Improvising music, without any regard for the general rules or on the capability of the musician involved, can induce happiness according to the Guelph “Happy Making Project.”
This project is based within the Guelph community and includes the positioning of many pianos throughout the city. The idea matured due to a collaboration between Coun. Ian Findlay and the Downtown Guelph Business Association, after Findlay had a positive experience when placing a piano outside his office on Baker Street.
What pushed this project to actualization was the hypothesis that coming across a piano in public and engaging with it would induce emotions of happiness.
The idea may seem silly, but perhaps many would agree that they experienced their own positive outcome after sitting down at one of these pianos. But is there science to back up the idea that happiness can result from impromptu piano playing?
“Flow” is defined as the experience of a person performing who becomes fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, involvement and enjoyment of the activity at hand.
A study conducted on the “flow” of piano playing found that pianists who played enough piano to induce a state of “flow” actually showed decreased heart rate, decreased blood pressure, and experienced an overall relaxation of the body, especially in the major facial muscles. Physically, playing piano had the ability to alter one’s self in a positive way.
A study completed by the School of Psychology at Keele University had shown that, on the emotional side, playing music could evoke a state of authentic happiness. These researchers found that live or unexpected musical events correlated with strong experiences in university students. In a study titled “Music therapy for depression,” researchers noticed that music made others more willing to engage in an activity giving them an increased social, pleasurable and meaningful experience.
Not only could playing piano, or music in general, evoke an increased sense of positivity in both body and mind, but the act of taking part in a low-challenge situation that was surpassed by skill was also associated by feelings of enjoyment, relaxation and happiness, as demonstrated in a study conducted by the Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology.
So when Guelphites pass by these pianos and decide to freely improvise with music, they place more emphasis on their mood over the technicalities of melody, harmony and rhythm.
The power of music and improvisation to evoke a state of happiness is clear when examining people’s reaction to the project and when examining studies on this subject.
But once these pianos are gone at the end of September, how else will Guelph residents cope? As residents of the community, we should seize the opportunity to create improvisational music on our own in the streets of Guelph, because as demonstrated by this project, the happiness is infectious.
The Happy Making Project will run throughout the month of September and is planned to be an annual occurrence in Guelph.