For my capstone project, I created a podcast on how music affects us. The process was interesting as I discovered so much about what music does to our brains. To create the podcast, I used Logic Pro X and recorded my voice along with software instruments that I used to create the transition, intro, and outro music that is heard throughout the podcast. My podcast will go into detail about a few different ways that music affects us, and explain the significance and importance of music in our lives. I created this podcast through three main drafts, which changed a bit with each edit. My final draft (the podcast) looks much different from my initial drafts because it is more conversational and flows. Additionally, I edited and changed certain portions of it during the recording process. I hope whoever is listening enjoys and learns something about the importance of music.
Creator Statement - Final
Hello, I am Isak Wall, and I created this for my Capstone project. I wanted to create something that would encapsulate my thoughts completely of my topic and show my thinking to the fullest extent. I wanted it to show as much of myself as possible in addition to showing my thinking throughout this process. In order to satisfy all of these things, I decided to create a podcast. I figured that with a podcast, I would be able to share my own way of thinking better than with a paper or something more formal. I figured I could do this by using a more conversational tone, like one used in a podcast, while still talking about the complicated and fascinating research that I have done up to this point. I have made a couple of podcasts in the past with varying tones and topics between them. I find that in that setting, it is easy to deliver information in a totally digestible manner that keeps things interesting.
My topic is how we react to music, both emotionally in one moment but I also talk about how it affects us over time. I had a few sources of inspiration for deciding on this topic. My first and main inspiration is that I love music, and have for a very long time. I am someone who listens to it on a few different levels and can enjoy it for varying reasons. Most of the time I listen to music, it is pretty casual, and I can have it in the background while I ride in the car or do my homework. But much of the time I listen to it much more intently, focusing on various components of the music, analyzing what makes it sound that way and letting the music affect me. Music has improved my life since I have grown more passionate about it, and I wanted to know how music can help us as we try to become better people. The second inspiration for this topic comes from specific moments when I have let music affect me and caused me to have experiences in my own head relating to a specific piece.
There are two pieces that have inspired me in ways that not many others have, both stemming from similar places. The first being Lacrimosa, one of Mozart’s Requiem, and another being Human Sadness by Julian Casablancas + The Voidz. These pieces, while sounding very different on the surface level, are actually more connected than they seem. In the song Human Sadness, a large portion of the inspiration and instrumentation is borrowed from Mozart’s Requiem in D Minor. I did not know this initially upon listening to this song, but upon further research, I found this out. It is interesting that these two songs which each affected me so profoundly, stemmed from the same place. Now if we go back, much of modern music stems from similar places anyways, just with nuances on top of the structures that have existed for centuries. Both of these pieces, while holding completely different styles, convey the same (or similar) messages of grief, loss, and sadness. But it is interesting how both can have such a profound effect on me while I don't understand the lyrics of either. Lacrimosa was written in Latin, and while Human Sadness is technically in English, if you give the song a listen, the lyrics are essentially incomprehensible. The singer Julian Casablancas puts layers of effects on his voice in addition to his lack of annunciation which makes the lyrics hard to understand. But while I can't understand the lyrics of either song, I can feel the emotion. I can feel the deep place of sadness and grief that the songs were written about and came from. It is honestly difficult not to when you hear them, whether it be Casablancas putting every bit of energy he seems to have into his vocal performance or the interlacing of Mozart’s vocal harmonies in Lacrimosa, the message comes through loud and clear.
My podcast itself goes through a couple of different topics all relating to my main idea. I do this in order to create a holistic of my ideas, looking through as many lenses as I could. I intentionally found studies done by different types of experts so I could see the way that many different types of people looked at the questions I am considering as a non-expert. My research threw many different explanations to my questions at me, each taken from a different angle. Having this variety of answers helped me to gauge better what I think about it. In my podcast, I talk about how music affects people on an overall level, in addition to how it affects people specifically when they listen to one song at a specific time. I figured that I would learn and also share more about the complete experience of music from the small scale to the large scale. My research helped me realize further how important music is to the human experience. We know people listen to music every day but it affects us in more ways than it seems like, even when we are listening to music casually. I hope those reading this will enjoy my podcast, and I believe it will be interesting whether or not the people listening enjoy music casually or on a deeper level. I found this project revealing for me in how it showed me the different ways it could be enjoyed and perceived, and attempted to share those new connections with the audience of this podcast. Music is a universal art to the human experience and my fascination with it pushed me to research it further, discovering that it might be even more important than it seems on the surface, and affect us on many more levels than one might think. Through this process, my fascination with this topic has increased, and learning about how music affects everyone has taught me so much about why music and art are so important.
Contextualizing Writing
This year in AP Lit has taught me so much about literature and how it functions in our society. I have grown throughout this year as a thinker and can read with greater intent, picking out the important parts of the messages within texts. The process of capstone has been one that is very rewarding. Throughout my process, I was able to learn so much more about a topic that I care so much about. I am proud of the final product I created, I think it was rewarding to create a podcast completely from scratch about a topic I previously knew nothing about. I am glad I had this opportunity to to delve into a topic I wanted to learn more about and have been interested in for a long time.
Project Narrative
INTRODUCTION: a paragraph or two explaining your central question, your topic, and, briefly, your research planI plan on studying the way music affects people in different ways and how that works. I wonder how much of the responses people gather from music is just because of the mathematical parts of music that cause certain chemicals in the brain to be released. I have wondered what about music impacts me so much and at points it is difficult to say where the line can be drawn between what of it is math and what of it is meaning. I want to discover how different musicians have implicated structures into music to create a reaction. I also want to find out how much an artist's own emotions matter in the process and if it really makes a difference on how much the audience is affected by their work. I intend to look at how other people have been impacted by music, looking at psychology to find out what about the music actually causes a reaction.
SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS: a list of potential internal and external subject matter experts, how they connect to your topic/question and what you hope to learn
Internal
Mr Sollamon
Mr Mitchell
Mrs. Benkeser
What about music moves you?
What is the strongest emotional response you’ve ever gotten from music? What about the music did you respond to?
When hearing a piece of sad music, how do you know it is sad? Does it make you sad? What about it makes you sad?
What artists/types of artists do you think strike the most with audiences? Why?
External
Jennifer Puckett (Music Therapist)
These people will help me understand more about music and what structures are used and what sounds are used for people to have feelings about them.
What do you believe people respond to in music?
What sorts of reactions do people tend to have to it?
TIMELINE: a personal capstone project calendar (what you need to accomplish + when, as detailed as you need it to be)
Interviews and research done by March 27
All other deadlines followed according to the calendar
THE SCHOLARLY CONVERSATION: a list of important scholarly voices on your topic and a brief explanation of why they’re on this list
Daniel Levitin (neuroscientist)
Believes music is mathematics
Steven Arthur Pinker (psychologist)
Believes that music is part of evolution
What I think these people’s work would do for me is give me insight on how music works in relation to the brain. I hope to learn more about the emotional and psychological impacts of music. I also think they each have a very specific reaction to how music works which could cause an interesting angle on my work.
INITIAL THOUGHTS: a collection of possible speculative answers to your research question (written in paragraph/s? as a mindmap? in bullet points? Choose a format that makes sense to you.)
Talk about structures of music
How they affect
How people know what to do
Who is successful/is it always successful if rules are followed
Talk about audience perception
How do they perceive what ways music affects them?
What artists strike the most with audiences? Why?
Are audiences growing more or less affected by the artists intention as time grows?
Could probably say it is a mix of the two but hard to draw where the line is.
Process Reflection 1
Since my peer review and my project narrative creation, I have continued to think about my topic. I have thought about adding works to my studying such as requiems, that hold a specific purpose in how they affect peoples emotions and aesthetic experiences. I plan to reach out to Mrs. Benkeser soon as an internal expert and I also intend to email my external expert for their thoughts soon. I would like to look more deeply at how music affects structurally and I believe these experts will have valuable opinions to add. I plan to be looking into more about the physiological affects of music in my research so I can have more of an understanding into how that actually works and affects the brain. I need to fully form how I want to create a dialogue with my experts soon, so I can know more specifically what I can get out of our conversations together.
Process Reflection 2
At this point in my process, I have completed a large portion of the research required for my project. I have additionally mapped out the key elements I will be discussing. Before my draft will be complete, I must more carefully figure out my outline and how I want to form my arguments, then write my draft. I have found many interesting ideas about my subject through the process, some of which include the way music makes someone sad and how music as a part of childhood fosters development and growth. Potential experiences I could offer could include playing pieces of music for people and ask about what parts of it they responded to. I have yet to figure out what I will be using as an artifact but plan on working that out soon. I need to be working in the meantime on completing my draft. Additionally, I need to be setting up my interviews, although I am not sure if they will work out due to the quarantine.
Artifact Cover Letter - Draft 1
For my capstone artifact, I decided to make a podcast. My topic is about how people experience music and goes into some of the details of how music affects our brains, and into some theories about what about music evokes emotions. I used a combination of scientific research along with philosophical work to try to gauge a holistic view of how humans are affected by the magic of music. I have divided it out and delve into different people's work. There are a number of theories made about what evokes emotions in music, and although it's hard to say which one of these theories is true over the others, each of them offers great insight into why music affects us and is so powerful.
Artifact - Draft 1
Following is a skeleton of how the podcast should look, will most likely talk more in between topics in order to connect them and speak more in a more improvised way in the podcast.
Intro: Have you ever heard a piece of music so beautiful it made you feel like crying? Has music ever brought out emotions in you that you did not know existed? Have you ever heard something that evoked such a strong reaction from you that you felt like nothing else existed at that moment?
Even if you have not, chances are you have had some sort of emotional experience connected to music, but have you ever stopped to think about why it affects you the way it does? What about this magical thing called music that can cause such a strong effect on people's lives? Why is music so important to us?
These questions caused me to think a lot about music and how it relates to my life.
Music Transition:
Body: There have been a lot of people to think about why music causes reactions from people and many conclusions have been drawn from across the board. There are many ideas on how music affects us, some scientific, and some philosophical.
Let’s talk about how music affects us scientifically
Scientific
First, let’s look at why music is important to us as humans. This portion will talk about how our brains and bodies are affected by music.
Aesthetics
In our body, we have a number of different sense organs, which respond to various types of stimuli.
When these organs sense stimuli, it is processed through the central nervous system.
Our brains must receive stimuli in order to grow properly, and the richer the stimuli, the more the brain will develop.
Arts such as music are able to stimulate our sensory organs in a unique way, due to the fact that these arts are able to capture feelings and emotions that are not always able to be verbalized.
This is called aesthetics, and it is extremely beneficial to human growth and development.
When listening to music the automatic nervous system changes many things, like a heartbeat, gastric motility, breathing, and more.
Human nature causes a wanting for hearing not only what is in one's environment but creating new and beautiful sounds.
This is why music exists across cultures and most cultures throughout history created music even if it was completely independent of others.
Humans need music and aesthetic experience, it helps create more fulfilled lives and helps develop throughout growth.
Network science
Psychologists and neuroscientists have developed a new technique for studying how music affects people.
This technique is called network science, and it allows examination of the brain while listening to music, and how the brain’s networks react.
Network science looks at the default mode network.
This network has to do with memories, emotions, reflection, and awareness.
Studies have shown that people listen to music, especially music they like, the default mode network undergoes interconnectivity.
Through this, people's preferred music can be connected to emotional memories, self-awareness, and empathy.
Move into style
Music is important to the lives of humans, but what does style have to do with it?
It would seem as though the style of music is based on something within our brains that perceive what good music should sound like but in reality, 20th-century musicologists have discovered that style is completely learned.
Over time cultures develop styles of music and hearing it repeatedly in that style teaches people what they perceive to be good music, and what styles seem natural and right to them.
Although there are many different styles of music, most types follow some sort of parametric systems of organization and have to do greatly with math.
Many people believe music to be as much scientific as artistic.
Next, we’ll talk about what about music affects our brains
Philosophy
How does music express emotions?
Accounts of how music is expressed
Resemblance accounts
This is when we hear music that reminds us of traits in people, so, for example, we will perceive a piece of music to be sad based on what or who it reminds us of.
Imaginative accounts
People imagine something to find emotion and expressiveness in music.
Arousal accounts
The expressiveness in music is what causes people to have emotions.
Theories around how music connects to emotions in listeners
Arousal theories
Music has properties that can arouse emotions in listeners.
This happens either because of how sounds and dynamics affect the human body and mind or because music makes people think about humans’ expressions of emotions.
Expression in music has to do with how humans express emotion
Cognitive theories
Emotion is displayed instead of felt in music
A type of emotion can be shown in music through the way it sounds
Symbol theories
the way emotions are expressed is dependent on culture and feelings in music are symbolic and abstract depictions of the emotion
Some combination of these theories is most likely how we are affected by music. From my personal experience, I find imaginative accounts to hold most true to me while I listen to music although it is likely slightly different for everyone. Some combination of these theories is likely how we experience music.
Music Transition:
Conclusion:
Concise recap
Music transition out
Artifact Cover Letter - Draft 2
For my capstone artifact, I decided to make a podcast. My topic is about how people experience music and goes into some of the details of how music affects our brains, and into some theories about what about music evokes emotions. I used a combination of scientific research along with philosophical work to try to gauge a holistic view of how humans are affected by the magic of music. I have divided it out and delve into different people's work. There are a number of theories made about what evokes emotions in music, and although it's hard to say which one of these theories is true over the others, each of them offers great insight into why music affects us and is so powerful. For my second draft, I added a conclusion and filled in some of the spaces that were missing
Artifact - Draft 2
Intro: Have you ever heard a piece of music so beautiful it made you feel like crying? Has music ever brought out emotions in you that you did not know existed? Have you ever heard something that evoked such a strong reaction from you that you felt like nothing else existed at that moment?
Even if you have not, chances are you have had some sort of emotional experience connected to music, but have you ever stopped to think about why it affects you the way it does? What about this magical thing called music that can cause such a strong effect on people's lives? Why is music so important to us?
These questions caused me to think a lot about music and how it relates to my life.
Music Transition:
Body: There have been a lot of people to think about why music causes reactions from people and many conclusions have been drawn from across the board. There are many ideas on how music affects us, some scientific, and some philosophical.
Following is a skeleton of how the body should look, will most likely talk more in between topics in order to connect them:
Let’s talk about how music affects us scientifically
Scientific
First, let’s look at why music is important to us as humans. This portion will talk about how our brains and bodies are affected by music.
First, let’s talk about aesthetics
Aesthetics
In our body, we have a number of different sense organs, which respond to various types of stimuli.
When these organs sense stimuli, it is processed through the central nervous system.
Our brains must receive stimuli in order to grow properly, and the richer the stimuli, the more the brain will develop.
Arts such as music are able to stimulate our sensory organs in a unique way, due to the fact that these arts are able to capture feelings and emotions that are not always able to be verbalized.
This is called aesthetics, and it is extremely beneficial to human growth and development.
When listening to music the automatic nervous system changes many things, like a heartbeat, gastric motility, breathing, and more.
Human nature causes a wanting for hearing not only what is in one's environment but creating new and beautiful sounds.
This is why music exists across cultures and most cultures throughout history created music even if it was completely independent of others.
Humans need music and aesthetic experience, it helps create more fulfilled lives and helps develop throughout growth.
Network science
Psychologists and neuroscientists have developed a new technique for studying how music affects people.
This technique is called network science, and it allows examination of the brain while listening to music, and how the brain’s networks react.
Network science looks at the default mode network.
This network has to do with memories, emotions, reflection, and awareness.
Studies have shown that people listen to music, especially music they like, the default mode network undergoes interconnectivity.
Through this, people's preferred music can be connected to emotional memories, self-awareness, and empathy.
Move into style
Music is important to the lives of humans, but what does style have to do with it?
It would seem as though the style of music is based on something within our brains that perceive what good music should sound like but in reality, 20th-century musicologists have discovered that style is completely learned.
Over time cultures develop styles of music and hearing it repeatedly in that style teaches people what they perceive to be good music, and what styles seem natural and right to them.
Although there are many different styles of music, most types follow some sort of parametric systems of organization and have to do greatly with math.
Many people believe music to be as much scientific as artistic.
So, we can see how important music is to humans. Without it, we would not be able to be as full of human beings, and listening to it positively affects us in so many different ways.
Next, we’ll talk about what about music affects our brains
Philosophy
The first question we’re going to talk about is How does music express emotions?
There are a few different ways people have speculations on how this works. Let’s look at a few of them.
These are Accounts of how music is expressed
Resemblance accounts
This is when we hear music that reminds us of traits in people, so, for example, we will perceive a piece of music to be sad based on what or who it reminds us of.
Imaginative accounts
People imagine something to find emotion and expressiveness in music.
Arousal accounts
The expressiveness in music is what causes people to have emotions.
Next, we’re going to be talking about a few different theories around how music connects to emotions in listeners
Arousal theories
Music has properties that can arouse emotions in listeners.
This happens either because of how sounds and dynamics affect the human body and mind or because music makes people think about humans’ expressions of emotions.
Expression in music has to do with how humans express emotion
Cognitive theories
Emotion is displayed instead of felt in music
A type of emotion can be shown in music through the way it sounds
Symbol theories
the way emotions are expressed is dependent on culture and feelings in music are symbolic and abstract depictions of the emotion
Some combination of these theories is most likely how we are affected by music. From my personal experience, I find imaginative accounts to hold most true to me while I listen to music although it is likely slightly different for everyone. Some combination of these theories is likely how we experience music.
Music Transition:
Conclusion:
From my research, I have found that music is incredibly important to the human experience, along with other forms of artistic expression, which help us become more developed and complete people. There are many different ways that people experience music, and whether they are listening casually or intently listening to music, it affects them in some way. Looking at these types of theories about how music affects people can be fascinating, but it's hard to say that one theory, in particular, holds true to everyone listening to music. It is likely that everyone experiences some combination of these ways of connecting to music, and I can say for myself that each of these has held true to me in some way at various points in my life. Looking back at the studies with network science we can see that things such as memories are in fact stimulated in people's brains while listening to music, which assists the case of the resemblance accounts holding true. This isn't to say that the other accounts should be pushed aside, as there is some validity in them, it's just hard to say exactly how they work in our brains as of now.
Thank you for listening, go listen to music and let it affect you in one or more of these many ways.
Music transition out
Works Cited Appleton, Jon. "Machine Songs III: Music in the Service of Science-Science in the Service of Music." Computer Music Journal, vol. 16, no. 3, 1992, pp. 17–21. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3680847. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. Music theorists for a long time looked at acoustical data to try to see the effect of pitches and syntax. In the 20th century, people studying musicology have found that styles of music are learned and not natural. People have been trying to decide for a long time whether music should be considered art or if it is more based in science. They were considered different in the 19th century while composers like Beethoven, Schumann, and Liszt were working. It is true that many scientists are additionally musicians. Music is tied very closely with math, using parametric systems of organization. In the 20th century, there were many strides taken in organizing the orders of pitches. The 20th century also raised thinkers like Pierre Boulez who believed music to be a science as well as an art. It goes on to talk about musical instrument digital interface, or MIDI, which creates instruments of near identical timbre to acoustic instruments through the use of computers. It is a possibly meaningless task to learn how to play the right note at the right time, because soon computers will be able to do so. Although this article takes on a slightly different angle than my question hopes to answer, I still find it incredibly interesting and important to my topic. The idea of form being learned is incredibly interesting to me, as sometimes it seems like it simply should be a certain way. I also find it interesting the talk of MIDI, and how we might not need real performers and players of instruments for a long time, as computers are able to do what they can more efficiently. Gaston, E. Thayer. "Aesthetic Experience in Music." Music Educators Journal, vol. 49, no. 6, 1963, pp. 25–64. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3389905. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. The question considered here is "how is music significant to man?" When our sense organs receive any sort of stimulus it has to do with either physics or chemistry. The central nervous system is what processes the stimuli from the sense organs. The brain growing is dependent on the sense organs, so if there are richer stimuli in a persons life, the brain will develop more fully. Music and other arts are able to capture many of the feelings we have nonverbally, which is said to be a human trait called aesthetics, which is beneficial to human health. Humans tend to have a hunger for sensory experiences that differ but remain throughout cultures around the world, and learning the music of ones culture is needed for humans. Human nature is not to be content only with hearing sounds of the environment, but instead creates new sounds to create beauty. Without the aesthetic experience of music, humans would not be as complete, and children need music for normal development. When listening to music, the automatic nervous system changes heartbeat, gastric motility, breathing, etc. Everyone brings their own lives to the tables as well, so everything that happens in a persons life affects how they react to specific pieces of music. Music and science cannot be separated. This has given me a lot to think about with the connection of music to mankind and development. It helped me to realize that although there are structures that have been created in music, the central purpose is to express what we cannot express with words. Aesthetic experiences are something extremely important to human development and humans should not exist without it. Hodges, Donald A., and Robin W. Wilkins. "How and Why Does Music Move Us? Answers from Psychology and Neuroscience." Music Educators Journal, vol. 101, no. 4, 2015, pp. 41–47., www.jstor.org/stable/24755599. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. This article talks more about the psychological and neurological reasons music is so powerful to us. Scientists have developed a new technique called network science where they can look at interconnectivity in the brain while listening to music. It talks about the default mode network in our brains, which will have interconnectivity while listening to music subjects enjoy. Scientists have found music to greatly improve quality of life. I will use this article to learn more about the actual scientific findings of how music affects brains, and what that means. Being able to understand how the brain works and how certain areas of it are affected when listening to music is incredible important. I think this will give me more of a foundation to talk about different aspects of music affect on us that I was previously unaware of. MATRAVERS, DEREK. "Recent Philosophical Work on the Connection between Music and the Emotions." Music Analysis, vol. 29, no. 1/3, 2010, pp. 8–18. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/41289718. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. The question concerned in this article is about how music can be expressive of emotions. There are 3 different theories about music that are talked about, the first of which are the arousal theories. These theories say that music has properties that can arouse emotions in listeners. This happens either because of how sounds and dynamics affect the human body and mind or because music makes people think about humans expressions of emotions. Derek Matravers believed that expression in music is related to how humans typically express emotions. He believes emotions have cognitive components and make us feel in some way. Peter Kivy believes that if this were true, we would avoid music with negative emotions. Cognitivist theories have the belief that emotions in music are not felt but instead just displayed. Symbol theories say that the way emotions are expressed is dependent on culture and feelings in music are symbolic and abstract depictions of the emotions. I believe the way these theories have talked about how emotions are expressed in music is interesting and there is a lot to learn from these theories. There can be some truth to each of them and some falseness to each of them but they all contribute something unique to the conversation. I will be able to use these theories to help form how I think emotions fit their way into music and connect with the audience. Packalén, Elina. "Music, Emotions, and Truth." Philosophy of Music Education Review, vol. 16, no. 1, 2008, pp. 41–59. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40327289. Accessed 13 Feb. 2020. This source claims there to be 3 accounts of expression in music. The first is the resemblance accounts. These accounts are about hearing pieces of music that remind us about certain characteristics we see in people. Some pieces can sound sad or a certain way just because of the things we think it reminds us of. The second believes that we imaging the music to be something else in order to find expressiveness in it. This has the belief that if we hear a piece we might think of it as the externalization of an emotion. We place the music in a role created by us, externalizing a fictional persons emotions. The third type of theory say that expression in music is something that arouses emotions in listeners. I can look at these three different theories of how music causes emotions in listeners and how they might be disproven. Each of them provides a viewpoint that could be considered true, although there are likely false portions to each theory. Looking at these three in contrast with each other will help me form an opinion on how I believe emotion in music to be displayed and felt.