Relaxing music for anxiety control.

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the characteristics of relaxing music for anxiety control. Undergraduate students (N=84) were instructed to imagine themselves in an anxiety producing situation while listening to a selection of 30 music compositions. For each composition, level of relaxation, the factors that either enhanced or detracted from its relaxing potential and the emotional labels attached were assessed. Participants were also asked to state which music components (e.g., tempo, melody) were most conducive to relaxation. Additional information was obtained through the use of a focus group of 6 undergraduate music students. This paper presents details on the characteristics of relaxing-music for anxiety control and emotional labels attached to the relaxing compositions. Furthermore, an importance value has been attached to each of the music components under scrutiny, thus providing an indication of which music components should receive greatest attention when selecting music for anxiety control.