Music is an important part of many people's lives. To listen and play music can change the way you feel and affect you mentally and physically. Experts think that music can affect our motivation, memory, and stress-factor but it has also some value to our mind and soul.
- Music is a good way to express your feelings, says Anita Boberg Jonsson who teaches music at Parkskolan.

Have you ever listened to a song and felt that you're floating above the ground? Or felt that the song leaves you with a certain feeling that not so many other things do? Music can do a lot to your senses and body that you might not have thought about. If you're in a bad mood you'll certainly choose another song than when you're happy and since you can relate to different things and people when you listen to a song, music can be pretty emotional. Music is important to many people and it can be an "equipment for living" as the American-Japanese linguist S.I. Hayakawa once said. Music depending on mood Anita Boberg Jonsson is a music-teacher at Parkskolan and she thinks that music is important not only to her but also to all her students.

- They are so happy to learn and play their music and I'm really proud of all of them. Their parents have also expressed their happiness about their children playing some sort of instrument. The students who quit playing regret it as good as always.
To Anita and many other people, music can be a way to express themselves.
- If you're sad you put on a certain CD and if you're happy you choose a different one. That's why I can't say that I have just one special song or genre that I like more. I listen to almost everything. If you only listen to one genre you can miss out on a lot of things, she says.

Search the right feeling
- It's also important during performances to search for the feeling that the music express. You have to search through your own experiences and show that it's real so there'll be no misunderstanding. If it's a sad song with a text about sorrow you're not supposed to look happy.

Anita explains that she has difficulties being still when she hears music and she's always loved dancing as well as singing and playing instruments such as the piano and violin. To her it's like something's missing if she hasn't got movement in her life, but silence and variation is also important. Quickens recovery No one is really sure what happens physically when we listen to music. Experts think that music can affect our motivation, memory, and stress-factor in a good way. It can also do things to our blood-preasure, pulse, breathing and immune defense as well as diminish anguish and depression and increase the substance of both adrenaline and the hormone oxytocin that makes people calm down.

Studies have shown that music can help people tackle physical pain and process it as they relax and calm down.
Anita knows the importance of music and her theory about what happens in our body is that some substances stimulate the brain and makes us feel better.
To the question if adults and teens can start learning an instrument, Anita has a hopeful answer.
- It's never too late, she says with a smile.