I know it when I hear and experience it!

Analogous

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A random ramble…

There have been moments when I have listened to amazing sounding music.
Mostly it’s in a well set up indoor space.
Rarely it’s outdoors at a concert or even from far away on a silent night.
What’s common however is that it evokes some deep emotional sensations. I think this is what I am addicted to and crave.
These range from thrilling, nostalgic to joy or sadness.
At times these moments transform my mood even. Eg: neutral to ecstatic (no imbibing involved)
There are times when a wrong (for me) choice of music transforms the experience to gloom or disappointment (I switch off and do something else)

But I am more and more searching for a method to select the right kinds of music to set a mood. I find “genre” based playlists are a bit of hit and miss. I was listening to Vieux Farka Toure’s new album (Ali Farka's son). titled “Ali” it brought forth a mix of very enjoyable feelings (for me). This caused me to put down the above semi formed thoughts above.

Thoughts, anyone?
 
I generally question myself when someone says wow it sounds better including myself.. I know it’s a little slightly different topic, but this is where it all starts. how do we know it’s better ?our brain says oh!! it is in reference to the last benchmark registered in your experience. That benchmark keeps changing. Then what is the real intended sound of a particular mix when it is produced in the studio. It gets altered in every strange and conversion. It sounds different in concerts, indoor space, source to source etc.. So what is the real benchmark. How do we know a certain frequency should be sounding like this as mixed. Is emotional connect has to do anything with the way it sounds ? Or it’s a combination of tune, arrangement, vocals, lyrics ? And it doesn’t matter how it sounds after a certain time of rewinds on different systems. My experience is if it doesn’t sound good, I would rather stop listening to it, this preference is personal. This benchmarking can not be done as none of us get to listen to a track played in the studio. I think this is why experts say it is a wild goose chance and never stops because we don’t know where the end is 😁. In Hindustan and Carnatic music, there are ragas designated to particular emotions, with Zero knowledge on music we just simply connect. This is all hardwired in our DNA. Depending on what type of emotions we care a lot that is what connects with us. This is how music becomes part of our life.. music is there to tickle your senses and connect to the emotions you carry.
 
The sound of water drops falling…many find rain sounds very soothing, dramatic (Thunder). But if I need to go somewhere I might find it irritating. Context matters, as always.

Then there is the sound of water dripping from a tap. Usually somewhat irritating. But this guy discovered musical inspiration from this.Publio Delgado heard his bathtub faucet dripping and decided to remix the distinctive sound into several different musical grooves of various styles. Delgado used a variety of instruments for each groove, including guitar, bass, and keyboard
 
But I am more and more searching for a method to select the right kinds of music to set a mood. I find “genre” based playlists are a bit of hit and miss.
You’d be able to do that better with classical music. Apps like Idagio (and Primephinic before it was bought and closed down by Apple) provide you mood-based filters which work quite fine. Even Indian classical (Hindustani) ragas have correlations with specific emotions/moods (rasa to be precise), but haven’t come across an app that allows filtering by it yet. If you know the correlations (or have a ready reckoner at hand), you could play the appropriate raga for the mood you prefer. Prahar (time of the day) based filtering is available in some apps (like Ragya) which is A decent surrogate as there’s a correlation between prahar and mood.

Elsewhere, apps like Jazz Radio have stations/channels for different kinds of sub-genres many of which correlate to certain mood.

Yes, at a genre level it will be a hit or miss as most genres cater to multiple moods/flavours. However there can be some obviois correlations that allow more hits than misses... For example devotional/gospel (obvious), fusion (peppy), country (reflectIve), folk (rustic/earthy), jazz (cerebral), rock (angst), metal (rebellious), thumri (romantic), dance (fun) etc. However these aren’t precise.
 
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You’d be able to do that better with classical music. Apps like Idagio (and Primephinic before it was bought and closed down by Apple) provide you mood-based filters which work quite fine. Even Indian classical (Hindustani) ragas have correlations with specific emotions/moods (rasa to be precise), but haven’t come across an app that allows filtering by it yet. If you know the correlations (or have a ready reckoner at hand), you could play the appropriate raga for the mood you prefer. Prahar (time of the day) based filtering is available in some apps (like Ragya) which is A decent surrogate as there’s a correlation between prahar and mood.

Elsewhere, apps like Jazz Radio have stations/channels for different kinds of sub-genres many of which correlate to certain mood.

Yes, at a genre level it will be a hit or miss as most genres cater to multiple moods/flavours. However there can be some obviois correlations that allow more hits than misses... For example devotional/gospel (obvious), fusion (peppy), country (reflectIve), folk (rustic/earthy), jazz (cerebral), rock (angst), metal (rebellious), thumri (romantic), dance (fun) etc. However these aren’t precise.
At some point last year I realised I was spending a bit more time reading and thinking about equipment as compared to music. This made me feel like an audiophile 😊. Since I am feeling rather satisfied with my current set up, I have been spending significantly more time exploring music and matters related to music (within and without).
Thanks for the pointer to Idago. Will explore this soon for sure.

Curiosity led me to this:
And
 
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