The Power of Music on the Brain
What would the world be like without music?
I can’t imagine.
Music dates back to the pre-historic era, perhaps since the human race began. It’s believed music was a way to communicate, but more so to communicate emotion. Its main purpose was likely to convey emotion and foster social cohesion, allowing humanity to build societies.
All cultures from every part of the world incorporate music and rhythm as a part of their practices, from national anthems to religious ritual accompaniment. Given the fact that music started all around the world before any other major forms of communication, music appears to be an innate human compulsion; a desire to want to create music, move to its rhythm and connect with others.
Sometimes when I listen to music, it makes me feel good. Sometimes it makes me feel like crying. With or without words, music brings my feelings to the surface.
When we listen to music, it releases the chemical dopamine, a feel-good neurotransmitter that flows between brain cells. This is why music can change my state of mind in an instant. It can give me energy when I feel flat. It can motivate me and inspire action, and it can relax me if I’m stressed or angry. Listening to music while doing tedious tasks like folding laundry gives me the ability to stick to these tasks longer, making me more productive.
Music stimulates the brain in many ways. Over the past several decades, there has been intensive research on the effects of music, especially music by Mozart. The Mozart Effect was first invented in 1991 by French researcher, Dr Alfred A. Tomatis. His claims were based on thirty years working with disabled children, and he also claimed to help many adults. He believed the non-repetitive style of some of Mozart’s songs improved cognitive ability, focus, and helped integrate learning. Other benefits included an improved outlook on life, increased creativity, and better communication skills. Music is also known to promote positive social behaviour and diminishes impulsive behaviours in children.
Studies from an article by Natalie Wilson “Five Ways Musical Training Helps with Children’s Brain Development ” on educationandbehaviour.com also show children who learn to play a musical instrument score higher in tests and have better academic performances. They also have improved reading comprehension, and speech processing abilities. Both instrumental training and singing enhance the ability for abstract learning. The study of music also makes the mind sharper and could prevent the brain from deteriorating into dementia later in life.
One of the reasons researchers give to support the numerous benefits of musical training is that it engages both the left and right side of the brain. Music simultaneously requires memory, listening skills, motor skills, and language acquisition, creating multiple neural pathways across the brain.
Music also stimulates the production of the hormone oxytocin, also called the ‘love hormone’, which helps us relax. It also releases endorphins which help diminish pain. Relaxing and classical music can lower blood pressure and reduce the heart rate.
Listening to positive music decreases the stress hormone cortisol in our bloodstream. It can improve sleep and can help speed up recovery for people from strokes and other disorders. Music is so powerful that some people suffering from conditions where they cannot talk are able to sing clearly and easily. People who have stutters in their speech patterns, for example, can express themselves clearly and easily via music.
For me, the effects of music are reflected in how well I engage with it. Consciously engaging with music and processing the structure of the music has a much better effect then if I just have it there in the background without really paying much attention to it.
Music also helps me grieve and move on from bad situations. Such as after a break-up I tend to listen to music that makes me cry and this has a cathartic effect. It helps me let go of negative feelings and integrate pain or loss by transforming it into something positive.
There was a brief period of time in my life when I didn’t get the chance to listen to much music. I’d misplaced my iPod, the radio in the house was broken, and I wasn’t using the car much at the time so I didn’t get the chance to listen to music anywhere. I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was just the way things were.
It wasn’t until circumstances changed that suddenly music was all around me. I found myself spending long periods of time in the car, which gave me hours of listening to music, and at my new job, music was always playing. It felt like I’d awakened from the dead.
I understood precisely what I had been missing and vowed never to let music slip from my life again.
I always had music around me when I was young. I remember my parents blasting music and it was probably why I was so happy as a child. If music’s main purpose is to communicate emotion then I guess this is why I have such a strong connection to the music from childhood. We are preening our emotional interior as children, trying to make sense of the world around us and music helps us do that.
I think most people remember with an uncanny certainty the music of their youth. It’s embedded in our brains. This is one of the reasons I love music so much because it triggers the memory. It brings back happy times from the past. The music settles in my soul and never leaves. With a single beat I can relive and bring to life dormant experiences that residue in my soul. Music makes these experiences constantly available to me.
This connection between music and memory is being uncovered by research. Studies in neuroscience have found that personalised music can help bring back memories in dementia sufferers, helping them reconnect to family and friends, and enabling them to stay present. Music and Memory is an organisation that sets up personalised music programs in nursing homes for people suffering from dementia. They tell a story of Henry who had barely spoken a word for a decade since suffering from dementia until he was introduced to their personalised music program.
Favourite music linked to important events in the patient’s lives help restore deep memories allowing them to feel like themselves again. It helps them find meaning, improving quality of life. Research from Music and Memory has also shown participants to be calmer, happier, and more social.
Music also helps me to bond with other people. When we hear a powerful and meaningful song that connects with us, it makes us forget about any animosity we might hold towards each other.
There are times when I have been out with friends and a conversation might get heated with disagreements, but then suddenly a song we all love comes on and everybody is singing and hugging each other. Everybody has forgotten what they were arguing about and nobody even cares anymore.
Just think about at the Olympics when a fellow citizen has won an event and the national anthem is sung. This binding experience makes us feel proud when we all hear and start singing together. The music brings us closer and we feel a part of something larger. Music expands us. It makes us realise we are all human and all experiencing the same world.
Artists and musicians have an extraordinary ability to make art out of human behaviour and, regardless of the details, to zoom in on the universal human experience as a way to connect the art, the artist and all the members of the audience. Sometimes artists and musicians can portray what is seen as extreme, different or abnormal and bring it to a level we can understand. The fact that most people can relate to the extremities found within art and music may prove that what society labels as abnormal really is more prevalent than culture admits.
Some of our greatest songs, plays and films often express humanity’s unbearable conflicting nature and multi-dimensional personalities, and when we’re reminded that we’re not the only ones experiencing them it can help us realise we’re not actually going insane, we are just uniquely human.
This is the beauty of art. It brings to light what we prefer to keep in the dark. We feel validated as it illuminates the complexities of the human psyche and portrays it in a simple manner which speaks universally.
It’s also believed the vibrations in music can mimic the vibrational patterns in the universe. This might be why we’re drawn to music and why we’re compelled to move to it. Since the world is built on these vibrations, it makes sense that the positive vibrations in music would have a positive effect on us. This could explain why chants have been used throughout history to provide healing and help us connect to the spiritual world.
Om is an ancient Sanskrit word. It’s believed to be the sound that created the universe, representing pure consciousness. Therefore everything in the universe is contained in it. Chanting Om connects us to all that is. It’s also thought to be the seed of all other sounds. In Sanskrit, Om is the most sacred sound and appears at the beginning and end of Sanskrit texts, prayers, and recitations. Yogis also normally chant Om before and after a session. This helps to not only connect with the practice more deeply but also with the people around them. I experience this for myself when I chant Om. The vibration of this chant leaves me with such a peaceful feeling as it helps me focus and align to the power within. My body and mind return to their natural state; they return home.
