Conscious listening can improve wellbeing

Dr Sean Olive

Numerous scientific studies have shown that music can benefit us physiologically, psychologically, and cognitively. Amid the coronavirus pandemic we are turning to music more than ever, but are we getting its full benefits? Audio expert Dr Sean Olive explains that when used consciously and paired with ‘active listening’, music can be used as a tool to help manage our emotions and improve our wellbeing. Here are his tips to improve your listening technique and gain music’s full benefits.

Studies since the spread of coronavirus have shown that 58 per cent of people are listening to music while in lockdown. And it has never been a better time to indulge in music. A study conducted by HARMAN and market research company FutureSource* found that 92 per cent of Brits believe music eases everyday pressures, while 81 per cent say music makes them feel happy.

Music stimulates the emotions and contributes to a sense of happiness and wellbeing. Music can modify our mood, reduce stress and anxiety, improve our productivity and sleep, and it can also enhance our memory and productivity.

Dr. Olive explains: “Our biorhythms, our heart rate, blood pressure and breathing for example, tend to synchronise with the beat of the music. Slower, softer, calm music tends to relax us whereas faster paced sounds arouse energy. Music produces neurochemicals in our brain including dopamine, which is associated with pleasure and rewards, much like food, sex and drugs, but less addictive and without negative side effects.”

Deep listening

Dr. Olive wants to promote a reinstating of active and ‘deep listening’ that will help us get the most out of the listening experience. But how do you achieve this deep listening?

“First, we encourage people to give music listening their full attention. This may seem obvious, but the majority of people listen to music in the background,” explains Dr. Olive. “At home, turn off distractions like TVs, and phones, dim the lights and turn the volume to a moderate level – 75-80 dBA for the technical minded – not so loud to cause hearing fatigue or disturb neighbours, but not too soft to obscure details in the music. Then, sit back, relax, close your eyes and listen. Really listen and absorb the music.”

It’s not just about our focus when listening to music, it’s how we choose to listen to it. Today’s music consumption tends to take a ‘snacking’ approach. We typically play single tracks selected individually or in a compilation, quickly identifying tracks that we don’t enjoy and skipping them. This approach isn’t helping us get the most physical, mental and emotional health benefits from music.

“We encourage people to listen to full albums or complete musical works; this is really important. That way, the full musical structure, aesthetic and emotional ‘storyline’ can be appreciated. This is more fulfilling than an algorithmically-determined mishmash of tunes. Thirdly, we believe that the quality of the recording and the playback equipment are essential to deliver the correct timbre, dynamics and spatial richness of the performance,” said Dr. Olive.

According to the aforementioned survey, good sound quality triggers positive emotions such as feeling uplifted (49 per cent) or feeling relaxed (38 per cent), while bad sound quality triggers negative emotions such as dissatisfaction (45 per cent), annoyance (42 per cent), or disappointment (34 per cent). Setting up your speakers to ensure they have good interaction with the room acoustics is important and affects the quality and quantity of bass, but for those who lack space and budget, good headphones that fit around the ears are an excellent alternative.

Combined, these techniques can help to reach a deeper state of listening. You’ll know you’ve got there when your toes are tapping and you are losing yourself in the melody, singing along and feeling those music-induced chills down your back. “Most importantly, you’ll forget what’s going on around you and be completely immersed. Today’s thoughts about coronavirus and the difficulties we’re all facing will have disappeared for a few minutes,” adds Dr. Olive.

Emotional effects

As for the emotional effect, that all comes down to the choice of music itself. Music and data scientists can predict the emotional effect of music on listeners by extracting and modelling the acoustic features. “Tempo, melody, rhythm, dynamics, spectral characteristics and musical complexity, amongst others, will produce an emotion, but that of course may vary depending on the individual listener and their preferences and familiarity with the music,” explains Dr. Olive.

Most of us could do with a helping hand to feel positive against the background of the coronavirus pandemic. “When you feel down, often out of habit you’ll pick sad or melancholy music that reflects your mood,” says Dr. Olive. “This of course will mean that you continue along that avenue of thought and feeling. However, consciously choosing and actively listening to music that reflects how you’d like to feel can have a huge impact. It can be a hard task to pick upbeat music when you’re feeling off colour, but doing so will help you get back on track and reconnect with that positive frame of mind.”

To help, Dr. Olive has put together a playlist that includes a selection of music that will help us feel energised and calm. “This playlist combines some fantastic uplifting and positivity-inducing tracks thanks to their tempo and dynamics. Alongside, there are some smoother, more soothing and calming tracks to help any stresses ebb away.”

Dr. Sean Olive’s music to get you through coronavirus lockdown:

• The Four Seasons – Vivaldi
• I Hear Music – Ella Fitzgerald & Oscar Peterson
• Shine on Your Shoes – Mel Tormé
• Hey Ya! – OutKast
• Happy (from Despicable Me 2) – Pharrell Williams
• September – Earth, Wind & Fire
• Sexual Healing – Marvin Gaye
• The Planets, Op. 32 – 4. Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity – Orchestre Symphonique de Montréa

* Consumer research conducted by Future Source, August 2019 on the ‘Future of Listening’. 8,000 consumers from US, UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands and South Korea were surveyed.