What makes music relaxing? An investigation into musical elements

What is it about?

We compared an original music piece and 3 modified versions. Each version showed a change in a musical element: one was slower (change in tempo), another was quieter (change in amplitude), and the last was played by a trumpet instead of a bass clarinet (change in timbre). We measured physiological responses (heart beat, breathing and skin conductance) to the different versions . These measures are used in polygraphs, but in this case they indicate the emotional response to the music, not participant credibility! We found that changes in a musical element had no impact on physiological responses, despite the fact that participants do report different preferences towards the music versions. On the other hand, we did find that participants' emotional state before the experiment made a very important difference on how they reacted to the music (responders vs. non-responders)..

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Why is it important?

A change in a single musical element might not be relevant for a relaxing effect, but rather the overall perception of the music and the cognitive mechanism that the whole piece provokes. Also, in music therapy, we should consider how the participants enter the session (how they feel before the music, and how they respond to music in general) to determine the effect of a music intervention. This aspect of music interventions is not commonly measured, but it seems important to help us tailor music interventions for individual needs.

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