Benefits Of Listening to Music

There’s more to learning how to play an instrument than just making beautiful music. Learning to play a musical instrument can increase concentration and focus. It can help you improve your coordination, your listening skills, and also provides stress relief.

Whether you want guitar lessons in Atlanta, Georgia, or violin lessons in Memphis, Tennessee, the benefits of learning to play an instrument are well documented – not just in children, but in adults, too. The benefits of learning to play a musical instrument extend to people of all ages.

The idea of listening to music while studying is a very common one for students. Some students may be surprised to learn that it can help them study and retain information better than they would without sound.

Dopamine and memory information processing occurs in many areas throughout our brains and most people experience some degree of memory formation when learning new things. When you listen to music while studying, it helps to activate multiple parts of the brain at once.

Simply put, having both auditory stimulations along with visual information processed by your brain can help improve memory retention. The dopamine released during this process is partly responsible for helping us remember what we are doing and why.

Dopamine is released when you are doing something enjoyable to you, especially when it brings on some type of pleasurable reward.

You remember better while listening to music because your brain releases dopamine every time it hears new information, which makes you want to listen more intently and therefore remember it more clearly.

This explains why some students have a hard time focusing on their studies, as it is usually not an enjoyable process for them. If you can put yourself in a good mood whenever you need to study, it will help improve your memory and attention span.

Your brain doesn’t remember meaningless information as well as it does the things that mean something to you. Put yourself into a good mood by listening to your favorite music, and you’ll find that it’s much easier to focus on what you need to learn.

The music doesn’t have to be loud for this process to work either. If the volume is too high, it can make you even more stressed while studying because of all the other extra noise.

When you study, try to play music that is instrumental without any words being sung along with it. This will help improve your concentration because you won’t have anything to distract you from the information that’s being presented.

Another thing that can help improve memory retention while studying is listening to low volumes of different types of music. For example, try listening to classical music one day and soft rock another. This creates a different mood in your brain that will help you learn what you are being taught.

Listening to music makes studying more enjoyable for many students. When you study in a good mood, you remember information better.

Music helps activate the different parts of your brain that are responsible for storing memories and improving concentration. This is why having music on when you need to focus can improve memory retention by up to 15%.

If you want to make studying more enjoyable and remember things better, then try listening to music while studying.

You will also learn that you improve your creativity as well as allow yourself to relax more when you listen to music as opposed to not listening at all.

Finally, you will learn to study in a way that is more appropriate for your brain type.

Teach Discipline and Patience

Learning to play an instrument requires both discipline and patience. Children will learn these two skills in a fun way when discipline and patience are woven together with a neat toy — an instrument — and a simple goal like learning to play a favorite song.

Increase Physical Skills

Learning any instrument requires hand and eye coordination. Whether drawing a bow across a violin or plunking keys on a piano, music students must learn to read music while making the strings or keys sing.

Improve Math Skills

It may seem anathema, but music and math are highly related. Through music lessons, students learn scales, rhythm, and beat. Through learning the scales, or musical steps, children begin to understand patterns. By understanding beats and musical measures, students begin to gain the skills necessary to divide and do fractions.

Increase Social Skills and Fun

Music is fun, and it’s also social. Children who learn to play an instrument have the opportunity to jam with friends in the garage, play in a school band or perform at small venues. Music is meant to be heard and shared.

The benefits of children learning a musical instrument are well-documented, but researchers are only beginning to study how lifelong learning benefits older people. The things that happen in a young brain– like growing new connections and pathways – also occur in more seasoned brains.  

In one study, researchers from the University of Florida taught piano to adults between the ages of 60 and 85. Six months later, the budding instrumentalists showed improved verbal and cognitive skills.

In adults, learning to play an instrument can:

Keep Your Mind Sharp

Research suggests that lifelong learning helps keep the older mind active. The benefits of lifelong learning aren’t limited to group classes. Adults can improve their focus and concentration by learning new things, like a second language or playing a musical instrument.

Increase Confidence

Experts have long known that accomplishing a goal led to increased self-esteem and confidence. However, a growing set of research suggests that simply taking action towards a goal, whether you accomplish it, can do the same. If you decide to learn to play the violin, you may not be able to play Chopin right away. However, practicing and taking lessons will improve your confidence regardless of whether you ever join the symphony.

Improve Memory

Playing and listening to music stimulates your brain, which can increase memory. Researchers have long known that there is a significant difference in the brains of musicians and non-musicians. When you play an instrument, the part of the brain that stores memories grow and becomes more active.

Benefits Of Listening to Music

Build on skills you already have!

If you enjoyed playing piano as a youth, learning a second instrument will help you build on critical skills you may already have. You’ll upgrade your music reading and comprehension skills while learning something new.

Music therapy studies suggest that music has a significantly positive effect on people.

Some of the areas that music has a positive effect on the body include breathing, heart rate, concentration, state of mind, and stress response. Studies also suggest that music therapy has benefits. In certain circumstances, with the right set of variables, lots of different music can be an effective tool in treatment.

To understand how music is beneficial to treatment we must first understand the effects music therapy has on the human body. The beat of a song affects our brainwave activity. A beat with a faster tempo will cause the brain to become more alert and increase concentration. Slower tempos will cause relaxation. The human body will respond by slowing down the heart rate and breathing which reduces the effects of stress.

Studies also show that music can lower blood pressure and help boost the body’s immune system as well. Music also has a profound effect on creating a more positive state of mind which can help people manage their anxiety better. Once the music has stopped playing some of the effects on the body’s systems continue to take place.

With an understanding of the benefits music therapy has on the body, we can begin to understand how music can be an effective tool in treatment. Music is continually growing in popularity as a genre. Music therapy has been used when working with at-risk youths in a group treatment setting. The response is that of excitement to be involved in these groups. One of the factors to take note of is that the rap music used in these groups is positive.

At risk, youths are more receptive to the use of music in therapy when it is the genre of music that they prefer to listen to.

One of the aspects of this study was the interaction with each other.

Discussions around the lyrics and interpretations of the messages in these songs would take place. They would also talk about how it related to their own life. In one particular study, the youths involved were motivated to even start writing and sharing their lyrics.