Before any one gets worried – we love working with all our clients! One of the reasons that we don’t specialise in websites for a particular sector or niche is because the variety is crucial to us (and we want to avoid conflicts of interest too). However, every now and again, we find that we are actually the target market of whatever site we’re building – and we get properly intrigued and more involved than we ever thought (or planned) we would. One of these is The 52 Project – and 3 months on from “Jen, I need a new bit of website, fast”, I’m now here contributing to the “Playlist for Life” tip – using the knowledge that I actually studied for at University.
The 52 Project is a collaborative wellbeing project run by Dulcie Swanston from Top Right Thinking and Dr Iain Price from Think it Out. The concept is simple – each week they share a tip on Instagram that can boost your brain, body or mind – and ask the growing 52 Project community to try the tip out – and report back on how it’s worked for them. Using this evidence on each tip, they’re planning to publish a book in January 2022 explaining the tips that worked best in real life for real people.
I seem to have become one of the ‘real people’. I wasn’t planning to – but drinking a pint of water before I got up each morning seemed achievable – so I tried it. Seemingly rehydrating my brain before I get up does give me more clarity of thinking… I was hooked.
Playlist for Life
I trained as a musician – from picking up the recorder at a young age, starting the piano at 7 and then adding in trumpet aged 11, musicianship came pretty easily to me (not Grade 5 Theory but that’s another story about learning styles and being a teenager). I was fortunate to live just around the corner from our local music school, attend both primary and secondary schools that really saw the value of teaching music within the curriculum and have parents who ferried me to and from lessons, rehearsals and concerts week in, week out.
I completed my Bachelor of Music degree at Hull University in 1996 – specialising in musicology (the analysis and transcription of old music manuscripts into music that can be played now – essentially detective work) and performance. We were taught to listen intently – rarely to the tune; to decode, understand structure and analyse form – skills that I use every day when building websites now. In terms of music history, the bit I found most fascinaing was the way that music had developed during the Industrial Revolution in Britain – something that linked to my love and involvement in brass bands and local communities. Reflecting on it, these are all skills and values that are an intrinsic part of my life now.
Using music to get into a different zone or space
What you listen to is deeply personal. We talked in the Instagram Live about the number of beats per minute that the music you choose to listen to has – and how it might affect your ability to get into a different zone or space – whether that’s to work, exercise to, chill out, improve your productivity or use with another habit to make it even more beneficial.
Whilst the suggestions made over on The 52 Project website are more contemporary, here are some suggestions from my musical education that you can ask your friendly smart speaker to play – to see if they’re the sort of thing that help you get into the zone that you want to be in:
120 beats per minute
Great for (we think): productivity, sustained periods of activity or concentration – or bopping around the kitchen:
- Handel: Hallelujah Chorus
- Vivaldi – ‘Autumn’ from the 4 Seasons – and there are suggestions that ‘Spring’ from the same work is often associated with improving mood
- Mozart – Horn Concerto No 4. I used to listen to this on my much beloved Walkman on repeat on car journeys
- Sousa – Stars & Stripes Forever (and many of his other marches)
- Dvořák – Symphony “From the New World” part III. I’d recommend having this on as background music for anything – and you’ll recognise certain bits from adverts!
- Gershwin – Promenade from Rhapsody in Blue
There are plenty more suggestions here: https://getsongbpm.com/tempo/120-bpm-classical
Slightly slower…
Great for: reflection, journaling, quieter work practises, taking a breath, observations – or maybe something else?
- Mendelssohn – Songs Without Words (an amazing collection of short piano pieces)
- Beethoven – Symphony No. 6 in F major op.68 “Pastoral” – IV ‘Allegro’
- Smetana – Má vlast, JB 1:112: II. Vltava (The Moldau)
- Pachelbel – Canon in D
- Massenet – Meditation from Thais
- Vaughan-Williams – The Lark Ascending
- Johannes Brahms – German Requiem, Op. 45: Wie lieblich sind deine Wohnungen
It’s suggested that music from about 1685-1750 (ish) is good for making your brain ‘fizz’ a little more – whereas music composed between 1750 and 1900 (very ish) is more multi layered and might be good for getting you into a different zone or mood.
Songs from the shows
Musicals are written to get our feet tapping – and us fully engaged with the story. From the solo ballads and lamentations to the full cast & company show stoppers – there is something for everyone. If you’ve not listened to songs from musicals before, you might like to try;
- Hamilton
- Dear Evan Hanson
- Six
- School of Rock
- Barnum
- Anything Goes
- 42nd Street
- Little Shop of Horrors
- West Side Story
- Billy Elliot
- (or if you did it at school and want to sing along…) Joseph and his Technicolour Dreamcoat
There are plenty of show tune playlists on Amazon and Spotify – or (if you can cope with the talking) Magic at the Musicals radio station is a current favourite of mine.
Jazz, Boogie Woogie, Swing and Jive
From the roaring 20’s, right through until the 1950’s, jazz, boogie woogie, swing and jive music were a massive part of popular culture.
Often fast paced, uplifting and oozing with both the ideas of resilience (during the war) and recovery (post war) there is something for every mood and work rate.
Our list for this could take a whole blog in itself but as a starter ask your friendly smart speaker or music service for:
- Songs by Jools Holland
- The album Swing when you’re Winning – Robbie Williams
- Anything by Glen Miller
- The soundtrack to Burn The Floor
- Songs by Miles Davies
- Dave Brubeck – Take 5
- Louis Armstrong
- Harry Connick Jnr
- Michael Buble
- Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
- Big Band Music
The Instagram Live
We’d love you to contribute to The 52 Project playlist (and see all the other tips) at www.the52project.com
Safer Internet Day 2021