Ja-ne Oyasuminasai!

This is the end. Final blog since the class and the semster is coming to an end and I can genuinely say that this was a nice way to go about the class. First of all I probably enjoyed this because of the topic I chose, which I can say that I'm truely intrested in since I'm a music aficionado and also likes to know what's going on in the world today. When there are so many other issues that are tearing at the worlds back and a lot of the focus is going on such things that fall under entertainment like Music, Film and Television you know that priorities need to be set straight. Whether it's being debated or just being trampled by a group of people, you can see how sometimes, time is being wasted for such insignificant causes like trying to blame things like music for problems that might of been caused by deeper roots.

If there are certain things that I have taken from this, its important factual information that reveals a lot of things that someone might not have known previously. The psychological effects of music for once, how it can affect us, we'll listen to sad music because we're sad or try to listen to happy music to cheer up or we'll get angry because we're sad and we don't enjoy the happy music and want to remain in the certain state of mind that we're already which in this case would be anger. There are plenty of scenarios having to do with our moods and have music juggles with them. Music is worldwide, you might not find many things as universal as music it's one of the windows to the soul no matter what genre it is, it will touch you and evoke thoughts, emotions and visions like nothing else it will give you the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows. What else is being sung, hummed and whistled by soldiers in battlefields, poor exploited immigrants picking fruit, people with fatal diseases, people starving to death, people risking their lives for their believes what else but Music. No matter your situation or your outlook music is something that will always be there and something that you can always relish.

Something that I hope everybody already knows is that instead of believing everything you hear you should also take upon yourself the task of researching information. There are many people out there with various views on things some good, some bad. When I was researching my topic for example I came upon many articles where they were claiming that Hip-Hop music was not a legitimate form of music and that it was in the fault for so many things that I won't even bother to list. I bring this up because that was what someone thought and not necessarily what everyone thinks, that is why researching things yourself is a must so that you can make up your own point of view on such subjects and not fall for others corrupt thoughts which might be the exact opposite of your own. That is one of the reasons that if someone asked me which post of mine they should check out I would say whichever one want they want, I feel like I researched and put the most effort into all of my posts. Looking at some of the posts though some do look pretty lengthy but everything I posted I feel was something that deserved to be seen and read, that is why its there. One of the things I attempted to do was to present information in an unbiased manner which I think that I succeeded in, well to an extent atleast. There were times when I just wanted to put everything to the side and say something myself without anybodies other opinion being there measuring theirs to mine.

I haven't the slightest clue why but for me writing this blog came off very easy and accessible, sure I probably procrastinated most of the time but when I actually settled down to do it I felt content with what had been produced. A handful of times I would try to search for something having to do with my topic and off the bat I couldn't find much information. I kept looking things up in a variety of ways until I found what I wanted or something atleast adjacent to it, this is one of the things that sometimes imposed a challenge. Depending on what I'm working on I'm very critical of what I write whether its on this blog or anywhere else, so I carefully evaluated my posts before I actually published them and after that I tried not to read them. Another great thing about these blogs was being able to read the blogs of fellows students also attempting their best in presenting their topics to the rest of us. Besides reading and acquiring new knowledge from these other topics you gain a real actuality about them that makes you want to keep reading and learning as much as you can.

Anyway this being the last post shows that for one; I made it and and two; that it was a good experience but like everything in this universe it was bound to end and with that I bid farewell with this:

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”-Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sleep Walk

The first thing I realized from the editorial that I chose what they it states the positive effects of music but didn't forget to also add the negative effects that it can cause. It starts off with "Music can move the soul. It can be a very strong influence. Some music can calm us down, some music can make us wild!" which explains what music has become, a way to completely integrate emotions and feelings into someone's brain that weren't already there. Music as much as we like or have animosity towards it, it can help, like the editorial states it has been used for therapy, medical research and even to treat things like ADD all the way to premature infants.

Reading the article it's obvious that it isn't bias since it states both sides but it does a good thing focusing on a lot of the positives that come from music, something that isn't presented occasionally. A topic brought up is how the lyrics, in studies to show the affects of music on the body and mind aren't much a factor as the actual rhythm, melodies and chords of the music that you hear and that both hemispheres of the brain process. On the other hand it also shows that music can also have some counter effects, it was shown in a study that hard music killed plants while classical and soothing music helped speed up it's growing process. What can you take away from this? Well, how about putting all speculation to the side for once and seeing how the actual music (The melodies, rhythms and sounds) affect us and not just what is verbally layed down on the song, it might be the true cause of all these "problems."

This editorial I believe, takes into thought what many people already know but let's us know some facts that we might not have previously been aware of. Like I've said many times before, it's up to you to decide what you think, that is why you have free will. I'm just providing the information and my own thoughts and with that I leave you with this...."It can be said that music is a very powerful and awesome tool, that can have positive effects, virtually life saving mentally and physically when used in the right context, but has equally destructive and detrimental potential if used negatively. "

Prof Trainor stated: "That the children studying music for a year improved in musical listening skills more than children not studying music is perhaps not very surprising. On the other hand, it is very interesting that the children taking music lessons improved more over the year on general memory skills that are correlated with non-musical abilities such as literacy, verbal memory, visiospatial processing, mathematics and IQ than did the children not taking lessons. The finding of very rapid maturation of the N250m component to violin sounds in children taking music lessons fits with their large improvement on the memory test. It suggests that musical training is having an effect on how the brain gets wired for general cognitive functioning related to memory and attention." *

That might not be a graph, statistic or chart but it's one of the most interesting things I've found out so far. Basically the article is about an experiment that had to do with music and the developing brain of kids. There was 6 kids who participated 5 of the boys, one was a girl, both of them were attending the same school of music. Another six kids, two girls and four boys were attending a normal school and not receiving music classes after school. Anyway, with a magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine that tracks and measures magnetic fields outside of the head that are related to electrical field that are produced when neurons in the brain start working, they manage to see the process in which the brain recognizes and processes the information given. This experiment lasted for a year with kids being tested four times throughout, to see how they reacted.