Experiencing music is a complicated process. You have to simultaneously process melody, rhythm, lyrics, harmony, timbre, tempo, volume, structure, memories and emotions

Using music effectively is an active thing – this is called musicking

You can use music to affect your emotions, to gain greater self-awareness and for identity formation.

Listening to music on purpose requires thinking in advance what you want to use music for, then focusing on various different elements of the music experience

Using music effectively requires flexibility and adaptation as you work out what kind of music experience is needed to improve your wellbeing in each new situation

You can construct playlists for different purposes, thinking carefully about what each track is there for.