What your playlist can tell you about your creative mindset

...and how to listen

When I was a little kid my family didn’t listen to a lot of music, and what we did hear tended to be a very select selection of my parents’ favourite artists, such as Neil Diamond, for example, or Hooked on Classics, or Nana Mouskouri!

I haven’t thought about Nana Mouskouri in a very long while (fun fact, she lives in Switzerland, same as me!). But she suddenly popped into my head when I read an article about a recent study into how kids recognise emotions in music.

Very young kids, around ages three to five, can apparently recognise distinct emotions in music. They use the nonverbal sound cues that our brains are naturally tuned in to, such as how fast or slow, loud or soft, low pitched or high pitched, and so on.

The research study focused on the four basic, universal emotions of happiness, sadness, calmness, and fear. Happiness, for example, is usually shown with a fast speed, a major key as opposed to a sadder sounding minor key, and a lively and fast rhythm. Whereas fear might also have the faster tempo but with more irregular rhythms, sudden changes in pitch and volume level, and some dissonance (when notes sound like they clash).

This ability apparently improves with age and even kids who struggle to accurately read emotions in facial expressions are able to identify emotions such as fear in music. Music, it would seem, is offering an alternative pathway to recognising emotions.

What about us adults?

There’s a lot more to it than this in the study, but what has me intrigued is what this might mean for us adults. I’m wondering if music might have the potential to not only help us more effectively navigate our emotions, but also leverage this and help us navigate how we approach being creative.

The emotion I’m really thinking of here is fear. The truth is that most adult creative blocks around not only creating but even thinking we’re capable of it aren't about skill or talent at all, but about fear.

A fear of judgment, of failure, of revealing too much about ourselves, and definitely a fear of not being good enough. And these fears can feel so normal that we don’t even see them for what they are. This is when we start to tell ourselves ‘I’m not creative’ or ‘I’m not good enough to even try’ instead.

How wonderful would it be if music could sneak past these judgements? If music could offer the same unique track to emotional recognition that apparently works with little kids and bypass our usual analytical and highly critical filters, might it not also have the ability to bypass that inner critic that often shuts down creative expression before it can even get started?

I know, sounds a bit off the wall, doesn’t it.

But think about the last time you started listening to a song that instantly shifted your mood, and before you could even think about it you were feeling something different to just a few minutes before.

Maybe there’s also hope that us grownups could also use music as an aid to help us go way back to that pre-critical, intuitive state that came to us naturally when we were kids, and then relearn how to not be so afraid of doing something that used to come so naturally.

I guess this would be a bit like an emotional permission slip, letting a piece of music tell you not only how you’re feeling but allowing you to feel it, too. Because when it comes to creativity there’s no way around feeling the fear, so the best bet is to learn how to work with it instead of being paralysed by it.

How to work this black magic!

I think that if we can learn how to identify and exist in the feeling of fear through music, then we at least have something concrete to work with. And if we can work out how to choose music that matches that feeling, maybe we can use the resulting emotional state as creative fuel, ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’ style.

In my experience, the fear of stuffing up, of not being good enough, of never having a single idea ever again, and of embarrassing myself never really goes away. But how awful if this is the reason we never feel we can allow ourselves to not only reconnect with our creative selves, but actually take the first step to creating something?

The key is to try choosing music that matches your actual emotional state rather than the one you think you should have. If you’re anxious about starting something, find music that matches that feeling. Feeling frustrated? Let the music be frustrated with you.

This is similar to how sad music can have what can seem like a contradictory effect. We love to listen to sad music when we’re sad because it feels like it’s reflecting our mood. Happy music just wouldn’t cut it.

So, next time you're avoiding a creative project, try this. Find a piece of music or song that matches how you're actually feeling about it. Are you feeling anxious about starting? Find music that feels anxious too. Frustrated that you're stuck? Let the music be frustrated with you.

Don’t try to fight the feeling. Instead, let the music name what’s really going on. You might be surprised how much easier it is to create something from a place in which you’ve acknowledged how you’re feeling, instead of trying to create despite it.

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I have no idea where Nana Mouskouri lives in Switzerland, and if I did I'd still leave her in peace. But maybe I don't even need to ask a lifelong creative about fear, but just put my headphones on and see what my own playlist has to tell me.

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