Disclaimer: This is transcribed using AI. Expect (funny) errors.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:00] I’m Mindy Peterson. And this is Enhance Life with Music, where we explore the ways music makes our lives better and spotlight the resources you can use to enhance your life with music. Joining me today from Calgary, Alberta, my neighbor to the north, is Jennifer Buchanan. Jennifer is a Certified Music Therapist, Executive Director of the Canadian Association of Music Therapists, and founder of JB Music Therapy. She holds an MBA specializing in social entrepreneurship and has been featured in media outlets including NBC, Fox News, health, CBC, The Guardian, and Huffington Post. Jennifer is the author of two award-winning books, and the recipient of two lifetime achievement awards from the music therapy community. Welcome to Enhance Life with Music, Jennifer.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:00:52] Oh, thanks so much for having me.
Mindy Peterson: [00:00:54] So great to have you here. And I’m really looking forward to our conversation about the latest of your multiple award winning books. We’re talking about the book titled, “Wellness Well-Played: The Power of a Playlist.” You’ve said that this book, and I quote here, “was written for all of us who love to make the biggest impact possible while getting the most out of life.” End quote. I read that and I’m like, okay, she has my full attention here. Tell us what what what was it that first caught your attention about the power of designing purposeful playlists? So much so that you decided to write a book about it?
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:01:33] Well, you know, when we’re talking about where this all starts started from. I’m a Gen Xer, so anyone else out there that’s a Gen Xer and remembers the days of the cassette player and, you know, listening to the radio and wanting to put together the best mixtape possible. And that process would take hours, like we would spend hours in front of our day, putting together the ultimate playlist. That level of intention is no longer happening. But I started thinking about what did that mean for us in those days? And what it meant is that after you were finished those hours of work and really digging into the music and and deciding what that particular mix tape was going to be all about, and then you wrote your emojis of the time, which are handwritten hearts and your friends names, and you did all those things, and you went to school and you presented this mixed tape to somebody there, and you were essentially telling them how much you loved them, how much you valued them. You were sharing some new information and some new learning. And that process was just so profound for me personally. Later on becoming a music therapist, I found myself just naturally incorporating the The playlist experience into sessions. And so when I wrote my first book back in 2012, that was about music therapy, I found that I incorporated a couple of stories about that, and a playlist was a part of it, and it was the story that people kept asking me about. Tell us more about those purposeful playlists. Is that something I can incorporate in my life? So that’s where this new book came. I went, you know, this is accessible. This is something we can all delve deep into. Let’s do it. And I’m going to write everything I know about it to date.
Mindy Peterson: [00:03:40] And you also said that designing a purposeful playlist has been the best piece of home health care work that you’ve assigned to clients to do between sessions. Tell us a little bit about that.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:03:52] Absolutely. I, I this is the difference between using a curated playlist that you’re going to, you know, go deep into versus going on a streaming service and getting a playlist that’s going to be beautifully curated for you. It’s the work. It’s the work that we’re going to put into it. And by recognizing that taking something step by step through an exercise, which is what I really try to do in this book, I’m not saying do it fast, I’m saying do it slow. Really giving yourself a sense, first of all, to put together what your particular goals might be, then going through the exercise itself, having a finished product at the end, um, I open the book with, uh, the biggest playlist that was that I wasn’t going to put at the front of the book. And the reason I didn’t want to put it at the front of the book is because it was so daunting, which is the personal soundtrack we’ve had to our entire lives, which is massive. And that particular playlist I’m. Still not finished. Sure. You know, I am still working on that piece, and even now I will hear a moment or have a memory from the past and have to add it in there. So. So this is about the work and about the time we’re going to put in. Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:05:16] So as you’re alluding to these purposeful playlists will have different purposes. There’s different reasons for creating them. Can you tell us about some of the most common purposes that you see people creating a playlist for?
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:05:32] Yeah, I broke this particular book down into three that kept coming back. Over the 30 years that I’ve been working as a music therapist. And, um, so I broke it down into, uh, the first one being mood, which is huge, people just wanting a mechanism that can efficiently and effectively change their mood, especially when they’re going through a particularly difficult time. This came through a lot when we’re working in the hospitals where people are now wearing a gown, they’re being given a bed that’s not their own. They’re being told what they have, they’re being told what they now need to do. And a lot of their own level of, um, agency, personal agency seems to be missing. They’re feeling blindsided. They’re not even sure how to process it all. And what we can do with a mood specific process with any of us is by taking us and validating where we’re at, where are we feeling this moment and then shifting it a little into the direction we want to go. And the most lovely piece about music is that it does take us there very quickly, very quickly. You’re listening to something that validates where you are, and you’re able to turn to someone and say, hey, you know what? I’m feeling a bit more like myself this second, even though I’m wearing this gown and in the hospital, the second one, um, that we get a lot of requests for is around memory.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:07:11] And when we’re. So this is for all of us that, um, you know, love to revisit some memories or maybe want to be reminded of some of the ones that we’ve had. I’m not talking about the ones we want to forget. I’m not talking about those ones. But, but, but that moment where we can revisit where who we are and and what’s been important to us. And you can well imagine, especially in the world of dementia, how important that can be to have that deeper connection. So putting together playlists for our memory. And then the third one is around motivation. And this motivation is again for anyone who is in a place of recovery. But it’s also for people at work who are needing to feel productive and have that sense of creativity. Um, that ignition, uh, behind them and their project. So we break it down in those ways with different playlists that go with each.
Mindy Peterson: [00:08:11] So you mentioned, uh, improving mood and alluded to providing comfort. Kind of goes along with some of that for people who aren’t hospitalized. I mean, this is for all of us, whether we’re in a hospital setting or not. These purposeful playlists can be created to reduce stress or anxiety. Uh, as you mentioned, improve mood, provide comfort, increase productivity or motivation, uh, boost creativity. And and you mentioned or alluded to that legacy for others to remember us by. And I’ll point out that in the book, you share some powerful stories. I mean, the stories you share in this book just give me goosebumps. And if we have time, we’ll get back to them. But one of them, Gwen’s signature 12 I encourage people to read the book just for that. I mean, that was such a powerful story. And then there’s the story about Harry, which is more of a legacy related one, but so many incredible stories. But the reasons for creating a purposeful playlist are as varied as the people who are creating them. They can be for any reason. But you do talk about in the book, the first step is identifying your goal with the the playlist. And you say the way in which we order our music is not as important as why we do so. Curating our collections is more than just an exercise, it’s also a form of exploration and self-expression. That’s a quote from your book. And along those lines, another quote that I really loved as you point out, how this desire to curate what’s important to us is this innate human drive.
Mindy Peterson: [00:09:47] So here’s another quote that I loved. There’s a lot of them, but here’s one. “Our innate desire to organize music stems from a fundamental human drive, the pursuit of curating what matters to us. And it gives us an opportunity to highlight our values in the moment and over time.” And that really hit close to me, probably because my husband and I are in the process of getting ready to move. We’re empty nesters now. We’re ready to downsize and simplify life. So we’ve been packing things up, and I find that I do become less sentimental the older I get. But as I’m packing, you know, sorting through things like, oh yeah, we can get rid of this, get rid of that, and then I’ll hit something like, oh, this storybook represents my children’s childhood. Like, I am not getting rid of this. And there’s certain songs that just represent portions of our life or time periods in our life or even seasons. And so it was really interesting to read that quote about just that fundamental human drive to curate what’s important to us and how fun to do this with music. Now you talk in a section of your book. There’s a section called the Art and Science of Music, and you talk about some of the science that backs up the importance of music and the impact of it. Tell us some of the highlights of this section that you want listeners to know about the scientific basis for music’s impact on our feelings and our behavior.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:11:17] And and I love, Mindy, that you’ve had lots of guests on here that have also really shown us what has been happening. You know, as you were talking about your where you’re at in life. We’re in a similar place and, and I’m remembering, you know, when the MRI machine just started coming out. Like this is all very relatively new information that we’re getting. And music such an incredible way for us to explore our brain. Um, I just read an article on the weekend that applies to some of our conversation today, which has to do with the different elements of music when broken down, affect us in different ways, and, and, and the one that I was reading about on the weekend was groove that there’s new research like literally now coming out defining what groove is and what does groove actually do and interesting. Right. And groove and groove is that are those little off beats between the main beat and what this research is telling us is we can’t have too many syncopated beats for a person to want to move. It has to be surprisingly familiar. That’s what they’re finding. And when we hear that surprisingly familiar groove, we want to get up and dance and we’re really connected and and toes start tapping and and hands start clapping and those sorts of moments and what we can do with people. And so when we’re looking at this art and science of music the most at not a non researcher that I am, my, my job is to take what the research is out there and distill all this to the public in some way so we can all incorporate it in our lives. But what we definitely know is when we break down either just tempo or as I was just talking about groove or certain tones that are in music, how all of those have a place in our brain and some multiple places in our brain.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:13:21] There is no other activity we know of that lights up more areas simultaneously, particularly when we’re listening to music that really matters to us, and this opportunity for us to also grow with music. You know, I talk in the book about exploring new music, and although new music is not running down the same neural pathways as some of those older songs that, you know, we’ve been thinking about through our personal soundtrack and our histories, but incorporating new music into our lives and and really giving them a chance and listening to them more than once and seeing if there’s a place for them in our future really can also help us develop that, um, new world point of view, looking at other people’s values, looking at different cultures, bringing something new into our lives. So I love talking about that. We know that music releases all these incredible hormones and neurotransmitters into our system. We’re knowing that it’s lighting up the brain. So now it’s about how do we leverage it and why? I look like looking at the work behind the playlist is it’s going to be one of those ways that we can do just that, where we can prove to ourselves that music can do a lot of the heavy lifting, but be it emotionally, be it physically, being it that mood, memory and motivation changes. And we can do that with this incredible science now that we’re starting to learn what. Why, but we still have so much more to learn.
Mindy Peterson: [00:15:02] Yeah. There’s a section in your book called Amygdala on Fire that was really fascinating, where you talk about how music does directly affect the heart of our brain’s emotional system, the amygdala. And when that system is on fire, all we want to do, that’s where we get that fight, flight, flee, freeze, whatever. You know, um, reaction going on. You point out how music can help stamp out this flame. When we tune in to the resource of music, we activate the hippocampus, which allows us to feel more feelings of creativity, inspiration, warmth. It reduces stress. And when you’re referring to hormones, we have that cortisol hormone that can be affected by, uh, reducing stress. And we can activate the frontal cortex and regain control. So we can now make the next best decision objective. Right.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:16:00] Because it is it’s it’s about feeling. Sometimes we just get stuck and locked down and we have a hard time making a decision or we forget our keys constantly. Like there’s always that something that is happening. But music has this incredible capacity to help us feel unlocked. And it does that exactly as you’re saying. And finally getting where we can give fan out that flame on that amygdala, which is, you know, as you were saying, has our heightened emotions, and then all of a sudden we can make a good decision just by having some moments of creativity within the music. But again, this all sounds maybe a little simple. You know, just by listening to music, we can do these things, but it isn’t always as easy as people think. We do have to put that level of intention into the music for that mechanism to actually work.
Mindy Peterson: [00:16:57] Hmm. All of this research backing up the results and the efficacy of music is exploding, and it’s so fascinating. And as you point out in the book, it’s validating what music therapists have known for years. But now we have that hard science to back it up. Uh, you talk about the phrase sex, drugs and rock and roll and how that sort of came about, because all of those things do affect the regions of our brain that make up that reward system. So, absolutely, drugs, music, they all affect that reward system. And music can affect it in a positive way when we’re intentional about how we use it. And you can do that without having the side effects of medication. Certainly there’s a place for medication, but bringing in the the tool of music and do so much neuroscience widely acknowledges the emotional and physical well-being are so closely intertwined. And being able to modulate that using music can be such a huge, valuable tool that we can pull into our tool set.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:18:06] Absolutely. And, you know, we’re in the midst of doing a little bit of research right here. We’re at one of our local hospitals right here, where we’re using playlists specifically in a very specific way, in a very intentional way. And we’re seeing the reduction of pain and the use of pharmaceuticals. So we’re doing some research on that right now as to exactly how music is affecting us that way.
Mindy Peterson: [00:18:31] Fabulous. All of this research is so fascinating. I love how you include that in the book. Another quote I want to bring up, just as another kind of tidbit and motivator for people, is just the fact that we’ve all gone through so much change in the last four years here and in your book, I’ll quote from there, you say, I have noticed how people are re-examining the power of music in times of change. Well, researchers and organizations continue to study the role of music in helping people cope, recover, and restore hope in uncertain times. We’ll always be with us. Perhaps music can be our proven, constant love. That quote. So I love how the book just walks people through the exercises little by little of creating these purposeful playlists, depending on what their goals are. So it’s not this overwhelming process, but it’s very much a step by step. You’re kind of holding your hand, walking us through it. Um, and it’s very much adaptable to whatever stage of life we’re in, whatever our purposes are for having the playlist. So a very user friendly type of a book. And if somebody wants more exercises or wants to go deeper into some of those exercises, I think you have an additional workbook that’s available.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:19:52] I do. I also have a workbook that can sit right beside you as you’re reading through it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:19:57] So tell us about that. Does that just take people a little bit deeper into some of these exercises or give additional exercise options?
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:20:05] It gives them more space to actually work and work through them. And what it also does is it gives them a place to store the work that they’re doing. Some people like writing in their books, but I was hearing back, oh, Jen, you know, I’m getting my own journal and putting this together. So it’s a way to put together a journal for you to be able to do the work. But it does also go into the details and the step by step to help you through.
Mindy Peterson: [00:20:29] Okay. Well, and your book, you talk so much about how these playlists, while we can have very different purposes and multiple purposes for creating different playlists, the idea is to create something that you can incorporate into your life on a regular basis in a meaningful way. Absolutely. One of the exercises that I loved was, how would you describe your music using just three words? So that in itself was really powerful. When I thought about that, I was like, oh, wow, that’s a really interesting question. And then you had a follow up question, and I’m not going to tell listeners what it is, but I’m not going to spoil the surprise. But the follow up question was even more profound. I was like, oh my goodness!
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:21:13] Gives you a minute. And, you know, I do that particular exercise in front of large audiences as well. And it’s very interesting to see the level of response and the oh, at the end. Yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:21:27] I bet, I bet. Well, tell us about some of the other resources you offer. I know you have other books. You have music therapy services. Of course, through JB Music Therapy, you have a lot of resources on your website, articles, videos. I know you do offer speaking presentations. Tell us about some of these resources that you offer that listeners may be interested in checking out.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:21:51] Yeah, I’m really fortunate. I work with I have a team of 20 certified music therapists where we provide a lot of local support. Um, our youngest client being two months old, our eldest about 104. And so we work with a lot of people in our own community, but we also provide the service of online music therapy groups. And this really came out of the pandemic where the need was great. And we’ve decided to double down on that, that the need is still great. A lot of the individuals that are in home care and at home, um, have the opportunity now to beam in 3 or 4 times a week to a music therapy group and to participate in something and again be given their weekly homework. So we’re we also like doing that. And then, uh, we love doing education and outreach. And that’s where the keynotes come into place, doing seminars for teams, um, working with, uh, health care, education, government groups and bringing not only what is music therapy, which is often how we’re invited, but transitioning to that about how can we be using music more intentionally in our own lives for to boost our resiliency, to decrease our own burnout, to increase the things we’ve been mentioning today, including productivity and of course, the mood shifts, you know, what can we be doing more intentionally to do that? Um, during some of these challenging times that I talk about in the book that have continued for a lot of us. Um, yeah.
Mindy Peterson: [00:23:27] So these presentations are not just for hospitals and health clinics. These are presentations for employers. What employers need to know about mastering the art of music for team connectivity, productivity and Reducing burnout. You also have a presentation for healthcare, corporate, nonprofit and education audiences. So lots of offerings there for a pretty wide variety of demographic.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:23:54] And we’re just happy to do it. And like like you said, visiting our website, we’ve got a page on as much research as we can accumulate, and we’re adding to it all the time. We’re actually doing a big update right now. Uh, and we just, you know, we love to answer people’s contact questions. If you’ve got something or if you’re looking for a music therapist or if you’re looking for a presentation, uh, you can just fill in our contact form on our website.
Mindy Peterson: [00:24:20] Great. One thing that I saw in your book is a music teacher talked to you after one of these presentations or after reading your book. I think it was after a presentation. And this kind of hit close to me, because being a music teacher and working regularly with music teachers regularly, I was really hit by what this music teacher told you. She said, “Today I’ve realized something for the first time. Although I use music daily, I do not use music for myself. I do not use music to intentionally help me through difficult times. In fact, music has become something I share and learn and enjoy, but do not necessarily feed on myself.” And for her, it became just this really subtle change of thinking. Uh, and in using music differently. But it was very profound. She just had a.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:25:10] Thinking about herself, thinking about herself, maybe for the first time in a long time. Yes.
Mindy Peterson: [00:25:17] Yeah. And you say, take this book as the permission you need to find your music, regardless of your musical background, and use it with greater intention to improve your health and well-being. And I think that’s a great word for all of us, but particularly for music educators, because it can become such an academic part of our lives where it becomes our work and what we do, and we kind of lose sight of, how can I use this for my own well-being and enjoyment and self care? True.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:25:47] So good.
Mindy Peterson: [00:25:48] Yeah, yeah. Well, any other information about the book that you want to be sure to communicate with listeners?
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:25:55] First of all, thank you so much for just reading it, Mindy, and and sharing with your audience about the insights that you have. I think that’s speaking the most, um, you know, we’re all going to take something different away. And that was the intent is I wanted to provide a spectrum of of options for people. I’m not expecting everyone will go through the entire book and do every playlist in there, but when one strikes and maybe it is Gwen’s signature 12, I’m going to call that out because that changed me. That changed me, I bet. Um, and so when those moments happen through the book and you capture it, that you, you do set some time aside, maybe not this weekend, maybe not in the next, you know, two weeks, but maybe within the next six months. Set it aside and take that personal retreat time and delve into a playlist for yourself, um, for whatever goal you’re needing in the moment, and then share it. That’s the most important thing. And I’m not meaning necessarily sharing the book, although that would be nice too, but share the concept of the playlist and what happened to you and bring it up at Thanksgiving dinner and say, hey, I put this playlist together and maybe go around the room and ask everybody there, what music have they been drawn to lately? And get to know your seven year old and your 77 year old and and have a moment of connection, um, at a time in our life when, uh, we need connection as much as possible.
Mindy Peterson: [00:27:32] Beautiful. Yes. Well, I highly recommend the book. It’s fantastic. And like I said, so many songs, so many powerful stories. When you’re talking about sharing your playlist around the Thanksgiving table, it reminded me of that story that I kind of alluded to earlier with Harry and how just the the Christmas event that you are a part of and that you share about in the book that ended up being his legacy. And so I encourage people, I won’t I won’t tell the whole story, but I encourage people to get the book. Even if you just want to read the story about Harry and Gwen’s 12, I mean very powerful, inspiring stories. Well, as you know, Jennifer, I ask all my guests to close out our conversation with a musical ending coda by sharing a song or story about a moment that music enhanced your life. Is there a song or story that you can share with us today in closing?
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:28:26] Oh, there sure is. And uh, uh, this particular, um, moment was what led to all the other moments in my life. I was a tween, and, uh, granddad had his second major stroke and was placed in long term care at the age of 62, and he was no longer able to walk or talk. And granny just asked me something simple, which was would you sing your granddad’s favourite song? Now what made that not easy was the fact that up to that moment, grandad and I had no relationship, that I felt strongly. He was grumpy all the time and this stroke had made him no happier. But I trusted granny and when she said, would you sing The White Cliffs of Dover? I brought my guitar the following week and this was the song. It’s an old song and even older today, but this was granddad’s favourite. There’ll be bluebirds over, the white cliffs of Dover tomorrow. Just you wait and see. There’ll be love and laughter and peace. Ever after tomorrow. When the world is free.
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:30:03] And as I was singing that song by granddad’s bedside. The screaming lady down the hall got closer and closer and closer. And what we learned quickly was she was no longer screaming. She was singing every word. Wow. And then there was the wandering guy. And maybe you’ve met him before. Who wanders all around all the time. Pretty quiet. He wandered right on in and granny pulled up a chair. Here we are, a motley crew of me, a broody teenager. We’ve got a screaming lady and a wandering guy and a grumpy grandad and granny just said, keep going, dear.
The shepherd will tend his sheep. The valley will bloom again, and Jimmy will go to sleep in his own little room again. There’ll be bluebirds over the white cliffs of Dover tomorrow. Just you wait and see.
And that basically. Changed the entire trajectory of my career, my purpose. It solidified my values of connection with music, connection with people, uh, connection with ourselves. And, uh, I’ll be forever grateful for it.
Mindy Peterson: [00:31:55] And what was your grandfather’s response to the song?
Jennifer Buchanan: [00:31:59] So that grumpy guy, it would be the very first time I’d see him cry. And even more than that, if I recall correctly, that one good hand came out to actually touch me. And I remember that feeling of I didn’t know grumpy people had favorite songs, and I certainly didn’t know grumpy people cried. The granddad proved me wrong that day.
Transcribed by Sonix.ai