Music on the Mind

Jul 21 / Michelle Cross Smith
Street musicians in beloved New Orleans, my second favorite city after Philadelphia.
Music has always been part of the human experience. We may have sung before we spoke.  The oldest known instrument is a 43,000 year-old flute carved from vulture and mammoth bones. Music is expression and communication, and experiencing music with others, whether singing, playing, or listening, engages us in community.

I’m what you’d call an amateur musician. I was in chorus and musicals. When my children were small I constantly sang to them and I like to make up funny songs. I played alto saxophone throughout middle and high school, a homage to my early discovery of jazz. Even hammering basic chords on a piano lights up something in my brain.
When I consider music as a listener, I’m blown away by how closely songs are connected to my emotions and autobiographical history. Music often becomes the soundtrack of our lives, with certain songs and genres becoming fixed in our personal timeline. 

Music is also a way I connect with the times, tuning into popular music and emerging artists. I have vivid memories of settling into my bedroom at 9 pm, lights low, recording Casey Casum’s Top 10 Hits from the radio to a cassette tape. For a pre-teen living in a repressive home environment where Christian radio was shoved down my throat, pop music was a lifeline and a form of rebellion. 

Podcast Episode: Your Brain on Music

Recently I was lucky enough to speak with Anna Palumbo, Research Manager at the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at NYU. Anna spoke to me about how our brains process music, why playing music and improvising in particular are powerful ways we can sidestep neurological conditions, and what simple steps we can take to connect ourselves to our built-in musical impulses. I highly recommend checking out this interview (not just because I made it 🙂). Anna provides so many great insights!

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