What do you feel?

I use music to help me relax when I come home from work. I play music in the morning as I'm getting ready for my day and this could be rock or soft classical depending on my mood.

Aside from that, when I'm listening I sometimes can feel the emotions that the composer infused into the music, so sometimes that can be feeling sad, joyful, heart ache, blissful, excited, etc. That is what I love about listening to classical music. It's like listening to a whole drama unfold, complete with suspense, doom, rapture, feeling love, feeling loss- everything. It is very fun to sit back and take it all in and enjoy it.

I find that I enjoy music more when I can let myself really surrender to what the music has to offer and let myself feel it all.

Something between the itching of a severe case of shingles and being being bitten by hundreds of Alaskan giant mosquitoes....
(8^Q...

At other times it is likewearing a body cast of mustard plaster.. With tons of red ants crawling around inside of it

i think there is another aspect of the value of music which has been implied by some of the posts. music has the ability to both alter psychological states, as has been indicated, but also alter physical states, which has not been mentioned.

music can lower blood pressure and put you to sleep, or at least contribute to a soporofic state.

Simply put, I could not live without it. I quite agree with Rosemary Harris' character in the Ralph Fiennes movie Sunshine, who says "But you cannot live without being able to play a musical instrument!"

I find listening to be kind of like a "runner's high." A feeling of stimulation, relaxed concentration, and focus. And (usually) some degree of mood elevation.

Contrary to what Mr. T describes (which I'm sure is true in many cases), I can't listen to music within an hour or two of retiring for the night, or I'll feel too stimulated to fall asleep.

Regards,
-- Al