It is quite interesting to listen to music and think about what this person was going through when they wrote it and decided to generously share their personal diaries to the world. Imagine how Beethoven was feeling when he composed the infamous sounds that live on forever. Art is all created from day to day experiences. When your heart hurts its usually when the most beautiful art is created. I believe this is because you are in you heart whether you like it or not, your body is fully aware and emotionally open, causing ourselves to spill out vulnerability like its iced tea on a hot day. If your feeling hyped and happy that too is in your heart, it pumps faster causing more circulation in your veins giving you a bouncy energy. This could be caused by an outside experience that has lifted you and inspired you, so again you are in your heart ready to pop off inspiration and share it with the world.
I use music almost always in my acting work. It has the power to quickly bring me back to a time in my life that can fit the character. I believe that to recreate the music using sensory experience first is the ideal way to go about hearing the music, to use it without anyone else having a clue as to what you are doing. In the beginning stages or rehearsal that is most effective. If you have something last minute though you can use it to crack the seal, acknowledge where this certain emotion is coming from and when you let the music go, as long as you know what it is you've conjured up you can hold on to it and continue to let it seep through with appropriate timing. I listen to the genre and time period of music that my character would listen to. For Example: When I work on Tennessee Williams I always listen to Bobby Darren. His songs give me the feel of a hot dry Texas day, with broad horizons and farm animals nearby. I can smell cow manure and hear the chickens cackle. When I worked on the last film I did, set in the 1950's, I listened to 50's Pandora Radio and a lot of Marilyn Monroe. It made me feel elegant and proper to be listening to this. I could feel the diamonds around my neck and the calm slow moving gestures of a lady in this time. There are so many ways we can use music to help us out of a rut that it boggles my mind as to exactly why our bodies react in this way. Maybe it has to do with being in the mothers womb and hearing the heart beat at a constant rhythm. That would just be my possible hypothesis. It could date back to our ancient ancestors who would bang together sticks and stones to pass time and dance around the fire. Whatever it is I am thankful to have a world full of music of all types. Imagine a world without music?! ....SCARY!
