Synthesis Sunday: Nothing New to Synthesize...But Still Thinking About Playlists

I finished the book I was reading and synthesizing this week, and I am getting ready to read it again - not because it was difficult, but because I feel like I can really get my teeth into it through reading it with less demand placed on myself. It is time to get back into the idea that music has meaning to me more than just what I can do with it during sessions with clients.

That may sound a bit strange coming from a person who is a music therapist, but I find that my own personal music consumption is low. I've written about this before - I tend to go towards television or movies rather than music listening for my leisure time. I listen to people speaking instead of listening to music during my commutes to and from my jobs. I prefer television shows and movies instead of my playlists. I miss music as something that I just immerse myself in as deep as possible.

The book, Wellness, Wellplayed. The Power of a Playlist, by Jennifer Buchanan, is helping me figure out what is missing. I don't think that anything really surprised me in the book, but it was a good reminder of what I used to do with music all the time - making playlists, listening to my favorite music, and consuming music as a listener, not as a professional.

To that end, I set up my brand new, mini CD player in my living room. I played a couple of soundtracks this week. The small CD player is deceptively strong - it packs a big punch when it comes to filling my new home with music. I looked for a multiple CD tray player and could not find one. Maybe I will find one at the local thrift stores - I would like to have more than one CD available to play at a time - my favorite way to listen to music is on shuffle. I pay more attention when I do not know what is coming up next.

My own playlist history really started in the CD burning era. (If you are not sure what this all means, then I STRONGLY encourage you to buy the book!!) I did not really get into the cassette mixtape sort of thing - I didn't get to listen to the radio much when I was in elementary, junior high, or high school, so I didn't do the waiting thing with my finger hovering over the record button. I didn't really get my first good sound system until I was in college. At that point, CDs were becoming the way to listen to music, so I started my collection of CDs very slowly. I didn't really have the income to purchase music until after I graduated and then got a job or two. For the first time, I had discretionary income, and I chose music. I was a member of the BMG music club (Columbia House's lessor known competition), and I purchased every $1.99 CD that I could find. As a result, I have so many unique CDs in my collection. I haven't really listened to many of them recently, but I am working on changing that.

When I was able to get a computer that included a CD burner (again, love that discretionary income - didn't eat much meat during those times so I could afford a computer with a CD burner), I started on my path of playlist creation. I ripped all of my music to my computer (a very long task!) and then I compiled songs that I loved to listen to in various places. I started with lists of my favorites and then moved on to making CDs for clinical interactions. I ended up making about 50 favorite CD playlists. I still have many of them and listen to them when I am in a nostalgic mood.

I now make playlists on iTunes more often that I burn CDs, but I will be working on ripping my CDs back onto my cloud account. I miss having all of my music available when I am trying to program my own music for listening. I am somewhat limited because I do not want to pay Apple for music that I already own - I like having discretionary income. I really do.

So, the steps that I have taken this past week have included finishing Jennifer's book, turning music on my new mini CD player and listening to the music, and getting ready for some CD burning downstairs - I want to grab one of my CD cases and get started with ripping music. Perhaps it will encourage me to stay down here and keep working on unpacking while the computer organizes my music. Perhaps. Perhaps not. 

So, my playlist over on Spotify (which I am thinking I will discontinue and just use my iTunes account instead) has about six pieces on it right now. Two of them are old, familiar pieces that I know are in my CD library. The other four are new to me, so I will purchase them to use on my iPod. I will also end up burning a CD with my completed playlist once it is full. I can fit about 20 songs onto a CD (and I have made sure to have a computer that still burns CDs ever since I got my first one!) so I'll be looking for more music to add.

This week's addition will be one of the pieces from The DaVinci Code soundtrack. That was the first CD that I played on my new stereo system. I love the piece that happens at the end when the protagonist runs through Paris. That will be the best representation of this week - listening to music as part of my daily life again and listening to a piece of music that provides me with energy. The piece is Chevaliers de Sangreal. It stirs my emotions and heightens my senses every single time I listen to it, so onto the playlist it goes!

Now there are seven songs on my playlist.

Now, Jennifer prompts us to make playlists that have single word titles based on how we are going to use said playlists. I am not quite ready to do that yet. I know about making motivation and relaxation playlists - I do that quite often for my clients, but I am approaching this from the perspective of a music therapist who has not been exploring music as much as she feels is important. So, I guess the one word title of this playlist is going to be something like "immersion" or "remembering" or "exploring" which goes along with my word of the year. Those words don't quite encapsulate what I am seeking by doing this exercise.

Okay. For the next week, I am going to focus on rereading Jennifer's book to really absorb what I need from it. I will rip CDs to my music library. I will continue to turn on my music when I am upstairs and listen to the music that I already own that I have neglected. I will hook my record player to the mini stereo system (I bought the one I bought specifically because it could incorporate my record player). If I get really fancy (eventually), I have an adapter that allows me to burn my records onto my computer, but that is a task for the far off future. I will select one more song next week to add to my playlist.

I will also unpack my textbooks and find the next book to read.

Thanks for reading this blog!