Music Enhances Movement and Motivation While Living/Traveling Abroad

Walking By Amber Fort, Jaipur

While walking to the grocery store or hiking out in the local hills, I have discovered a new appreciation for music.  In the past, I would walk with the ambient noise around me, but in India there is a lot of horn honking, car sounds, city sounds, that I am not used to from mostly living in the country.  I have started using my iShuffle as a lightweight companion on my walks.  Most of the time I power walk with long strides and I often find it matching the upbeat music of Michael Jackson, Florence and The Machine, Lady Gaga, and some of the others.  It provides a vitality to the experience and I could even break out and start dancing at times.  Yes, it does separate me a bit from what is going on around me and I have to be careful not to get hit by a car (pedestrians are not a priority in India) or walk in front of a scooter or bicycle, but it enhances the experience.

As a white female, walking in Western clothing in a conservative town in India, I am often subject to stares–a lot of stares.  Growing up in California, cultural diversity is the norm and not the exception, so that has been a bit of an adjustment too.  I am learning that much of the attention is curiosity, but some of it has been in the form of bullying or sexual advancements.  Again, not something I am use to walking in.  Having my head phones has provided a positive distraction for dealing with some of the not so positive energy that surrounds my walk experience too.  I can bliss out in my own world and not collect the negative thoughts of others.  (Interesting side benefit is that earphones are a developing phenomena, so the guys think it is cool and tend to leave me alone.)  I respect myself enough to not want to give up on going out and exercising, but the how has been the challenge.  Finding an unexpected gift from those earphones and mini-mp3 player.

You may find yet other ways to feel motivated by music.  Pick music that you not only hear, but that you feel!

Here is an article on different types of music and the one below that on how music enhanced people’s fitness training.

Music – Expression of Emotions
By Admin
We smile, we love, we cry. We, the human beings experience a wide spectrum of emotions in our life. Some …
Music and Movie – http://rocknrockrecords.com/

We smile, we love, we cry. We, the human beings experience a wide spectrum of emotions in our life. Some of them are expressed while others die in our own mind. But from time immemorial, our emotions have been voiced through music. Music, which is composed of seven distinct tunes, is actually an expression of human emotions.

Music is characterized by certain qualities like, pitch, melody, rhythm, and frequency. And each type of music is again characteristic by certain degrees of these above mentioned qualities. A rhythmic music characterizes joy while a melody expresses romance. Again, a melody also expresses sorrows. For instance, Latin music is mostly featured by rhythm and certain genre of tune. Latin music is an expression of Bohemian lifestyle which very much complements Latin culture. Variation in melodies and rhythm leads to expression of varieties of emotions.
If we look back to Western Classical, It connects us to something universal about human emotions. It makes us reach a transcendental stage of mind. However some composers opine that emotions conveyed through music is something quite abstract and varies according to the different perception of different individuals. One of the notable composers of Western Classical music was, Ludwig Van Beethoven, who gifted the world with musical masterpieces despite of being paralyzed with deafness at very young age (twenty eight). He can be regarded as the profounder of Romantic era of Western classical.

Eastern Classical or specifically Indian Classical music has a number of sections and categories. However the two major sections are Hindustani Music from North India and the Carnatic Music from South India. Each of the songs are known as “Ragasâ€. The melodies contained in each of these “ragas†reflects various moods according to different times during the day. The Indian Classical music is mainly monophonic, that is, it is based on a single line of melody and has to be sung at a specific rhythm. Any deviation from the above rule is considered as a mistake.

Even Folk music conveys something about the culture and lifestyle of a particular region. To be more specific, it generally narrates some popular folk tales of that region.

When lyrics are put in a tune, it becomes a song. However, music can also be purely instrumental where one derives pleasure from the tune only. Beautiful notes of pianos, violin, guitars, expresses emotions without any words. Music can express most of human emotions. It expresses joy, ecstasy, romance, and also sorrows, pathos, and agony. In the words of P.B Shelly “Our sweetest songs are those which tells us our saddest thoughtsâ€.

Surprisingly, a simple song which is sung from the heart gives us more pleasure than a complex one which is often influenced by human artifacts. May be this is a reason why pop songs and rocks are also quite popular today. It is also quite true that likings for particular kind of music largely depends upon the temperaments of individuals. This is the reason why some prefer soft melodies while some like hard rocks. It can be reasonably argued that music is not only an expression of emotions, it is emotion itself. Music without an emotional message is like vacuum. It is like a flower without essence.

The impression of music in human mind is beautifully depicted by William Wordsworth in his poetry “The Solitary Reaperâ€. The poet is mesmerized by the touching song sung by a lass while the latter was reaping in a field. Though the language of the song was completely unknown to him, he was deeply moved by the emotions conveyed through the notes of her song. The music had left an indelible impression in his mind and in the later years of his life, he sadly reminisces “The music in my heart I bore, long after it was heard no moreâ€.