Classical music is so powerful in recovery
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK
Posts: 72
Classical music is so powerful in recovery
4 years in and go to AA. One interesting topic I think is the power of classical music. The power of music I find is something that is not talked about much in meetings but it is really beneficial in recovery.
When i was clubbing and drinking I was dancing to rock, pop and dance. I was always trying to chase that feeling of euphoria.
In recovery I still like listening to rock, pop and dance but I now find classical just so much more powerful. When I was drinking I always thought classical was just "old school" but now I'm sober I think it's great. It gives me a true feeling of euphoria rather than just an artificial euphoria from drinking.
My favourite is "Chariots of Fire" they play at the Olympic games. Check it out on YouTube it is just so powerful and gets your emotions going.
I also like the musician John Williams who did all the Spielberg films ET, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters etc.
It is a feeling hard to describe but really does reach into your soul - happiness, hope, contentment. It has a mystical ethereal feel to it.
Such powerful songs with no singing really does help me lift my spirits in recovery.
Just wondering if other people find powerful music helps them in recovery? I cannot recommend it enough!
When i was clubbing and drinking I was dancing to rock, pop and dance. I was always trying to chase that feeling of euphoria.
In recovery I still like listening to rock, pop and dance but I now find classical just so much more powerful. When I was drinking I always thought classical was just "old school" but now I'm sober I think it's great. It gives me a true feeling of euphoria rather than just an artificial euphoria from drinking.
My favourite is "Chariots of Fire" they play at the Olympic games. Check it out on YouTube it is just so powerful and gets your emotions going.
I also like the musician John Williams who did all the Spielberg films ET, Jurassic Park, Close Encounters etc.
It is a feeling hard to describe but really does reach into your soul - happiness, hope, contentment. It has a mystical ethereal feel to it.
Such powerful songs with no singing really does help me lift my spirits in recovery.
Just wondering if other people find powerful music helps them in recovery? I cannot recommend it enough!
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Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: NSW - Australia
Posts: 14,537
Can't agree more BigBobby.
Classical music helps me so much more now than rock, even more than jazz, and the blues. And I like them all.
It reaches my soul as no other music might pretend. Brings me to tears sometimes. It comforts me, like a higher power might.
Rock on, classical music.
Classical music helps me so much more now than rock, even more than jazz, and the blues. And I like them all.
It reaches my soul as no other music might pretend. Brings me to tears sometimes. It comforts me, like a higher power might.
Rock on, classical music.
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Join Date: Nov 2018
Posts: 5,154
I like powerful classical also, but I don't care for opera. I was living on my boat one winter in Victoria, BC, and I read on a bulletin board or something that the Victoria Symphony would be giving a concert in a couple of months featuring Beethoven's Fifth. I've been to several concerts in Chicago, when I lived there, usually hearing things I wasn't that familiar with. But the Fifth performed live was something I never thought would happen for me. I bought tickets a month and a half in advance. And the symphony was excellent, I thought flawless. I was a little surprised since Victoria is not that huge of a city that usually supports such a caliber of musicians. The Fifth was performed last to a standing ovation of a full hall that lasted forever. I left the place feeling like I wanted to climb a sky scraper.
I'm not sure how that relates to sobriety, but if I had been drinking then, I may have missed my only chance to hear that remarkable piece live. I can't remember if they were serving wine in the lobby where men in formal attire and women in gowns would be sipping wine in fine crystal. I just don't remember. I had little interest in that part of it.
I'm not sure how that relates to sobriety, but if I had been drinking then, I may have missed my only chance to hear that remarkable piece live. I can't remember if they were serving wine in the lobby where men in formal attire and women in gowns would be sipping wine in fine crystal. I just don't remember. I had little interest in that part of it.
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bona fido dog-lover
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Here's the ringtone on my cell phone done on Glass Harp, an old instrument I had never heard of til recently. It's Bach's Badinerie from the Orchestral Suite # 2 in B minor. Lovely little piece. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voJojsuAphw
And here's the orchestral Badinerie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyMtlvOcojU
And here's the synthesizer rendition of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SheM...ature=emb_logo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voJojsuAphw
And here's the orchestral Badinerie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyMtlvOcojU
And here's the synthesizer rendition of it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SheM...ature=emb_logo
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Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: Preston, Lancashire, UK
Posts: 72
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Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: United States
Posts: 421
Interesting topic. I find that music with words often kicks off my desire to drink so I've been exploring other options. I find I really like just instrumental music. A coworker was listening to a playlist on youtube called "music to draw to" or something similar, and it was very mellow and relaxing. A lot of music that I used to love (and still do) brings up memories and feelings along with the lyrics. Switching that out for different stuff is part of breaking the cycle.
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Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 742
One of the biggest surprises of sobriety is how good music sounds.
I was born in 74 and I have a long drive to work with xm radio.
I play lots of the 80s music from elementary school, before everything got all messed up, though I was still sort of messed up before i started using. Life before everything came off the rails.
When I get into that 90s stuff from my late teens through young adulthood I can sort of see that insanity that we talk about in step 2. When your sober and still think of taking a drink, insanity! I was a senior in high school when Pearl Jam and Nirvana were getting big. I remember my early days of driving when marijuana seemed a prerequisite for getting behind the wheel. I have to remind myself, dude if you smoke a joint now you will go into such a paranoid episode you will be afraid of your own shadow. My brain use to be so polluted that i thought weed or acid was so wonderful for listening to music. That was my attitude and I was 10 times more an alcoholic then a pot head! Good song on the radio better smoke some pot, which will eventually make me drink, was the way I thought in the 90s.
More so early on in sobriety i would get a little bit sad hearing the music, remembering the times and knowing I can't drink and drug. Delighted though when I realize I don't HAVE TO drink.
When I think of music i think of classic rock from those years shortly before i was born. The stuff from the late 60s/early 70s. This is the nucleus of what I've listened to over the years. When I was younger my sick mind somehow thought the music was about the drugs. I was always fascinated with those times, probably because I wasn't there. I would wonder what was it like when those bands first came out. All those muscle cars were coming out, color tv, space exploration, Woodstock.
Its interesting now in recovery you hear about some of these guys in recovery. Even those those that didn't make it. Janis Joplin for example. A woman and an artist, totally different person and skill set then me but I'll bet we drank for much of the same reasons.
I was born in 74 and I have a long drive to work with xm radio.
I play lots of the 80s music from elementary school, before everything got all messed up, though I was still sort of messed up before i started using. Life before everything came off the rails.
When I get into that 90s stuff from my late teens through young adulthood I can sort of see that insanity that we talk about in step 2. When your sober and still think of taking a drink, insanity! I was a senior in high school when Pearl Jam and Nirvana were getting big. I remember my early days of driving when marijuana seemed a prerequisite for getting behind the wheel. I have to remind myself, dude if you smoke a joint now you will go into such a paranoid episode you will be afraid of your own shadow. My brain use to be so polluted that i thought weed or acid was so wonderful for listening to music. That was my attitude and I was 10 times more an alcoholic then a pot head! Good song on the radio better smoke some pot, which will eventually make me drink, was the way I thought in the 90s.
More so early on in sobriety i would get a little bit sad hearing the music, remembering the times and knowing I can't drink and drug. Delighted though when I realize I don't HAVE TO drink.
When I think of music i think of classic rock from those years shortly before i was born. The stuff from the late 60s/early 70s. This is the nucleus of what I've listened to over the years. When I was younger my sick mind somehow thought the music was about the drugs. I was always fascinated with those times, probably because I wasn't there. I would wonder what was it like when those bands first came out. All those muscle cars were coming out, color tv, space exploration, Woodstock.
Its interesting now in recovery you hear about some of these guys in recovery. Even those those that didn't make it. Janis Joplin for example. A woman and an artist, totally different person and skill set then me but I'll bet we drank for much of the same reasons.
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Join Date: Jul 2017
Location: UK
Posts: 3,502
My life has always been about music and yes it can have a very powerful effect on the emotions. I've long been a classical music fan and often find listening to it can be very healing as well as relaxing so it's perfectly suited to someone in recovery.
I love all sorts of music though and can always find music to match my mood. The wonders of streaming music services - there's playlists there for all genres and to match all moods.
One thing I've always had to be careful about though is listening to certain songs from certain years which can bring back memories, some happy, some sad, which can bring back wistful memories of drinking days long ago and which has led me to relapse in the past. I know to avoid those songs. But I never got drunk listening to classical music so I associate that music with relaxation and recovery.
I love all sorts of music though and can always find music to match my mood. The wonders of streaming music services - there's playlists there for all genres and to match all moods.
One thing I've always had to be careful about though is listening to certain songs from certain years which can bring back memories, some happy, some sad, which can bring back wistful memories of drinking days long ago and which has led me to relapse in the past. I know to avoid those songs. But I never got drunk listening to classical music so I associate that music with relaxation and recovery.
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Join Date: Feb 2020
Posts: 353
I personally find that listening to classical music helps to stimulate the brain and I listen to classical music when I do my oil painting. I find that it puts me in a positive and creative mood when I am oil painting and I primarily listen to Mozart when I am painting. They say that listening to Mozart helps to increase your IQ level but I am not sure if this is entirely certain. I know that Mozart helps to put me in a mood to paint well and takes me to a calm place of peace and tranquility.
I also love to listen to Bach, Handel, Gluck, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Schumann, Suppe, Strauss, Ravel, Sibelius, Dvorak, Massenet, Mahler, Elgar, and many others too many to name.
As far as my favorite modern classical composer I really enjoy one of my favorite guitarists and composer of neoclassical music, Yngwie J. Malmsteen.
Here is one of my favorite masterpiece compositions by the great Yngwie J. Malmsteen called Far Beyond The Sun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Ox...8#action=share
I also love to listen to Bach, Handel, Gluck, Vivaldi, Mendelssohn, Liszt, Verdi, Wagner, Schumann, Suppe, Strauss, Ravel, Sibelius, Dvorak, Massenet, Mahler, Elgar, and many others too many to name.
As far as my favorite modern classical composer I really enjoy one of my favorite guitarists and composer of neoclassical music, Yngwie J. Malmsteen.
Here is one of my favorite masterpiece compositions by the great Yngwie J. Malmsteen called Far Beyond The Sun:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4Ox...8#action=share
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