Music has been found to boost athletic performance; soothe and heal injuries; help depression, autism, and Alzheimer's; and increase academic performance.
Everyone knows that music influences people -that is how it holds a special power all in its own. But what are its noteworthy properties?
For years researchers have studied why and how music has such an enormous effect on people. Music has been found to boost athletic performance; soothe and heal injuries; help depression, autism, and Alzheimer's; and increase academic performance. It seems there is something more to those tunes that get our toes tapping and our fingers snapping.
Education and Music
"But Mom, I do better on my homework when I'm listening to music!" Most parents have heard this, possibly repeatedly, from their children. And they may be right, depending on the type of music that is playing. While things like popular music, TV, and chatting online all distract from homework and increase the likelihood of making mistakes, non-vocal, calming music can sometimes help a child focus more on their studies.
But what really causes an increase in your child's academic performance is music education. Studies show that learning to play and read music correlates with positive results in learning capabilities.
In one study, two elementary schools were compared -one in which children studied piano formally for three consecutive years and one that required no formal musical training. Students from the "music-learning" school had significantly better vocabulary and verbal sequences than the other group. Another study in Switzerland tested 1,200 children in 50 schools for various effects of music education, and found that children actively involved in music learned to read more quickly and acquired other languages more readily. These children also had lower stress levels and demonstrated more enjoyment in school than those not involved with music.
Our bodies naturally push themselves to be in sync with the music that we are listening to.
Exercise and Music
It isn't surprising that music is a boon when it comes to working out. After all, walk into any gym -almost all the members are wearing earphones. But music doesn't only keep us entertained while exorcising -it has been proven to increase performance. Even competitive athletes take advantage of its powers: track star Haile Gebrselassie set an indoor world record for the 2000 meters in 1999 by synchronizing his stride to the song "Scatman." But why exactly is music so helpful in our quest for fitness?
Understanding how music affects exercising is dependent on grasping the entrainment (not entertainment) principle. Entrainment is when two or more unconnected rhythms synchronize, or begin to have the same beat. Scientist Christian Huygens discovered this principle in 1665, when he placed two pendulum clocks on a wall and found that they eventually began to swing at the same rate. This same principle explains why the footsteps of a jogger fall into the same rhythm as the music he or she is listening to.
Because the entrainment principle our bodies naturally push themselves to be in sync with the music that we are listening to. When exercising it's important to have several different music tracks, with varying beats, so that you can walk up to a slower beat and work your way up to a faster one, which will elevate your heart rate.
According to Dr. Costas Karageorghis, a researcher studying the relationship between music and exorcise, the ideal tempo for a power walker is 137 to 139 BPM (beats per minute); for a runner, it would be around 147 to 160 BPM. The wonderful thing that is that it doesn't matter what kind of music you use -if you can find a song with the right beat, whether it's classical, country, or rock, it will push you to motivate you just the same.
However, the entrainment principle isn't the only things that makes music such a powerful motivator to exorcise. Music also has incredible power to boost positive feelings and block out bad ones. In fact, music can take away much of the body's awareness of aching lungs, beating heart, and burning muscles. It can reduce a person's perception of effort by 10 percent, which can make all the difference when you are pushing for those last minutes of a tough workout.
Music has also been proven to help with consistency in workouts. In 2005, Christopher Capuano, director of Fairleigh Dickinson University's School of Phycology, conducted a study which tracked a small group of overweight or obese women for twenty-four weeks while they were told to listen to music of their choice while exorcising. While all the participants lost weight, the women who listened to music were more consistent with their exorcise routines (the adhered to the program 98 percent of the time), resulting in greater weight loss than the other group (who adhered only 68 percent of the time).
Healing and Music
We've all heard miraculous storms of healing, some involving music and some not. But no one can disagree that music is effective in healing the mind and body alike.
One of the amazing properties of music is that it can reach parts of the brain and evoke memories that speech simply can't reach. Therapists frequently use music from a patient's past to connect with them, often with significant results.
Jennifer Birchell of Utah, who works as a music therapist at Sunshine Terrrace Foundation, a facility that assists the elderly with rehabilitation and assisted living, sees miracles of music healing almost daily in her work. "[One] man that I once worked with had dementia," she says. "We found out that he loved baseball and used to play professionally. So we played 'Take Me Out to the Ballgame,' and it helped him connect a little bit. His family came in and played it with him, and they were able to reach him. They were thrilled."
Birchell describes another man who had a stroke, which caused him to lose brain and muscle function on one side of his body. Like man other stroke patients, he also lost the ability to speak. "When someone has a stroke, . . . we've found that [sometimes] they can't speak, but they can sing," she says. This man was particularly angry about his lack of success when Birchell was asked to visit him. "When I asked him to sing with me, he got really angry. He knew he couldn't sing. But I told him to just try, and I started singing 'You Are My Sunshine.' His eyes got really big and excited because the words were coming out of his mouth and getting clearer and clearer. From there, we took bits of the song and turned them into phrases he could use. His wife came in and he was able to sing to her, 'I love you.' I worked with him for only three weeks and then he was able to go home and live with his wife.
Music helps people learn and develop because there are so many different elements of it -voices, rhythm, harmony -all of which are processed in different areas of the brain. "Exorcising" the different parts of the brain by using music helps encourage growth and stimulates parts of the brain that may be damaged.
Often, when music therapists work with groups who have some kind of brain disease, such as Alzheimer's, many of the participants seem almost asleep and uninterested at the beginning. The therapists start with slow music, and then they gradually increase the beat. The body entrains itself with the rhythm and gradually increases in responsiveness. Eventually, the previously unresponsive patients are clapping and interacting in a way they couldn't do without musical encouragement.
Music, whether it is used for education, exorcise, or healing, can make a huge difference in our lives. Anyone who has listened to an inspired choir in a church meeting knows the effect that their simple harmonies have on people. Somehow music is able to connect with parts of us that words alone can't reach. While research continues to be done, the whys behind the power of music have yet to be discovered. For now, the reason those joyful strains have such an effect on us will remain an amazing and wondrous mystery.
I didn't realize that there is really a lot more to music than most people understand. I knew that pregnant mommies will play music to their unborn child, and it improves their brain function and overall development. And I knew that it helped with brain development. My high school math teacher used to play Mozart during tests, and I suppose that I always thought that it helped with tests and such. I had no idea of healing powers. Although, I think that I knew that I listen to different types of music when I want to be comforted at different times. Sometimes I miss my mom, so I listen to music that she plays, and I imagine that I am there watching her play. Other times I want to remember something, so I put music on from that time that I want to remember. I actually hold a lot of memories with particular songs.
I thought you might find this article interesting as well. Thank you for taking the time to read it :) Its Tuesday. This week is slow, and I feel like that is alright. I need life to slow down for a little while.
Feel free to share your experiences with music in a comment. I would love to have a discussion :D
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