Music therapy

[MR. Macabre 666]

I listen to a lot of music during the day, and sometimes in the evening as well. It depends on what kind of day I had, based on my pain and numbness levels. Sometimes night time is my least favorite time of day, even though it was my favorite. It was a time to wind down after work or from working around the house.

Now however, my situation is completely different, I suffer from chronic, nonstop pain and numbness in my legs, hips, knees, and both feet. I have osteoarthritis in my knees and hips, Idiopathic Poly Neuropathy in my feet, and was recently diagnosed with severe Spinal Stenosis in my lower back. This makes my legs go completely numb if I'm on my feet for too long, 15-20 minutes tops.
It makes walking difficult, and sleeping in a bed impossible any more. I've also had 2 separate Spinal Fusion surgeries in my neck. I have to sleep in a "sleeping" chair.

I listen to music to help pass the time of day, whenever I make it to the gym, or when I'm in the office on-line. Our son set me up with a Spotify account on my phone so I can listen to my music whenever I want to. The service is awesome, I've been able to accumulate a large music library on my I-phone, and every band/record I've looked for has been available.

At the end of November, Spotify sends you a summary of how much time you've listened to music, what genres you listen to the most, even the top 5 bands and songs. In 2021, I listened to a little over 51,000 minutes, and last year the total was over 55,000 minutes.
This year's total, if you include the month of December, will be over 76,000 minutes, which puts me in the top 3% of listeners using their service. This was eye opening, even for me. I listen to music with the smart speaker my son gave me a few years ago whenever I'm at home by myself. My wife hates my music, so I use headphones when she's at home.

I'm pretty sure most of the other members here know that I'm a metal head, I have been for over 40 years, and that I listen to black/death metal music 99% of the time. I love this fucking music, it helps me deal with all of the shit on a daily basis. Right now, I'm also fighting with my stomach, again, it's been fucked up for years now. They've done all the tests, including a colonoscopy, and every thing's "normal", right. Then why am I pissing out of my ass?

I know for a fact that listening to this music is one of the two reasons I'm still here. That, and my grandkids. Now that the crappy half of the year is here in the PNW, I can feel those thoughts coming from the back of my mind again, and it's making falling asleep harder than normal. I feel stressed out all the time, and I'm actually afraid of the reason why.

I'll wait until after Christmas before I tell my wife what's going on, I don't want to fuck it up for my kids and grandkids. My older sister died on her daughter's birthday in 2020, I don't want to be the center of attention like that.

[Rev. Rye]

I discovered Spotify fairly recently, although I admit I’ve actually had a few misses with that service.













And that’s not even going over the artists (like Neil Young) who just straight-up boycotted Spotify because Joe Rogan’s turned into a crank enabler.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

@MR. Macabre 666

I know for a fact that listening to this music is one of the two reasons I'm still here.

'Whatever gets you through the night, it's all right. It's all right.'  - John Lennon, life coach.

Boru

[Istvan]

And that’s not even going over the artists (like Neil Young) who just straight-up boycotted Spotify because Joe Rogan’s turned into a crank enabler.

There are legit reasons to dislike Spotify, among which is its unfair remuneration system called "stream share." Artists get paid directly when you buy their product on Bandcamp, so check it out.

As far as music therapy goes, take one Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet (featuring guitar genius Wendy Eisenberg) and call me in the morning.

[Rev. Rye]

I'm actually liking it.

The weird thing is I've been curious about the idea of a guitar quartet for a while, but the guitars would all be in complementary tunings (like a bass, a baritone guitar, a standard tuned guitar, and maybe a really short-scale guitar tuned up to A).

[Nanny]

Metal is great. Imagine exploring other genres and those experiences, too. There's some cool stuff that we sent into deep space, for example!

Bulgarian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP29VyGO...5&index=15

Georgian: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bV85zrnd...95&index=5

American: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qz126SNx...5&index=13

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast to soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak." (Before you ask, "1697" or later.)

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

"Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast to soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak." (Before you ask, "1697" or later.)

‘Boy, git yo ass up from that piano. You hurting’ its feelings.’ - Jelly Roll Morton, c. 1930

Boru

[Rev. Rye]

For what it's worth, when it comes to streaming music, I usually just do Youtube, but I tend to use Spotify if I want to make a playlist.

For instance, after getting into Doomer Music, I decided to collate a bunch of Doomer playlists (as found on PlayLost) and collected the songs that appeared on at least four of the 58 I found here.

Later, I decided to create a compilation that represents the best possible Grateful Dead show, even if it does go on for more than nine hours.

And there's a few more I created just to regulate my emotions, either for panic attacks or for a particularly bad depressive episode.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

"Music hath charms to sooth the savage breast to soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak." (Before you ask, "1697" or later.)

‘Boy, git yo ass up from that piano. You hurting’ its feelings.’ - Jelly Roll Morton, c. 1930

Boru

Introduction to Short Fiction, Purdue. The lead man in a blues band, during a set, tells his drummer his wife had just died. The drummer seems dubious but offers condolences. Later, at all night diner more details come out. She was cheating on him, her lover threw her out a window. Things like that. Everybody at the diner seems enthralled but had questions. He answered them with more details.

Terrible story for a college class? No, it was the lead man composing another blues song. Testing it out on his band members and his public.

Relevance: This would have been about the same time as Jelly was Rollin'.