Example: Team Indian Ocean 3100
Open Ear has been working with Team Indian Ocean 3100 for the past eight months. The 4 man rowing team recently became the first team to row unaided across the Indian Ocean, completing the journey in just over 75 days. They left Geraldton, Western Australia on the 22nd April 2011 and arrived in Grand Baie, Mauritius on the 5th July 2011.
Open Ear’s role was to use our expertise in music psychology to create playlists to aid every element of the expedition –rowing, relaxing and sleeping. With such extreme conditions, our playlists provided a crucial role in improving performance, combating homesickness and reducing lethargy / tiredness.
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The team on the home stretch
Music and Rowing: the psychology
Music has is well know in improve athletic performance. Athletes of all sports often use it during training and iPods were recently banned from certain marathons due to them giving runners who use them an unfair advantage. There has been much research into physical performance enhancement through the use of music. It has even been classified by many researchers as ‘ergogenic aid’ with the potential to enhance performance and has been the subject of much research and debate.
Modern day rowing both on water and particularly on dry land with the use of the ‘ergometer’, would seem to be ideally suited to be performed to music. Nevertheless, appreciation and response to musical stimuli can be very subjective, as is the athlete’s rating of their own perceived exertion. So, availability and personal choice of music is all important if it is to enhance performance or even simply make the experience more enjoyable.
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Healthy beards (and the Open Ear Logo on the boat)
Open Ear music playlists
Taking this research into account, we interviewed each member of the team to determine their individual musical taste as well as their general ‘musical intelligence’ (exposure to music of all genres, experience, knowledge base etc). The questionnaire help us to devise 4 playlists which are designed to accompany the main elements of their journey.
1. Discover New Music:
The questionnaire showed that most of their tastes are centred around the latest and classic pop music. However, the questionnaires also showed openness to new music and a willingness to get away from their ‘overplayed’ current collections. This playlist contained new music from a range of genres – but mainly alternative and niche pop, soul and indie music that would offer some new songs and genres to discover and learn about during the trip.
2. Rowing:
Typically, rowing music matches the ‘beats per minute’ (bpm) of a song to the stroke rate of the rower. This is usually used during short training sessions with fast stroke rates of around 40-50 strokes per minute and 140-150 beats per minute songs (techno, fast rock).
Due to the nature of this journey, a stroke rate of this speed is impossible to obtain so the music was much slower – around 100-110 bpm and focussed on repetitive slo-mo house, disco and beats that set a consistent and obvious rhythm.
3. Chill Out:
For the duration of the trip, the team spent 2 hour on the oars and 2 hour off where they would tend to sleep. We created a ‘chill out’ playist that would help ease the transition from the two extreme states, helping lower heart rates and adrenaline levels coming off the oars.
4. Classics / Favourites:
A major element of the trip was homesickness, which had the potential to be a huge de-motivational factor for the team. With their help, we created a selection of their favourite tracks and ‘hits’ from the past few decades to help remind them of home and provide escapism from their surroundings when they needed it the most.
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On dry land..
Results and Feedback:
The following is an interview with Ed Wells, ¼ of Team Indian Ocean and explains the impact of music on the expedition.
1. How important was music to you on the expedition?
Vitally important.
2. How often did you listen to it? (give a percentage)
- on the oars 75%
- off the oars 25%
a. on the oars
- The beat of various songs helped each rowing pair to keep stroke, thus achieving greater efficiency.
- A more efficient stroke ensured a faster crossing time.
- Helped rowers relax thereby making it easier to keep the stroke constant.
- The chill out playlist helped us relax before drifting off the sleep, although it didn't take long to knock us out!
- Music also lifted spirits when a rower was in pain after a shift. Certain songs would remind us of home thereby temporarily removing a rower from the reality of constantly rowing.
4. How did the music impact your mood?
a. on the oars
Yes
Why:
- In a good way by removing oneself from the reality of rowing endlessly in pain. Different songs reminded us of different people, places, past memories etc.
- In a bad way. When a song came on you didn't like it annoyed the hell out of us and due to the boat needing a consistent pace you couldn't stop rowing and flick the track on. This resulted in forcing oneself to wait until a song was over.
- Not really as we were mostly asleep!
The team donated over £50,000 to charity. If you want to donate or find out more about the expedition, please check their website: www.indianocean3100.com
If you would like to know more about how Open Ear can help your business, please contact us on info@openearmusic.com / 01412486006
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