Skip to main content

Music Helps Depression

It's been well known that music helps people with depression.

You can read research and a lot more about how music can help at the American Music Therapy Association's website.

I won't bore you with the musical theory behind my choices (being a violinist I know a bit about it), just let it suffice that the most constructive pieces for depression (in my opinion) are written in a variation of major keys.

Here are a few of my suggestions:

Uplifting
Classical: Liszt - Les Preludes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDEem_aEttE
Pop: Bette Middler - Wind beneath my wings https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0iAzMRKFX3c

Motivating
Classical: Dvorak's 8th Symphony https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfP29uN33L8
Pop: Whitney Houston - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27Lf9gEioxI

Productive
Classical: J.S. Bach - Brandenburg concertos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCPM8DEsvmc
Pop: Queen - Don't stop me now https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgzGwKwLmgM

Calming
Classical: Debussy - Clair de Lune https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ea2WoUtbzuw
Pop: Sting - Fields of gold https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLVq0IAzh1A

Playful
Classical: Mozart - Eine kleine Nachtmusik https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcpM0yN7p0c
Pop: The Electric Slide https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jBkoEM0SSE

Of course, if you just need to zone out, you can listen to sounds like 528Hz, wind, whales, ocean, forest, and the likes.

I hope you give these pieces a listen and get on the road to build your own list that helps you.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Depression SWOT Analysis

One of my special talents (no big head here just historical evidence) is translating and adopting seemingly unrelated concepts to solve problems. This is the context for sharing how I used a traditional business tool SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) to assess and plot a path out of depression. First off, using business tools for mental health is a great thing because it allows for taking the illness into a more pragmatic framework than traditional therapy approaches. Secondly, business concepts are known to many so there is an innate comfort in relating to them. Third, using a tool that is not psychological in nature may help put more emphasis on problem solving than illness identification. What I mean by this is a different viewpoint that focuses on current practices and options moving forward. So lets begin. SWOT is a staple of competitive analysis tools in business. You can read a good writeup here: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_05.htm My ado...
Post a Comment
Read more

Digging out of the Depression Hole - Acknowledge

I'm back after many months to share the journey to digging myself out of a period of deeper than usual depression.  I hope that these posts will help some of you in your own journey. I want to emphasize that deep depression is not something that happens at the time of causes.  It is a result of prolonged and piled up unresolved emotions and feelings.  Being functional keeps many of us dealing with the root causes when they occur.  Therefore, do not try to find causes of depression in current situations, the damage happened in the past.  I wrote this as an 8-year-old: I have everything but I am just not happy. Well, you may have everything okay right now but the past has caught up with you.  Like when I had cancer... I was taking the treatments like a champ but 6 months later I fell into a deep depression. Emotions have a lag time. Depression is not new to me as I have suffered it my entire life (at least all of it that I can remember). Naturally, I've d...
Post a Comment
Read more

Depression - 4 Daily Essentials

After almost a year of searching for, testing and developing practices to eliminate depression, I've come up with the most essential 4 that has the greatest impact. I'll keep this really simple. 1. Start the morning right (5-minutes) State out loud: I am the maker of my good day Make a list of 3 positive things you a thankful in your life Make a daily to-do list of 3 items (must, optional, just for me) Commit to make the day count for you (learn something, feel progress) 2. Reset when unwanted thoughts, events, whatever happens Make a list of 5-minute activities (water plants, load dish washer, sort laundry, send a message to a friend, walk around the block, window shop online for something specific, have a cup of tea, meditate, listen to a song/talk/audio book, etc.) Whenever you sense the onset of a downward feeling (usually a gut or heart squeeze) nip it immediately by doing one of the items from your list 3. Take a 15-minute 'me time' Create a playlist of meditation...
Post a Comment
Read more