Listening To and Making Music Helps Understand Feelings and Emotions

Music can be a constructive way to express yourself and your feelings, especially in young children. It can often be difficult for children to say how they are feeling, primarily because they don’t know the name of the feeling they’re experiencing. Instead, they show us by crying, throwing temper tantrums, or having meltdowns. Emotional expression is something that must be learned, and young children can be taught basic emotions such as happy, mad, sad, and scared as early as two years old. As they get older, further emotions such as frustration, nervousness, or shyness can be explained.

Music and play are highly effective tools for children to learn about their feelings, explore them, and practice expressing and managing them. In fact, due to its emotionally charged nature, music serves as a powerful means for everyone—not just children—to express themselves and cope with challenging life circumstances. When we engage in making music, we move beyond social conditioning and conscious thought, entering a space where we connect directly with our emotions.

Being involved in creative activities like music-making keeps us present in the moment. This state of presence helps us access and express our emotions more freely. Sometimes, it can be difficult to articulate our feelings verbally, and we may struggle to find the "right" words to convey how we truly feel. In these instances, music can serve as a subtler and more effective form of expression.

A ‘Music and Feelings’ lesson plan can encourage children to recognize and talk about different feelings and emotions through a variety of musical fun activities. Recognizing emotions through music can help develop emotional intelligence. Music can help children ‘hear’ what certain feelings sound like and learn to tell which emotion is evoked by a piece of music. Improvising with music can help a child to get in touch with and/or express a feeling they might be experiencing at the time, whether that be happiness, sadness, fear, or anger. The musical instruments can be ‘gates’ for their emotions, and playing them allows these emotions to come through. Appropriate self-expression springs from a sense of self, and music (especially early music education) can help immensely with this.

Feelings of stress, anxiety, or tension can also be addressed through music. Childhood stress has increased in the past few decades, with around 40 percent of kids reporting worrying too much. We tend to view the world of children as happy and carefree. After all, kids don't have jobs to keep or bills to pay, so what could they possibly have to worry about?

Sadly, the answer is plenty! Even very young children have worries and feel stress to some degree. Academic and social pressures (especially from trying to fit in) can create stress. In short, stress can affect anyone who feels overwhelmed—even children. Music has the potential to influence the mood of children and can be used to reduce stress, process emotions, and improve a sense of well-being in the following ways:

• Distraction As music demands their attention, it acts as a distraction while also helping them explore their emotions. It also keeps them focused and prevents their mind from wandering to negative thoughts or worries.
• Mindfulness Music allows them to lose themselves in the moment as they enjoy the sounds they’re making or hearing. Through playing an instrument, they bring themselves into the here and now, and helps them to take a break from their anxieties.
• Creative Self-Expression While simply listening to music can reduce stress, creating music has the added benefit of expression and involvement, which focuses attention. Active participation in playing music and music appreciation has been shown to increase self-esteem.

Music can give children a way to express themselves, unleash their creativity, be inspired and uplifted, relax, and relieve stress and tension.

Making music with other people improves children’s social and emotional skills. They learn to work together as a team and develop empathy for others. Researchers have found that when children play music together—from simple rhythms to larger group performances—they are better able to tune into other people’s emotions.

Emotions are one of the most fascinating features of the human mind. Music is an equally extraordinary characteristic. Understanding the special interaction between the two may take us closer to understanding the fundamental nature of both. There is little doubt that music can alter our mood and stir emotions; it has a powerful pull, and you don’t need to be a scientist to confirm this fact. Music has been reported to evoke the full range of human emotions, including:

• Patriotic or Loyal – National anthems and other music associated with a country or geographic area. Music and sounds are associated with sports events, schools, clubs, and other organizations.
• Spiritual – Hymns, chants, gospel, and other music associated with religion or faith
• Nostalgic – Music can remind us of the past, both good times and bad times.
• Love – Music can be used to express love and as a sign of affection.
• Violent/Hatred – Music can be used in war or violence and to promote anger.
• Energetic – Rhythms in music can make us move faster and aid physical exercise.
• Happy or Sad—Music can lift our mood, make us smile or laugh, make us feel melancholy, or even make us cry.
• Irritated – Music we dislike can irritate us, just like a tune that gets stuck in our heads and plays repeatedly.
• Scared—Music can make us feel scared or tense, for example, during a ‘dark’ moment in a movie.
• Calm – Certain music can help the mind slow down and initiate the relaxation response.

Perhaps the greatest gift of music lies in its capacity to allow people to experience emotions without having to experience the life events that lead to them. We can experience even extreme emotions in a controlled manner, at will, in safe and comfortable circumstances.

Most of all, though, playing music makes people happy! There are few pleasures in this world that can be compared to the high you feel from letting your soul flow through your body and out through improvisation and music-making. Discover the stress-relieving power of playing your own song.