Our love for music has remained constant through the evolution of time. It has been an integral part of our lives throughout the centuries and even today. Music brings people from different cultures together. The genres of music are myriad as the cultures in the entire world. Music is often said to be a state of the mind. Technically, the world never is numbingly quiet, even in the remotest part of the world. Sounds of various patterns that follow a rhythm strike the human auditory senses as “music”. Even the daily din of a busy city has got a rhythm of its own, to listen to which all you need is an empty mind and a keen sense to catch the pulse.
Effect of music while studying
In the recent times, music has been much studied about, seeking to find the answer to a few cardinal questions. Why do we feel euphoric when we listen to our favorite song? How does music relieve us from the tiredness and boredom of our daily chores? Can music heal? The answers to all these are no longer beyond comprehension. Studies on music have yielded a lot of insight on the effects of music on the human psyche. The depressed, the mentally disturbed, people suffering from insomnia among others are the ones who can really be benefited by music. Students can as well benefit from music. In fact, there has been a considerable experiment on the effects music has on students. The beauty of music lies in its subtle way of getting into our motor system, becoming irresistible and often, arresting our attention; that is to say the tunes that we begin to hum when we hear music, or the foot-tapping that the brain semi-consciously resonates. Light soulful music relieves us, ups our mood and makes us hearty. It is a great stress-buster.
For the experiments conducted on students, the results were surprising as it revealed that slow, soft music is conducive to learning and the brain retains much of what we read while we hear the music playing, simply because it has the potential of altering people’s sense of consciousness, the slow shifting of which gives human brain much more time to concentrate on something.
Of late, it has been noticed that students who hear classical music with 60-70 beats per minute while studying score on an average 12% higher than those that don’t. The melody and tone range of classical music does the trick here.
How does music impact our brains?
The left hemisphere of the brain is attributed to the processing of factual information and solving problems. Listening to music with 50-80 beats per minute has a calming effect on this side of the brain.
Type of music and its effects
Students studying Science, Languages or Humanities are advised to listen more to classical music, as it gives the scope of logical reasoning. The right hemisphere, attributed to the creative aspect of human nature is excited by pop or emotive rock music. Students of Drama or Art are advised to listen to more of such music.
Therefore, it becomes clear that different types or genres of music have different effects on the human mind.
People who are into active sports that demands physical labor may get rejuvenated by hard rock music. While those who are into professions that demand a lot of mental stress are easily moved to slow pop or jazz music.
All in all, music is one common thing that unites people, despite the differences in language, culture or geographical location.