me of some reading I’d done for my dissertation topic, which is ‘Buddhist Mindfulness’. (You’ll have noticed by now that, as an Oxford Masters student, I like to pretentiously mention that I’m an Oxford Masters student as often as possible). 

The whole idea of mindfulness is that we focus our mind on one thing, and try not to let our thoughts wander or stray too far from the object of our attention. The notion of multi-tasking is hugely anti-Buddhist, and the authors of Ikigai - a book all about the sense of flow we feel when we’re engrossed in our present activity - say that multi-tasking is actually a myth. In reality, we just switch between two activities really quickly, rather than doing both at the same time. This tires out our brains tremendously.

But this is exactly how I’d been listening to music, with my mind only ever half-focussed on it, with the other half centred on my writing, FIFA, and so on.

So instead of playing my new Vinyl as a soundtrack to another activity, I’ve started trying to let it take centre stage in the arena of my concentration. And I have to say, it’s so much more rewarding - you become engrossed in the atmosphere the artist has created, you notice subtleties in the music that you’d never heard before, and personally, I found it much more relaxing than playing FIFA at the same time (and that’s not just because I’m bad at FIFA…).

It sounds like such a cliché, but you really feel the music more. To balance out the obnoxiousness of mentioning my degree earlier, I’ll confess that I even danced around a bit in my room as the music played (imagine Hugh Grant’s dad-dancing in Love Actually, minus the coolness of Hugh Grant).

I know that we live in a time where everything moves at 100mph, and we rarely have an hour to spare to just sit down and listen to an album. But when you do have a moment, I’d urge you to try engrossing yourself in an album, and letting the music take you on a journey.

​
Or, to express it in another way - be Mindful of your Melodies. Hmm, I’m sure there’s a good name for a magazine in there somewhere…


0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Buy print editions of Mindful Melody Issue 12 below!

    Buy now

      Subscribe below to get each issue straight to your inbox!

    Subscribe to Mindful Melody

    Articles List

    All
    3 Key Lifestyle Habits That Can Improve Your Mental Health
    Absence-makes-the-heart-grow-fonder-live-music
    Adam-douglas-on-his-middleaged-mental-health-awakening
    Adele-andy-find-perfect-harmony-on-where-i-belong-ep
    Ajeet-review-and-interview
    Album-review-mac-mcanallyrsquos-lsquoonce-in-a-lifetimersquo-is-both-a-soundtrack-and-an-antidote-for-our-times
    Am-i-right-to-be-optimistic-about-2021
    Amy-speace-interview
    And-a-little-help-from-the-forest
    And-being-born-for-the-stage
    And-do-we-need-to
    And-no-shoes-nation-how-fan-clubs-are-easing-lockdown-loneliness
    Andy Franks Interview - Music Support: Meet The Music Industry Veteran Working For Change
    A-new-way-forward-for-musical-theatre
    An-interview-with-mesita
    An-interview-with-thomas-corneill-from-young-martyrs-navigating-life-as-a-fulltime-musician
    An-interview-with-ziggy-alberts-bringing-unity-through-music
    Are Biopics Good For Fans?
    A-review-of-petrichor-ndash-jon-reynolds-the-aches-something-for-everyone
    A-talk-with-the-lead-wailer-aston-barrett-jr
    Bo Burnham's 'INSIDE' - Dark Comedy And Music Combine
    Bootleggers
    Breaking The Boundaries Of Genre And Mood An Interview With Jon Reynolds
    Breland Interview
    But I Think We Will Find A Common Ground": Finn Matthews Interview
    Can Music Be Your Coping Mechanism?
    Can We Seperate Artists From Their Music
    Carl Falk Interview: The Avicii Hitmaker On Friendship
    Channel Your Negativity Into Creativity
    Charlotte Young: Tackling Positivity And Negativity (Sometimes Simultaneously!)
    Christmas Music: The Marmite Of The Charts
    'Chris Tomlin & Friends': Joy That Transcends Religion
    Clipping. – Visions Of Bodies Being Burned Review
    'Come Home The Kids Miss You' - Did Expectations Ruin Harlow's Big Release?
    Denis Coleman - Pop Prodigy And Mental Health Ambassador
    Directioners
    Does Listening To Music Help Us Study?
    Don't Have Time To Create A Vision-board? Try This 'audio-board' Alternative
    “Don’t You Know That You’re Toxic?”: Why The Music Industry Really Is A 'poisoned Paradise' (Yingmin Khoo Guest Post)
    Drake White Interview
    Emma Moore Interview Finding Self-Love In Music And Society - Interview
    Escaping The Shuffle Society - How To Improve Mindfulness Through Music
    Everybody Dies Young
    Faith
    Faith Over Fear: Southern Gospel Artist Brent Cobb Talks To Maxim
    Fatherhood And Genre-fluidity
    Find Your Own Therapy
    From Bullied Teen To Chart-topper: Kelsey Bovey
    George Strait
    Gloria Anderson Interview: Cars
    Greetings From...The Marfa Tapes: Let Miranda Lambert
    Grief And The Songwriting Process
    Hardy On His Hopes For Hixtape Vol 2 And Being Country As Hell!
    "Hate Has Become The Default
    Headphone Holiday: Kenny Chesney
    How Can Music Affect Our Emotions
    How The Eagles Turned Back The Clock And Lit Up British Summer Time Festival 2022
    How Tik Tok Has Become The Industry's Hottest New Critic
    Humility And Heart
    Interview: Andreas Moe
    Interview: CalledOut Music
    Interview: Canaan Smith - How He Found Himself Through Fatherhood
    Interview: Essie Jain - Creating Healing Music For All Ages
    Interview: Haley & Michaels
    Interview: Kieran Lancini
    Interview: Kylie Morgan
    Interview: Morgan Wade
    Interview: Music Therapy With Tiziana Pozzo
    Interview: Tyler Braden On Small Towns
    Is The Music Industry Turning A New Leaf With Its Support Of Mental Health?
    "It's Time To Stop Living In My Head": Interview With Nashville's Olivia Lane
    Jack Ingram And Jon Randall Be Your Tour Guides On This Sonic Retreat
    JEEN-YUHS - WHY KANYE WOULD BE A BETTER LIFE COACH THAN YOU THINK
    Jhené Aiko's Chilombo: A Perfect Blend Of Peace And Passion
    Jhené Aiko's Chilombo: A Perfect Blend Of Peace And Passion
    Kenny Chesney
    Kezia Gill Interview
    Kristi Hoopes - Engagement
    Lathan Warlick Interview: How A Brush With Death Inspired His Music's Message Of 'God
    Live Music Is Changing
    Love And Unity'
    Low-Strung And Amped-Down: Unplug Your Mind By Going Acoustic
    Lyrical Life Lessons #2: 'Don't Blink'
    Lyrical Life Lessons #3 - 'Give Me More Time'
    Lyrical Life Lessons #5 Jake Owen
    Machine Gun Kelly Has Gifted Us The Realest Album Of 2020
    Mainstream Sellout - Did MGK Ignore The Critics?
    MAJE On Motivation
    Make Yourself A Musical Photo Album
    Man On The Moon III: Kid Cudi Finds Dawn After Years Of Darkness In This Modern Epic
    Maxim Speaks To Elliah Heifetz About Anxiety
    Meet The Man Determined To Bring More Positivity Into Country Music - An Interview With: Kyle Elliott
    Memories And Music
    Mental Health And Me #10-David: My Dream Band Line-Up
    Mental Health And Me #11-David: 'Sun Is Shining
    Mental Health And Me #12-David: 'The Drugs Don't Work'
    Mental Health And Me #2: Maxim
    Mental Health And Me #3: David Why 'How Are You?' Is My 2020 Kryptonite
    Mental Health And Me #3: Maxim - How Sad Songs Showed Me The Value Of Wholeness Over Happiness
    Mental Health And Me #4: Maxim - 'Pitch Perfectionism'
    Mental Health And Me #5: David
    Mental Health And Me #5: Maxim - Can You Dance Away The Lockdown Blues?
    Mental Health And Me #6: David - Meditation Memoirs
    Mental Health And Me #6: Maxim - How Country Music Showed Me The Power Of Gratitude
    Mental Health And Me #7: David - Was I Right To Be Optimistic About 2021? The Follow Up
    Mental Health And Me #7: Maxim - Can ‘mindful Listening' Help Ease Productivity-guilt?
    Mental Health And Me #8: David - Enjoying The Ride
    Mental Health And Me #9: David Was I Right To Be Optimistic About 2021 - The Trilogy
    Mental Health And Me: David
    Mental Health And Me; David #14: God's Plan - Why I'm Jealous Of Believers
    Mental Health And Me: David - How Running Made Me A Better Person
    Mental Health And Me: Maxim
    Mind Over Matter - Why Everything's Going To Be Alright (Even If It Isn't)
    Mitchell Kersley Challenges Toxic Masculinity On New Single
    Mod Sun's 'Internet Killed The Rockstar' - A Familiar Story
    More Than A Musician: Meet The Artist Making A Real Difference In The World Of Mental Health - An Interview With Serena Ryder
    Music
    Music And Grief By Ashley Broadhurst
    Music And Memory: The Healing Power Of Music (Yingmin Khoo Guest Post)
    My All-American Kenny Chesney Adventure
    My New 'Malibu Theory'
    National Identity - And Dad Jokes
    Nihilism In Rap Music: Misunderstood
    'Oh Man
    Our Top 10 Songs For...Peaceful Melancholy
    Our Top 10 Songs To Make You Laugh
    Our Top 10 Songs...to Relax To
    Our Top Ten...Slow Down And Simplify Songs
    Our Top Ten Songs...about Self-Love
    Our Top Ten Songs For...Peaceful Melancholy
    Our Top Ten Songs Of... Film/TV
    Our Top Ten Songs Of Nature
    Our Top Ten Songs Of... Summer Sun!
    Our Top Ten Songs To Hear Live
    Performance Anxiety: Friend Or Foe?
    Quadeca - I Don't Care Review
    Ray Fulcher Interview - "I Want People To Think
    Sampling - Creative Genius Or Cutting Corners?
    Sarah Louise: The UK Country Singer-songwriter That Just Wants You To Believe In Yourself
    Seafret Slow Down And Simplify With New Piano Sessions EP - Interview
    Self-Improvement And New 'Fly On The Wall' Project
    Should Your New Self-love Mantra Be A Rap Lyric?
    Songs That Get Me Through Lockdown - David
    Songs That Get Me Through Lockdown - Maxim
    Sounds That Heal And Relax: The Music Of Mindfulness
    Sound Therapy: A Vibe-check
    Spotify Recommended: Help Or Hindrance?
    Starz In Their Eyes – The Music Industry According To Just Jack
    Starz In Their Eyes – The Music Industry According To Just Jack
    Stereotypes And Saving Lives
    Sublime Simplicity - Quadeca's Atmospheric 'From Me To You' Album Reviewed
    Tamar Haviv: The Singer-songwriter Who's Making The World A Better Place
    Tebey Interview
    The 90% Gratitude Rule
    The 90’s Country Comeback: Why Cowboy Hats And Honky-tonks Are Striking A Chord With Gen-Z
    The 90’s Country Comeback: Why Cowboy Hats And Honky-tonks Are Striking A Chord With Gen-Z
    The Artist Making Iconic Songs Her Own - An Interview With: Lissie
    The Hot Girl Walk: Just Another Tik-Tok Fad - Or A Great Way To Boost Our Wellbeing?
    The Importance Of Being ERNEST - Flower Shops
    Then It's Okay If I Do Too.'"
    The Safety Of Familiarity
    The Sonic Ranch: Midland's Origin-story Digs Up Their Roots And Strikes Gold
    The Voice
    The Weather Is Sweet'
    Thomas Rhett Finds Happiness At Home On Country Again (Side A)
    Tick
    Tick… Boom! The Musical Of Honesty
    Tiera Kennedy Interview
    Tim Prottey-Jones - From Western To West End - And Back!
    Tom Cary - New Single 'Something In The Whiskey' Breaks Country Music's Heartbreak Streak
    Top 10 Motivational Masterpieces
    Top 10 Songs For Concentration
    Top 10 Songs For...Overcoming Heartbreak
    Toxic Or Positive?
    Vinyl Therapy
    Well If Ray's Got His Own Struggles
    Why 'Lonely' Confirms Justin Bieber's Move From Guilty Pleasure To Admirable Star
    Wren Kelly Tackling Society And Mental Health In New Single 'Game Over'
    Zac Brown Band - 'The Comeback' In Name And Nature
    Zane Williams Interview

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • The Magazine
  • The Articles