Relaxation And Reduced Stress
If youre feeling stressed from work, school or everyday life then sit back, close your eyes, and play Bachs Twelve Little Preludes on the stereo. Why? Because classical music is intrinsically linked to reducing stress. A 2018 study on the effect of different types of music on patients preoperative anxiety shows that classical music can cause the heart rate and breathing to slow, and emotional distress to decrease. Classical music also lowers cortisol levels in the brain that can help lessen anxiety and lower blood pressure.
Next time your children are driving you up the wall, play some Chopin to not only soothe yourself, but to soothe them too.
Rauscher Et Al 1993 Study
Frances Rauscher, Gordon Shaw, and Catherine Ky investigated the effect of listening to music by Mozart on spatial reasoning, and the results were published in Nature. They gave research participants one of three standard tests of abstract spatial reasoning after they had experienced each of three listening conditions: the Sonata for Two Pianos in D major, K. 448 by Mozart, verbal relaxation instructions, and silence. They found a temporary enhancement of spatial-reasoning, as measured by spatial-reasoning sub tasks of the Stanford-Binet IQ test. Rauscher et al. show that the enhancing effect of the music condition is only temporary: no student had effects extending beyond the 15-minute period in which they were tested. The study makes no statement of an increase in IQ in general .
It Could Help You Memorize New Information
According to a , listening to classical music seemed to help older adults perform better on memory and processing tasks.
These findings suggest certain types of music can help boost memorization abilities and other cognitive functions.
Music helps stimulate your brain, similar to the way exercise helps stimulate your body.
The more you exercise your muscles, the stronger they become, right? Giving your brain a cognitive workout could help strengthen it in a similar fashion.
Not everyone finds music helpful for tasks that require concentration.
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A Booster For Your Creativity
If youre a writer facing the dreadful writers block, or a musician who cant seem to hit the right keys and create the desired effect, you should put some classical music on and let your creative juices flowing.
Maybe you need to think outside the box for your current project. Or you simply need a little mental nudge to do things. By listening to Bach and Mozart, you will give your brain what it requires to kick start its creativity.
Sweetest Human Being Alive
George Ezra is a god among men, so its natural that I would think his entire new album, Gold Rush Kid, is pure perfection. Every song could easily make this list, but Sweetest Human Being Alive just might be my favorite love song of all-time. If anyone ever sang this to me Id genuinely combust.
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Classical Music Effects On The Brain: Emotions
This ones not as obvious as you might think. Most people think that rock ballads and melancholic piano music were to blame for emotional breakdowns and those vehement feelings of sadness , but getting all emotional has a lot to do with classical music as well.
Most notably, we all know that music is good if we get our skin crawling in the form of goosebumps, right? Well, lets see how classical music pieces make us feel slightly more mellow.
First of all, lets take modern music for example. There are only a couple of instruments present in the vast majority of songs , particularly in mainstream pop culture. Now, what was different about classical music back then is the sheer opposite there were plenty of instruments, each captivating our senses in a different way. This study talks about the direct effects classical music can have on your mood.
Some people might even feel a bit confused, even disoriented when they start listening to certain music especially on a pair of the best headphones for classical music on higher volumes.
It Can Help People On Diets
You now how difficult it is to eat slowly, chew your food properly, and really enjoy it. Playing soft music and dimming lights in dining areas has been found to help people enjoy their food more and eat less! This is the main result of a study carried out at Cornell University. On the other hand, places like fast food joints use brighter lights to encourage fast eating and more profit for the business. You can improve the way you experience food by being more intentional in the way you eat, including playing soft music during meals.
We look forward to hearing about the ways you have benefited from listening to classic music. Post your stories in the comments below!
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Music Can Help You Cope With Isolation
Music has often been used as a tool to cope with difficult emotions. In times of isolation, it can be even more important to turn to music for comfort. Listening to upbeat music can help you feel more optimistic while playing soft music and relaxing songs can help you wind down and de-stress. Many people struggled with loneliness throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns.
A study of over 2,100 adults found that over half enjoy listening to classical and instrumental music at home, a big increase compared to before the pandemic. This music serves as a coping mechanism, helping individuals relax, reflect, and distract themselves from difficult current events.
If youre feeling isolated, try listening to your favorite music and see how it makes you feel. You may be surprised at how much it helps.
Brainpower And Cognitive Function
If they say that music is food for the soul, then classical compositions are omega-3, antioxidants and a pinch of caffeine. During a 1993 control group, physicist and University of California Professor Dr Gordon Shaw saw a spike in IQ in his college students after listening to Mozart. Labelled the Mozart Effect, the study garnered a lot of scepticism and doubt from experts. Whilst the findings werent specifically linked to an answer in raised IQs, Dr Shaw believed that listening to Mozart could be useful to warm up parts of the brain that relate to abstract thought.
Echoing this, a study by Dr Kevin Labar says that music does have the power to improve intellectual performance and cognitive function, but not by raising the IQ. What actually happens is that the calming effect induced by classical music releases dopamine to spike pleasure. The dopamine also prevents the release of stress hormones. From here, mood is improved, which therefore clarifies thinking making tasks like essay writing and studying a lot more enjoyable.
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It Can Help You Express Your Emotions
If music be the food of love, play on, Give me excess of it. William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Music can express what we may never be capable of verbally and thank goodness for that. We may have to struggle with anger, love, depression and many other emotions and feelings. When we connect with music, we can begin to cope. It helps us to be more honest with ourselves. Research at The Southern Methodist University shows that when listening to classical music, undergraduate students were more communicative and open about their emotions. Everyone has their favorite playlist to help them when they feel romantic, lazy or exhausted. Listening to classical music helps you express your emotions in unique ways.
Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways. Sigmund Freud
Shocking Benefits Of Listening To Classical Music
Chances are youve heard that there are several benefits of listening to classical music. But is there any actual truth behind this statement? According to numerous studies, there absolutely is.
There are a ton of brainy benefits one derives from deciding to play classical music. From pain management to improved sleep quality, listening to classical music has both mental and physical benefits.
In fact, simply listening to classic music songs as background noise can have a significant impact on your mood, productivity, and creativity.
I guess those old guys were really onto something, huh.
Below are some surprising benefits when you listen to classical music backed by actual science.
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Why Is Dancing Good For Your Brain Health
Dancing also provides an indirect way in which music leads to better brain health. In scientific studies, dancers themselves report multiple cognitive benefits of their activity. Moreover, an astonishing study in 2003 at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine showed that of many different types of physical activities, only dancing was associated with a reduced risk of dementia. Another study, this time in Germany, gave us a clue as to how: dancing was associated with increased hippocampal volume and with the production of a brain protein, BDNF, which stimulates the growth of new brain cells.
Even Sad Music Boosts Mental Health
Instrumental music can be bright and cheerful, but it can also be gloomy. Surprisingly, sad pieces of music are good for your mental well-being. They can reassure you that someone else has experienced similar emotions, like grief, loneliness, or depression.
The music creates a human connection and acknowledges the complex emotions that we all inevitably experience. A recent study published in Frontiers in Psychology found that listening to sad music can benefit mental health. The study asked participants to listen to either happy or sad music and then rate their emotions.
The results showed that those who had listened to sad music reported feeling more reflective and emotionally stable than those who had listened to happy music. In addition, the participants who had listened to sad music also showed increased levels of self-awareness and empathy.
These findings suggest that listening to sad music can be therapeutic and help people healthily process their emotions. Sadness is a natural emotion, and it is essential to allow ourselves to feel it sometimes. By listening to sad music, we can permit ourselves to feel our emotions and gain a better understanding of the emotions of others.
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Localization Of Music Perception And Spatial Imaging Within The Brain
An explanation for the results obtained after listening to music may lie in the manner in which music and spatial imaging are processed within the brain. There have been many studies on the localization of music perception. Techniques such as positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance scanning, together with studies on localized brain lesions, have shown that listening to music activates a wide distribution of brain areas. The primary auditory area lies classically in the transverse and superior temporal gyri, but particular components of musical appreciation involving rhythm, pitch, metre, melody, and timbre are processed in many different areas of the brain. These range from the prefrontal cortex and superior temporal gyrus to the precuneus of the parietal lobe, with much interconnection of the different networks activated11,12,13. Rhythm and pitch discrimination are processed mainly in the left hemisphere whereas timbre and melody are found chiefly in the right. Appreciation of metre does not appear to show hemispheric preference.
Brain areas concerned with mental imaging as tested by spatial temporal tasks were also mapped by PET scanning14. The results show that the areas activated include the prefrontal, temporal and precuneus regions which overlap with those involved in music processing. It is suggested, therefore, that listening to music would prime the activation of those areas of the brain which are concerned with spatial reasoning.
Amazing Listening Effects Of Classical Music
Why does classical music continue to be listened to, despite new genres? Scientists say it has a unique effect on us.
An experiment by the Department of Psychology at UCLA involved 75 people. The focus was on the effects of classical music on heart rate and the vascular system damaged by stress. Respondents were asked to solve an arithmetic problem under time constraints and then divided into several groups. The first group listened to jazz, the second listened to pop music, and the third listened to classical music. As a result, the latter recorded lower systolic blood pressure levels. Other music styles did not produce similar effects, nor did silence.
The journal Learning and Individual Differences reports on a study in which students were divided into two groups with equal measures of age, health, and academic performance . Participants in the first group attended a lecture with classical music playing in the background, while those in the second selection listened to the same material in silence. After the talks, students in both groups solved the same test. It turned out that the volunteers who studied the genre scored higher for correct answers compared to those who listened to the lecture without accompaniment. Conclusion: Music contributed to better absorption of new information.
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Does Music Really Make You Smarter
The results of the study have proven to be controversial. Most criticism of the findings argue that the Mozart effect is due to enjoyment arousal in other words, the subjects enhanced spatial reasoning was down to their enjoyment and appreciation of the music, rather than any mysterious effect Mozarts music might have on the brain.
Those who listened to music, Mozart or something else Bach, Pearl Jam had better results than the silent group. But we already knew people perform better if they have a stimulus, Jakob Pietschnig, who led the study, told The Telegraph.
I recommend everyone listen to Mozart, but its not going to improve cognitive abilities as some people hope, he added.
The scientists themselves suggested that the basic activity of listening to music activated of the areas of the brain which are concerned with spatial reasoning in which case, the result might be more accurately named the general music effect.
This baby, for example, loves a bit of Paganini…
It Can Help Blood Pressure
It is fascinating to discover that cardiologists have found a connection between Beethovens Ninth Symphony and our blood pressure levels. They found that this piece and many other classical music pieces are in natural sync with our own bodys natural rhythm and that helps to keep blood pressure at optimal levels. Professor Bernardi at the University of Pavia in Italy has done some interesting research on this.
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What Kind Of Music Works Best
Listening to music while you study or work doesnt always make you less productive or efficient.
If you prefer to study with music, theres no need to give it up. Keeping these tips in mind can help you find the most helpful music for work and study:
- Avoid music with lyrics. Any music that has lyrics in a language you understand will probably prove more distracting than helpful.
- Choose slow, instrumental music. Existing research generally focuses on classical music, but if you dont enjoy this genre, you could also consider soft electronic, space, or ambient the kind you might hear at a spa or while getting a massage.
- Avoid surprising or experimental music. Music that changes abruptly or lacks a fixed rhythm can leave you guessing about what to expect. This can distract your brain and keep you from focusing on your work.
- Keep the volume low. Study music should stay at a background volume. If its too loud, it could disrupt your thinking process.
- Stick to songs you dont have strong feelings about. Listening to music you either love or hate can affect your ability to concentrate.
- Stream commercial-free music, if possible. Picture this: Youre listening to your instrumental Pandora station when a toilet paper commercial cuts in, annoying you and derailing your train of thought. Enough said.
Fantastic Positive Effects Of Classical Music On Your Brain
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You must have heard it plenty of times. Classical music has a positive effect on those who listen to it regularly. Something about the flow of sound creating by the greatest composers who ever walked the earth gets in touch with our inner selves in a way that no other music can.
For overall wellness, but especially emotional and mental fortitude, classical music can work wonders.
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Classical Music Improves Your Sleep
Sleepless nights wont be an issue for you if you start listening to classical music, thats guaranteed. Now, this particular statement is actually the result of combining the aforementioned two your blood pressure will be lowered a bit, and youll feel slightly more emotional all the while. What does that have to do with your nights sleep? Well, everything.
Certain people suffer from sleeping disorders due to particular medical conditions, and even if thats the case, this kind of music might help you feel a bit better, if not heal you altogether.
On top of that, lets observe the average case scenario where a person is about to simply fall asleep without any notable biological or psychological problems. There are two things we should pay attention to first, classical music seldom has percussions, and second, most pieces dont feature any singing .
The sheer lack of words or sung text means that you dont have to pay as much attention as you would too, for instance, have hip-hop vinyl songs, or a rock song. On another hand, the lack of percussions makes it a bit more pleasant and not as aggressive to listen to.
This study paper did an investigation of the effects of soft music on sleep quality in adults. And the results were clear: Music resulted in significantly better sleep quality in the experimental group, as well as significantly better components of sleep quality
