A Little Net Music

I blog, I Facebook, I Pinterest a little, occasionally watch a YouTube video, and can certainly research projects or shop... But I don't take advantage of, or even know anything about, so many of the other internet communication, social media, or audio-visual options.  So I know I'm behind the times, and may be telling you about something you already know.


But during my luxurious day of blogging and kitchening in my nightie, Pandora was a big part of the wonderful ambiance.  For anyone else who spends much of their days in somewhat close proximity to their computer, and doesn't know about it, I thought I would make an introduction.

I first became aware of Pandora in December when Prince Steadfast was home for Christmas break, and sitting with us at the table during school time.  He was playing music while using his laptop computer, and through the morning, we enjoyed his choice of mellow, Christian rock.  I noticed that although the music was all similar in tone and style, it was all different bands, so I asked him if it was a mixed CD or what.

He helped me find Pandora.com, and my first selections were holiday tunes.  After registering on Pandora (it's free), you are able to indicate an artist, album, or song around which to form a 'station,' like a custom radio station just for you.  That initial choice will set the tone for other music the program selects to play for you. You can fine tune the album by entering other songs to help narrow the field, and you can also click 'thumbs up' or 'thumbs down' to give feedback to the program, so it zeroes in on the type of music you want to hear.  --On Independence Day, I listened to Patriotic music and Souza marches!


You are not confined listening to only one station at a time, which is nice for me, because I like variety.  You can shuffle all of your stations for a wider variety of listening pleasure, but you can also select just certain stations you want mixed.  On 'Nightie Day' I enjoyed stations that included classical music (heavy on cello and J.S. Bach, since I have a YoYo Ma classical station, and a Johann Sebastian Bach station), contemporary Christian praise music, and the added some light-heartedness with the fun and romance of Colbie Caillat. 

The page showing the list of my Pandora 'stations.'  You can see by the photos
in the upper right that it was playing Bach Cello Suites when I captured
this image, and had just finished playing a Chris Tomlin song.  The station
this song was intended to match is highlighted (orange) in the list on the left.

Music not only soothes the savage beast, but I can tell you now that it also soothes, and brightens the day of the recently anxious and stressed.  If you don't have access to a similar musical resource, I hope this might help you add some joy to your days.