The Effect of Music
at Workplace
Sohail Ahmed Khan, Music
Therapist CMT
(London), BMGIM Advance Level USA
The word
music has many meanings which tell us about the organizing different elements
of sound, or to manage and systematization. I think it is not necessary to include
only sounds with music you can find music without sound as well. Music is not
only to listen, it has various amazing powers to feel, sense, and experience. I
am not splitting music into two categories “music with sounds” and “music
without sounds” but I am allowing you to find, music is everywhere it is up to
you that how you find it. You can find music in nature, in realization of
universe, you can find it in yourself, music is present in all forms of
architecture, and even in the silence.
There are
many definitions for music and it will take many years to explore the subject
of music. Music is a universal language and it is also relative and subjective.
What may be music to one may not be so to another. When we include sounds with
music then we can say that “music is organized sounds” and when we (Human)
produce any music then we add one more word to the definition and now we can
describe music as (Blacking, 1973) said “Humanly
Organized Sounds”. I would talk about the music which we produce
regardless of sounds.
When we
construct any place for our routine exercises i.e. for living, for work, and
for other activities actually we compose these places according to our frame of
mind and try to make a unique environment which reflect our mood and nature of
activities.
Music has the
effect of imposing order and structure on time. At an event featuring music,
everyone experiences the same feeling at the same time. I have designed and
conducted several sessions on “Effect of Music on Moods & Feelings”.
Basic Elements of Music
Thousands of
pages are required to describe music theory and its technicalities, but to
understand the effect of music on behaviour it is important to understand few
basic elements of music.
Here I’ll
describe only four basic elements of music
Melody is a succession of notes in specific or
structured path heard as some sort of unit. A Note refers to a
specific frequency, pitch, and/or rhythm or the written symbol.
Rhythm is the organization of the durational aspects
of music.
Harmony is the relationship between two or more
pitches.
Timbre (pronounced "Tam-ber"). Timbre
describes all of the aspects of a musical sound that do not have anything to do
with the sound's pitch, loudness, or length. In other words, if
a flute plays a note, and then an oboe plays the same note,
for the same length of time, at the same loudness, you can still easily
distinguish between the two sounds, because a flute sounds different from an
oboe. This difference is in the timbre of the sounds.
How Music Process in Brain
(Levitin, 2006) Described that the
sound waves go to the brain through the ears in the form of Neuro Signals. As
the sound hits the ear drum it sets up the pressure waves inside the snail like
structure called cochlea and cochlea has hair cells that are tuned to specific
frequencies. At the one end of cochlea hair cells only fire the electrical
charge and response to low frequencies at the other end they fire electrical
charge and response to higher frequencies. That electrical charge goes to the
auditory cortex where a primary, secondary, and tertiary auditory cortex
activates as they received signals from the brain stem through the inferior
colliculus and nucleus. Primary and secondary auditory cortex process different
elements of music in different parts of brain, pitch process in one part of the
Neuro region rhythm is in another. Timbre, where it is sound of Violin,
Trumpet, Piano, or Human voice, process in other part of the brain, and harmony
in another. When it comes all together tertiary auditory cortex help brain to
sense the complete feel of music and produce emotions.
Music & Emotions
Music has vibrant
powers which can bring changes in mood and emotions in few seconds. Each
element of music has emotional effects which makes the overall impact of music
on human feeling, emotions, and behaviour. (Plutchik, 1989) Described emotions
are best perceived through an evolutionary viewpoint as adaptations provoked by
the challenges of survival and reproduction that are part of every creature’s
existence.
Emotions have
a couple of properties Valence and Intensity, valance refers to
the kinds of emotions doesn’t matter whether they are positive or negative.
Intensity is about the power or force with which you feel the emotions the
scale of intensity is from slight to extreme. If you’ve done something wrong
you might feel only mildly guilty or you might feel extremely guilty. Here are
some positive and negative emotions:
Positive
Emotions: positive emotions are fueled by an underlying desire of
enjoyment and unity. Delight, Bliss, Amusement, Tenderness, Enthusiasm,
Laughter, Gratitude, Serenity, Adoration, Action, Curiosity, and Interest are
few examples of positive emotions.
Negative
Emotions: negative emotions are fueled with unknown fear, fear of others
about their actions, and a need to control those emotions to avoid harm.
Regret, Resentment, Grief, Offence, Depression, Anxiety, Panic, Embarrassment,
and Guilt are few examples of negative emotions.
The aim of
using music is processing it to make people more fluid in terms of emotions.
They should be able to use whatever emotion is most appropriate with its full
range. Positive people are more flexible and fluid with emotions but the goal
is actually integration, moving beyond the positive/negative idea altogether.
To understand
about the role of music on emotions we need to know about the structure of
music its elements and dynamics. Every aspect of music has a characteristic and
emotional effect, I’ll discuss about the few of them.
Emotional Effects of Pitch & Melody
You can
observe some of the main emotional effects of pitch, and melody. (Schellenberg, Krysciak,
& Campbell, 2000) Examined the effects of pitch and
rhythm on the perceived emotional content of short melodies.
Low Pitch and Melody: with
Allegro, Andante, and Largo movements produce the emotions of
Fear, Seriousness, generally negative emotional valence, also Majesty,
Vigor, Dignity, Solemnity, and Tenderness.
Low Pitch Monotonic: associated
with Anger, Boredom, and sometimes Fear.
Low Pitch Especially Octave Leap
Downwards: produces the emotions of Sadness, Grief, and Melancholy.
Wandering and Unfocused Melody: associated
with Sadness.
High Pitch/ Melody: Generally
positive emotional valence, Happiness, Grace, Surprise, Triumph, Serenity,
Dreaminess.
High, rising melody, especially octave
leap upwards: produce the emotions of Happiness and
Excitement.
Emotional Effects of
Dynamics
Dynamics of
music refers to softness and loudness of music elements
Soft (Quiet): this
type of music generally have negative emotional valence—Sadness,
Melancholy, but also Tenderness, and Peacefulness.
Soft, not varying much: associated
with Tenderness
Moderate, not varying much: produce
emotions of Happiness, Pleasantness
Loud Music: produce Joy,
Excitement, Happiness, Triumph, generally positive emotional valence.
Very loud, to distortion levels: associated
with Anger
Wide changes, soft to loud, especially
if quick: produce the emotion of Fear.
Emotional Effects of
Timbre (Tone Colour)
Simple tone color, few overtones (e.g.,
flute): Pleasantness, Peace, and Boredom
Complex tone color, many overtones (e.g.,
over-driven electric guitar): Power, Anger, Fear
Bright tone color, crisp, fast
tone attack and decay in performance: Generally positive emotional
valence, Happiness.
Dull tone color, slow attack
and decay in performance: Generally negative emotional valence, Sadness,
Tenderness.
Violin sounds: Sadness,
Fear, and Anger
Drum sounds: associated
with Excitement, Motivation, and Anger depends on playing style and speed.
Sharp, abrupt tone attacks: Anger
Emotional Effects of Intervals
Consonant
intervals: produces Pleasantness, generally positive emotional
valence; not as strong or active as dissonant intervals.
Dissonant intervals: Generally
negative emotional valence, Strength, Activity
Major intervals: usually
associated with Brightness, and Strength
Minor Intervals: Dullness,
and Weakness
Large intervals: Power.
Small intervals: Weakness.
Minor second: Melancholy,
Displeasure, Anguish, and Darkness
Major second: Pleasurable
Longing, Displeasure (neutral as a passing tone)
Minor third: Tragedy,
and Sadness.
Major third: Joy,
Happiness, and Brightness.
Perfect fourth: Buoyancy,
and Pathos
Tritone: Violence,
Danger, Tension, and Devilishness.
Perfect fifth: Cheerfulness,
and Stability.
Minor sixth: Anguish,
and Sadness
Major sixth: Winsomeness,
Pleasurable Longing (neutral as a passing tone)
Dominant seventh: Irresolution,
Displeasure, Mournfulness.
Major seventh: Aspiration,
Displeasure, Violent longing.
Octave: Lightheartedness
(i.e., sudden melodic leap).
Music at Workplace
If you listen
to music while working, it puts you in a better emotional state, and you’re
more likely to stick with your work management. Professional composers of film
scores tend to have a good grasp of the connections between emotional valences
and elements of tone such as pitch, loudness, and tone colour.
Listening to
music can have an extremely relaxing effect on our minds and bodies, music can
have a valuable effect on our physiological functions, slowing the pulse and
heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and decreasing the levels of stress
hormones. Music can absorb our attention; it acts as a distraction at the same
time it helps to explore emotions. This means it can be a great aid to meditation,
helping to prevent the mind wandering. This is the reason which makes us
vigilant about the selection of music at workplace. To get maximum benefits of
music at workplace we should have some knowledge of music and its emotional
effects, only those people should have right to select music who knows about
the music and its effects in working environment. Wrong selection of music can
distract workers from their assignments which will affect their performance and
can cause losses to the employer.
Selection of Music in Different Working
Environments
A workplace is a location or building
where people perform physical or mental work in order to earn a living. There are
different types of work and working environments, and we can incorporate music
in most of the working environments. It is important to understand that each
workplace is a social place where different people interact with each others.
In each workplace people comes from different backgrounds, and everyone has
different approach mental attitude, behaviour, and skills.
People comes
at workplace with different emotions, such as joy, anger, love, hate,
excitement, fear, etc. all these emotions have consequences and have an effect
on the mental and physical abilities of a worker. As we’ve discussed earlier
about the vigorous powers of music on emotions and feelings we know that music
is capable of bringing change in emotions in few seconds. Carefully selected
music with rich expressive effect can bring change in the mood of the listeners
and develop similar emotional outcomes on the mood and behavior, of all
listeners.
We have many
different environments at different types of workplaces, assessing any
workplace environment we should consider about the characteristics of all
individuals and the nature of work activities. (Queensland Government , 2015) Mentioned in module
10 work environment, we should ensure while designing a workplace environment
that the environment should accommodate a broad variety of human characteristics.
The work environment should satisfy the mental and physical requirements of all
workers.
Helen Bonny
is the pioneer for the Guided Imagery & Music method of music therapy, she
has written many books and articles on the effect of music on human emotions
and behaviour. I feel lucky and proud when my mentor Fran Smith Goldberg told
her about me, she was very happy to hear that someone (Me) from Pakistan is
having a training in BMGIM (Bonny Method of Guided Imagery & Music). Bonny
sent me a message of good wishes and told that “Sohail you are the pioneer of
music therapy in Pakistan like I am the pioneer of BMGIM in the world”. She
died couple of years ago and unfortunately I couldn’t meet her. I am quoting
her statement here, Bonny states, “at the beginning of a listening experience
best results are obtained when the mood of the music matches the mood of the
listener. It is as if the mind and the feelings are vibrating at a certain
frequency and are most satisfied with music that is attuned to that frequency” (Bonny & Savary,
2004).
Concluding
this discussion I would like to suggest the use of music in different working
environments according to the background of workers, mental and emotional
state, and the nature of work activities.
Ensuing
decisions about which piece of music to select in which type of mental and
emotional state and working environment made us using a two-step decision
making process. The first step is to select the music pieces with similar
emotional effects and the second is to use different music pieces with
different emotional outcomes. Bonny states “Music may be used either to sustain
a mood or to alter it”.
Music can change
and equalize brain waves. There are 5 kinds of waves that the brain produce Gamma
waves, Beta waves, Alpha waves, Theta waves, and Delta waves. All of these
waves are measured in hertz. German neurologist Hans Berger discovered
brainwaves, he published his findings in 1931.
State
|
Frequency range
|
State of mind
|
Delta
|
0.5Hz - 4Hz
|
Deep sleep
|
Theta
|
4Hz - 8Hz
|
Drowsiness (also first stage of
sleep)
|
Alpha
|
8Hz - 14Hz
|
Relaxed but alert
|
Beta
|
14Hz - 40Hz
|
Highly alert and focused
|
Gamma
|
40Hz – 100Hz
|
Higher processing
tasks and cognitive functions
|
By using all
above information about emotional effects of music elements, melodies, and
brain waves we can select music pieces and songs to sustain or alter the
emotional states of workers. Organizations can contact a music therapist or the
people who have in-depth knowledge of music and its effects to prepare a
structured music program which fits their organizational and environmental
needs.
References
Blacking, J. (1973). How Musical is Man?
Seattle and London: University of Washington Press.
Bonny, H. L., & Savary, L. M. (2004). Music
and Your Mind: Listening with a New Consciousness. New York: MMB Music,
Incorporated.
Levitin, D. J. (2006). This is Your Brain on
Music. Monterial : Dutton Penguin.
Plutchik, R. (1989). The Measurement of Emotions.
New York: Academic Press.
Queensland Government . (2015). Creating
Healthier Workplace. Retrieved from Queensland Government Department of
Education and Training:
education.qld.gov.au/health/docs/.../workplace-environment.doc
Schellenberg, G. E., Krysciak, A. M., &
Campbell, J. R. (2000). Perceiving Emotion in Melody: Interactive Effects of
Pitch and Rhythm. Music Perception: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 18(2),
155-171.