Have you ever been listening to a great piece of music and felt a chill run up your spine? Or goosebumps tickle your arms and shoulders?
As it turns out, getting chills from music is not as common as you might think. The phenomenon of chills or goosebumps that come from a piece of music (or from any other aesthetic experience) is called frisson, and it's been one of the big mysteries of human nature since it was first described. That's because even if we know the actual mechanism that causes frisson — a close connection to the emotional processing centre — we don't know what purpose it could serve us. But other studies have suggested some potential benefits of this kind of behaviour.
The experience is called frisson (pronounced free-sawn), a French term meaning “aesthetic chills,” and it feels like waves of pleasure running all over your skin. Some researchers have even dubbed it a “skin orgasm.” Listening to emotionally moving music is the most common trigger of frisson, but some feel it while looking at beautiful artwork, watching a particularly moving scene in a movie, or having physical contact with another person. Studies have shown that roughly two-thirds of the population feels frisson. Musical passages that include unexpected harmonies, sudden changes in volume, or the moving entrance of a soloist are particularly common triggers for frisson because they violate listeners’ expectations in a positive way.
If a violin soloist is playing a particularly moving passage that builds up to a beautiful high note, the listener might find this climactic moment emotionally charged and feel a thrill from witnessing the successful execution of such a difficult piece. The psychological component (i.e., the pleasurable feeling) and physiological components (i.e., paraesthesia, piloerection, and pupil dilation) of the response are mediated by the reward system and sympathetic nervous system, respectively. The stimuli that produce this response are specific to each individual.
Frisson is of short duration, lasting only a few seconds. Typical stimuli include loud passages of music and passages—such as appoggiaturas and sudden modulation—that violate some level of musical expectation. While frisson is usually known for being evoked by experiences with music, the phenomenon can additionally be triggered with poetry, videos, beauty in nature or art, or even by eloquent speeches. During a frisson, a sensation of chills or tingling is felt on the skin of the lower back, shoulders, neck, and/or arms. The sensation of chills is sometimes experienced as a series of 'waves' moving up the back in rapid succession and commonly described as "shivers up the spine". Hair follicles may also undergo piloerection
We have also witnessed how the crying baby goes to sleep when his/her mom sings them a song (Lori in Hindi) instantly. It’s fascinating how these age-old techniques still work helping the child get a good night’s sleep. There are wonderful ways to get to that sweet spot—meditation, yoga, tai chi—but music has a sense of immediacy and familiarity that is utilized intuitively and ubiquitously so that we in music therapy bring that intentionality to a person in pain or anxiety in the hospital. As we navigate stressful, uncertain times, music can be a powerful tool used both independently and with others. Sharing the experience of listening to a favourite song with a friend, incorporating dance and movement,9 and even intertwining visual arts interpretation like drawing or painting can amplify music's beneficial mental effects.
2 Bollywood songs that cause chills in my body every single time when I hear them,
1) Laal Ishq.
The song perfectly portrays how good a storyteller Mr Sanjay Leela Bhansali is. This beauty is sung by Arijit Singh, composed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali and lyrics are penned by Siddharth – Garima. The song starts with the temple bells ringing. Listen carefully and you would realize that this is a prayer for the departed couple. It starts with raag Yaman Kalyan, but has a slight variation to where Re becomes Komal and the emotion and complexion of the song changes to Puria Kalyan.
Just before the last stanza, the shehnai which is the most fascinating instrument used in Indian Culture, that signifies the melancholy, grief, and disappointment in them. It is also the Shehnai that they play in marriage to pay for their deeds and compensate in some manner for the departed couple. The Shehnai becomes their tribute, submission, and apology of all the troubles that they have caused to the loving couple. After the shehnai ends, and Arijit Singh enters with his soulful voice singing “Yeh kaali raat jagad loon,” and the brilliance of the guitar intricacies in the background, send a chill in your spine that hardly lets you get away from it. The final stanza is the epitome of repentance, guilt, and remorse. The laal here becomes the red colour that is for anger, violence, and blood. The love had made the communities angry and violent that they did something that they are guilty of in every moment of their life. The love is deformed because it has costed the lives of the most lovable people in their communities and the enmity has succeeded in erasing their love from their world.
Thus, this beautiful song encompasses several things at once. Be it the character arc of Ram or the message that the movie stands for. Everything layered in just one song. So subtle, so powerful, and yet so soothing. That is what is the magic of Bhansali. An absolutely brilliant storyteller.
2) Moh Moh Ke dhaage
Angaraag Mahanta, popularly known as Papon, knows how to hit the right note. He warms the cockles of our hearts with his mellifluous voice. It’s a pleasant surprise that this track has managed to come so far. People who had written him off – beware! Anu Malik is back from hibernation with this one. And instead of going for obtuse forays into disco and techno, he has stuck to using melody as his gauntlet and has indeed issued a challenge to the young Turks out there. In today’s fast-paced world where music is created in a rush, 'Moh moh ke dhaage' bears testament to the fact that good songs will find their way into the hearts of the audience. The use of ‘matka’ (clay vase), flute, and shehnai at certain parts enhances the composition. The beautiful placement of the orchestration in the song makes for a haunting melody. The music mixed with the beautiful moments that are life like, will make you smile and cry at the same time.
The song begins with soft tones that transition into softer tones and later the song freely meanders around these two tones. Interestingly the transition from one to another is smooth without any patchworks, and this creates a breezy atmosphere. The flute in between the stanzas engages to the core. You can’t stop but think and feel the flute lead. It’s a gem from one of the greatest musicians of all time Mr Vijay tambe. So subtle, so powerful, and yet so soothing. The song is composed in both Yaman Kalyan and puriya dhanashri. Let me explain in terms of different colors that we see around us. As you grow up, you study and see primary colors called Red, Blue and Green. As you learn to recognize them, later you observe that, the same colors start to differ when the intensity or shade differ. Later you realize and start seeing Maroon, Magenta, Cyan, Olive, Turquoise etc which are different to each other.
The same analogy can be applied to identify a ragam. At first you listen to a ragam and learn it. You observe that it creates a happy/sad mood. When you hear a second ragam, you first think this was the same you heard, but as you listen PATIENTLY, you tend to observe SUBTLE differences between the two. As you listen more and more, you understand it was easy to identify since your mind CATCHES certain PHRASES unique to each ragam. The mind starts COMPARING to its learnt database of ragams whenever you hear a tune and try to CORRELATE it.
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