# Music that helps you during a bad mood



## JohannesBrahms (Apr 22, 2013)

For me, its Mozart's piano sonatas. I'm not a big fan of him, and really only like the piano sonatas, but I've noticed they have a calming affect on me.

What music do you listen to in a bad mood to help you calm down? Bach? Chopin?...Prokofiev????


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Well, for me it's Mozart too, though not necessarily exclusively so since others have a compelling voice as well, and also not because he _calms _me. Rarely does he simply calm me. His isn't music for the savage beast. I think it's the range and depth of it, the way you have to enter the music and not just sit and stare passively. It's a challenge, one I rarely see people take because they just accept the perfect surface sheen and mistake that for the whole, usually dismissing the lot while they're at it..

So if I need another more pleasant upset to upset my present bad mood, it's the upsetting beauty, darkness and power of Wolfgang that grips me and in a fit of inspiration, changes my mind from dark to something brighter...


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## JohannesBrahms (Apr 22, 2013)

Kieran said:


> Well, for me it's Mozart too, though not necessarily exclusively so since others have a compelling voice as well, and also not because he _calms _me. Rarely does he simply calm me. His isn't music for the savage beast. I think it's the range and depth of it, the way you have to enter the music and not just sit and stare passively. It's a challenge, one I rarely see people take because they just accept the perfect surface sheen and mistake that for the whole, usually dismissing the lot while they're at it..
> 
> So if I need another more pleasant upset to upset my present bad mood, it's the upsetting beauty, darkness and power of Wolfgang that grips me and in a fit of inspiration, changes my mind from dark to something brighter...


I understand what you mean. What I meant was that because his music, while some of it is dark, is simple and peaceful, even the sad stuff. If I am stressed out or angry, it can help me slow down and snap out my bad mood.


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## Kieran (Aug 24, 2010)

Ah yeah, I got that, and I wasn't disagreeing, I was just saying, the same music affects me differently. I'm sure at times tough, it also affects me the same way it does you... 

My non-Mozart go-to guy is Chopin. Something very alone and beautiful about his music. I must admit to being not a fan of explicit Romantic emotionalism. Chopin I onsider to be fairly discreet and he brings me to a better place if I'm down...


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## Garlic (May 3, 2013)

I find "noisy" music like Bartok, Varese and Stravinsky very cathartic when I'm feeling rough. Also Bach, probably because the density of the counterpoint means I don't have time to think about whatever's bothering me.


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## Kleinzeit (May 15, 2013)




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## NightHawk (Nov 3, 2011)

To perk up, I listen to 18th century instrumental chamber music, i.e. Mozart Piano or Violin Sonatas, Haydn String Quartets. The only orchestral music I would choose would be Haydn, like his 'Paris' and/or 'London' Symphonies. Thin textures, clarity of form, and scant polyphony is a perfect antidote for my bad moods (and of course, sparkling performances!). Good luck


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## BurningDesire (Jul 15, 2012)

Improvising on piano or guitar usually helps me vent. Just slamming your fists into a keyboard can really help a girl cool down ^^


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Mozart, Handel, Boccherini, Vivaldi, Stamitz, Haydn, and many of the Rococo Composers come to mind.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

"To some people music is like food; to others like medicines; to others like a fan" ~ The Arabian Nights.

Music, category #2: Some people use music like medicines, to change or enhance the way they feel.

Me, I lack being category #2, fall in under categories No.s 1 & 3. -- I have a mood I'd want to alter or shake off, music isn't going to change it or distract me from it.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

BurningDesire said:


> Improvising on piano or guitar usually helps me vent. Just slamming your fists into a keyboard can really help a girl cool down ^^


I would like to do that, but it's so damn cold here right now!.


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## Cavaradossi (Aug 2, 2012)

PetrB said:


> "To some people music is like food; to others like medicines; to others like a fan" ~ The Arabian Nights.
> 
> Music, category #2: Some people use music like medicines, to change or enhance the way they feel.
> 
> Me, I lack being category #2, fall in under categories No.s 1 & 3. -- I have a mood I'd want to alter or shake off, music isn't going to change it or distract me from it.


I don't know what category this puts me in, but if I'm in a bad mood, I generally want music that's going to let me wallow in it - or at least comiserate with me - before it lifts me out. I have a few Shostakovich symphonies on my CD shelf for just those moments. Though thankfully I have yet to experience a black enough mood to call for the Shostakovich 8th.


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

Just about any music from classical, bluegrass or jazz alleviates my bad moods, because when I'm listening I ain't thinking gloomy thoughts (or much of any other kind).


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## deggial (Jan 20, 2013)

not classical, although Xenakis might be a decent idea I haven't tried yet.


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## aleazk (Sep 30, 2011)

Usually Bach. The WTC I or the Brandenburg Concertos.


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## Feathers (Feb 18, 2013)

For me it's either Mozart, Faure, or Shostakovich. They are so different, I know, but they help me feel better in their own individual ways.


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## Ingélou (Feb 10, 2013)

Lully's ballet music helps me to feel more serene, but for a real boost, I play Jimmy Shand's Eightsome Reel and heuch round the lounge!


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

Whether you 'believe' or not, a peaceful church may well be the best place to chill if in a bad mood, and fortunately for hundreds of years brilliant composers have enriched even that experience with music created specially for the place.
So, for me, nothing beats a beautiful requiem, or similar.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Ingenue said:


> Lully's ballet music helps me to feel more serene, but for a real boost, I play Jimmy Shand's Eightsome Reel and heuch round the lounge!


That must be a sight for sore eyes !!


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Bad mood me---you must be joking !!!


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## cwarchc (Apr 28, 2012)

Almost anything by Satie
I have to listen, which concentrates my thoughts


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## MagneticGhost (Apr 7, 2013)

The last thing I want when I'm in a bad mood is some giggling clown telling me to Cheer Up. 

Same with my music. If I'm feeling gloomy I need deep powerful gloom like Berlioz 
Requiem or Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead.

If I need to shake off the slough of despond quickly then it's Russian liturgy or Taverner or Tallis. Something pure and Godly.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I too do not want happy cheerful music when I'm in a bad mood. We want music to commiserate with us. I rarely listen to classical when in bad mood. If I do, it's often something like "Gayaneh's adagio" from Khachaturian's Gayane Ballet used so effectively in 2001:a space odyssey. It's a heartbreak I just want to wallow in until I come out the other side.

More likely instead of classical I'll listen to Tony Iommi's horrifying doom riffs that sound like the world has already ended and we're just waiting for the aftermath to be over. Those tend to make my problems seem insignificant.


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## neoshredder (Nov 7, 2011)

Weston said:


> I too do not want happy cheerful music when I'm in a bad mood. We want music to commiserate with us. I rarely listen to classical when in bad mood. If I do, it's often something like "Gayaneh's adagio" from Khachaturian's Gayane Ballet used so effectively in 2001:a space odyssey. It's a heartbreak I just want to wallow in until I come out the other side.
> 
> More likely instead of classical I'll listen to Tony Iommi's horrifying doom riffs that sound like the world has already ended and we're just waiting for the aftermath to be over. Those tend to make my problems seem insignificant.


I'm almost the opposite. I want to escape my problems. Thus, listening to music that helps me do it is what I like. I guess I did things differently when I was younger and enjoyed my madness with some Rage Against the Machine or Korn. Those days are over I think.


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## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

JohannesBrahms said:


> ...
> 
> What music do you listen to in a bad mood to help you calm down? ...


Mozart, Haydn, Handel tends to do the trick. Not only for bad moods, but as 'down time' from more heavy going stuff. These guys where optimists for sure. Of a later era, Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens can be like this too.

May sound funny, but Bruckner too. Despite being heavy going and not what I'd call easy listening, at the end of his symphonies he always give a huge boost. Its as if I've reached the top of a mountain after a long and strenuous climb, look over the magnificent view of the summit, and think that was definitely worth it.

Bartok I see as the same. Some quite disturbing and psychopathic elements in his music, speaking to the fractured world of his times, but usually in the last movement he gives you an energetic folk infused dance. Its like a kind of optimism that despite all the darkness, things are bound to get better one day.

Jazzy things do this as well. Eg. Gershwin, Bernstein, some Ravel (Piano Concerto in G) and Milhaud and so on.

Then you got pure ear candy, some would say schmaltz, but I think this music can be a light relief for the pressures of life. Eg. J. Strauss II, Lehar, Offenbach, so those operetta composers, but also light music from other places (eg. British like Ketelbey or Coates). Its not a mistake I listen to this stuff at regular intervals. I love things like Shostakovich, but if I'd listen to that kind of thing all the time, frankly it would get me down too much. Gotta have a boost sometimes.


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## lunchdress (Apr 20, 2013)

This CD has actually cured a few tension headaches for me 









I've also used 'Moonlight Sonata' to cure heartaches (as corny as that is) and ballet music to cure doldrums, so I guess it depends on the nature of the bad mood...

edited because I forgot to mention Billie Holiday-- she's been my lifelong 'commiserator' when I'm really down (But I don't solely listen to her for that purpose of course!)


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## Jovian (May 4, 2013)

some songs by Ac/Dc always help me get out of my bad mood.
Ghazal Singer


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## ahammel (Oct 10, 2012)

When I'm in a really bad mood, I like to hear a composer experiencing rough times and _working through it_ rather than wallowing and moaning.

Strauss's _Vier letzte Lieder_ works every time.


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## Nevohteeb (May 5, 2010)

I love the Mozart, trio in Eb+, K498, for piano, clarinet, & viola; Mendelssohn's trio in C-, or D-' the last movement of the Brahms, piano concerto in Bb+; Beethoven's, symphony #4; piano sonata in Ab+, Op. 31#3; piano trio in Eb+, Op. 70#2; or Op. 97; symphony #4, or 8; piano concertos, 1-5.


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## sureshkumar (Sep 6, 2013)

try to listen to Ghazals and sufi song.definately mood swingers


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