Hi everybody, this is Paula Phelps and you are listening to On a Positive Note.

Scott Crabtree founded the company Happy Brain Science to help others discover well-being rooted in positive psychology.

And as a semi-professional musician, he knows firsthand how we can use music as a tool for boosting our mood and regulating our emotions.

During difficult times, music can be particularly helpful.

And in this episode, Scott sits down with me to talk about why music is so good for your brain,

how it can help us find a state of flow, and how songwriting is a great tool for

releasing emotions. Let's have a listen. Scott, thank you for sitting down with me today.

So my pleasure, Paula. Thanks for having me. Oh, I'm excited. I've known you for a few years,

but it was only recently that I found out that you're a semi-professional musician. And I can't

believe that that was never even on my radar screen. So tell me about that part of your life.

Well, it's been there basically as long as I can remember because my mom was an elementary

school music teacher. So when I was a wee child, my mother, Erica Hartman, was sitting with me

going ta, ta, t, t, ta, and things like that. So I learned piano from her, among other things,

and then took clarinet where I earned the name Squeaky in middle school.

I think it was.

There's something to hang on to.

And then I played trumpet, and then I left music behind for several years.

And it's interesting because I think it's possible I would have never rekindled it.

But when I got to college, I thought, well, maybe I'll try drums because I'm fond of saying my fine motor skills are gross, but my gross motor skills are fine.

So I tried drumming and all that ta-ta-tah t-tete-ah that my mom did with me must have stuck because I just really took to drumming.

And drums was my main instrument for decades.

And I absolutely loved playing in bands in college and afterwards.

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