Rainbows On Kittens

Rainbows on kittens and bright knitted mittens…what? Do you ever mix up your lyrics? You start humming a song and break out in verse, but you only know a line or two of the lyrics. You have to laugh at what comes out of your mouth sometimes. The “rainbows on kittens” song, as many of you may have guessed, is from The Sound of Music. It’s the song [My Favorite Things] that Maria sings to the children to put them at ease during a thunderstorm. The actual words are: “Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens, Brown paper packages tied up with strings, These are a few of my favorite things.” Somehow, over the years, my brain warped and mixed it up and “Rainbows on kittens and bright knitted mittens” is what came out of my mouth. (Not unlike what happens with the curious hearing, or non-hearing, that takes place in our house; but that’s for another blog.) Although, I colored it up a bit for writing purposes. The “bright knitted mittens” actually came out right as “warm woolen mittens” – though it is in the wrong place. And rainbows on kittens would be kind of neat and surely not impossible with a good crystal and some sunlight, or a kitten in the right field at the right moment.

Music is amazing and full of enchantment. Take the fact that babies respond to it almost immediately. Even before they are born, they can be formed by it. Before they can walk, they can be calmed by lullabies. Before they can talk, they will dance or sway to music. And as we grow, we find the type of music that fills our souls; songs with tunes that affect us so much that the words don’t matter. Or songs with lyrics that have tunes that don’t matter as much as they might, because the words matter, the words speak to us. Music is one of the most powerful tools on the planet. Tools, you say? Do tools and enchantment go together? When it comes to music, yes. (And you do need a wand for some enchantments, right?)

Of course, there are also those truly annoying, sometimes repetitive, tunes that get stuck in your head and you keep hearing or humming them all day, and it drives you a little nuts trying to get rid of them. You know, like “The Wheels on the Bus go round and round…” Is it stuck yet? One of my brothers would get a song stuck in his head, and he’d purposely sing it out loud to whomever happened to be in the room, so it would get stuck in their head, too. I guess he wanted some company in his misery.

In 2009, archaeologists uncovered the oldest known musical instrument on earth: a flute carved from a vulture’s wing bone in a cave in southern Germany. Having found it, showed us that people have been making music for over 40,000 years. Why do we love music, and why should we listen to it? In part because it helps us individually and in part because it connects us socially. Whether it’s a national anthem at a game or hymns in a church, love songs for bonding, or protest songs, etc. to build group identity or give a sense of a shared purpose, or lullabies to develop attachments between parents and babies, they all help us to connect to the group at large. You come into the event as a person or perhaps a small group, and when the music begins, you are instantly transported into something much bigger. A connectedness, a higher goal or belonging.

Individually speaking, music is astounding. There’s no other word for it. Doctors at Johns Hopkins endorse listening to music to stimulate your brain. Listening to music engages the brain — active areas light up in MRI scans. Just the promise of listening to music as a reward can make a person want to learn more. *A note of caution: students with lower working memory capacity found that listening to music — especially songs with lyrics — sometimes had a negative effect on learning.* With that exception, music can improve memory and our ability to memorize. One study showed that people listening to classical music could recall short lists of words much better than those who worked in silence or with a white noise. The study also showed that classical music improved the speed and accuracy of simple processing tasks, such as matching numbers to geometrical shapes.

Whether young or old or from different backgrounds, researchers’ interviews found that people consistently listen to music for similar reasons. Because of the effect is has on them. It can regulate emotions, calm or energize – it has the power to change our mood, as well as help us process our feelings. It can lower anxiety on a daily level or for those with a critical illness, and it can lower stress after a stressful event, which helps the nervous system recover more quickly.

So far, medically speaking, (Mayo Clinic) it has been found that music does not reverse the memory loss of people with Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia. However, it can slow cognitive decline for people with mild or moderate dementia. It helps them remember live episodes. Music memory – this is fascinating to me – is one of the brain functions most resistant to dementia. For some, there has been success in being able to build trust with dementia patients, as well as calm them.

In the area of mental health, researchers have discovered that music literally changes the brain. It triggers the release of several neurochemicals that play a role in brain function and mental health: dopamine (associated with pleasure and “reward” centers), stress hormones, serotonin and other immunity hormones, and oxytocin (nurtures the ability to connect to others). Some studies have had conflicting results regarding the stress hormones, but music does help with the symptoms of depression (especially classical combined with jazz or, interestingly enough, group percussion [drums]). Of course, the type of music matters when you’re dealing with depression. Don’t listen to sad tunes or they may increase the depression symptoms.

And that’s not all. What about our bodies? Music is good for the heart. It makes us want to move, to dance, which is always good for us, but it can also alter our breath and heart rates as well as our blood pressure, depending on the tempo and intensity of the music. An upbeat song can energize us, thus decreasing fatigue. Even relaxing music can help reduce fatigue, as well as help the muscles endure repetitive tasks. People receiving cancer treatments can also benefit from lessened fatigue through music therapy. People engaged in demanding neuromuscular training will benefit from music as it also boosts exercise performance. Have you ever done your exercises without music? Doesn’t your brain say, “It would be easier and less boring if I had some music playing”? Well, it would also make your exercise session more productive. That includes being able to perform better in competitions. Exercising to music can allow peak performance with less oxygen. Naturally, it helps you keep the beat – it’s a metronome (keeps the beat for young musicians) to work by. Lastly for our bodies, music is being used by music therapists to help alleviate both acute and chronic pain.

Studies are ongoing to help us understand how music can be used therapeutically, but music therapy has become a medical field in itself with tremendous results for many. It is being used everywhere, from hospitals to schools to correctional facilities, and many more areas. It helps meet the medical, physical, emotional, and cognitive needs of patients.

Oh, yes, and singing is also good for us. We don’t have to listen to benefit from music. Singing releases the “feel-good” chemicals in the brain (endorphins), draws more oxygen into the blood for better circulation and is also an aerobic activity as well as a natural stress reducer. So, let’s sing about those rainbows on kittens and colorful mittens. Let’s not get too upset with that tune we can’t get out of our heads. There have been some amazing songs written, lyrics and tunes. Songs that will remain in our hearts and brains for our entire lives. Being a song writer must be a fantastic job; and the feeling they get when they’ve written a “hit” song, or just a song that speaks to themselves, must be tremendous. Let’s remember to turn on the music now and then and keep our hearts and souls energized, yet at peace.

Facts taken from: “The Benefits of Listening to Music”; Medically reviewed by Debra Rose Wilson, Ph.D., MSN, R.N., IBCLC, AHN-BC, CHT — Written by Rebecca Joy Stanborough, MFA on April 1, 2020