Music and Memory

Brains, in my experience, are weird. They remember things better if there is a tune associated with the memory. I have no idea why this is and I really ought to find a video that explains it. It's the type of thing I'd find cool. Yes, I'm that type of person, but I digress. This post is about music that I have certain memories attached to. Here are three.

This first one I found when trying to memorize the presidents of the United States back in middle or high school. I was getting very frustrated until I realized setting the names in order to a song would help me greatly. I wound up doing very well on my test. I almost didn't include this one because I almost couldn't find the video on YouTube. I was about to give up thinking it had been buried under new videos after all these years, but then I found it. At least I think I did. It's been so long I cannot guarantee this is the exact video, but I'm fairly sure. It's certainly old enough.

The next song I have a memory associated with is In the Pines by Dolly Parton. My family has made several trips up to Dollywood through the years and one time we bought a CD. It had a variety of songs on it. I think this recording I found is the same one burned on the CD. It was the first time I remember listening to Dolly Parton, though I had doubtless encountered her music before that. We played it on the trip home and on some of our other trips to Dollywood. I have no idea where that CD is. It is likely lost to time, but I still remember many of the songs that were on it. This is one of my favorites and has stuck in my memory.

Last is a piece I played my junior year of high school. It was my first time being in an orchestra again after moving and the pandemic and this was one of the pieces on the program that I fell in love with. Dvorak's 9th symphony, specifically the 4th movement. It was challenging and I was nervous since I hadn't played with an orchestra in a year, but I enjoyed it nonetheless and have found myself revisiting it in later years. I have not had the opportunity to play this piece since then, but I hope to one day. It's always fun to revisit pieces you haven't played in a while. The piece being easier to play and noticing things I didn't before is very rewarding to me.

I have a variety of music I could have used here. It was kind of hard narrowing it down to three examples. The longer I thought about it the more memories I dredged up. I normally have a terrible memory, so the fact I could remember so much is a testament to how much music helps with memory.

If you're interested, here's one more video. It's not music, but a video from the YouTuber Sideways explaining how the Remember Me scene in Coco isn't that unrealistic. This channel has a lot of great videos about music that I highly recommend watching.