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Yes! Music for Focus, Memory, Attention, and Better Grades
You have surely heard this before or perhaps this news to you? Music is powerful and has many positive effects on the brain. Even plants and animals have been shown to react positively to music. The human brain, the miracle powerhouse of which scientists claim that a minuscule 1 % only is utilized actively, reacts tremendously to music through the simultaneous activation of both left and right hemispheres of the brain.
Did you know that many musicians have healthier brains compared to non-musicians? The brain scans of professional musicians show that they have better connected, bigger, and more sensitive brains. They also have demonstrated better memory, cognitive ability, and auditory skills.
So, we are not professional musicians. Doesn't matter, for we can still reap the amazing benefits music has on brain development by listening to a few hours of music daily.
How Music Affects the Brain
Music improves your memory, attention, concentration, and develops reasoning skills. It improves cognitive performance and affects the mood and emotional state. Taking music lessons early in life have been found to encourage the plasticity of the brain or its capacity to adapt and grow. All you need to take is thirty minutes of music lesson to increase the blood flow to the brain's left hemisphere. Starting on music practice from childhood can bring changes to the brain that lasts a lifetime. Enrol your kids for music lessons, maybe a hidden talent is going to be uncovered. If not, it is still valuable beacuse of the positive impact music can have on their brain development.
Here is more on the positive effects of music on the human brain that might make you reach out to a soothing tune the next time you sit down for studying.
Improves Creativity
Happy music can promote divergent thinking. In today's competitive world creative thinking is a highly demanded skill. Innovation, out-of-box thinking and business problem solving requires a creative approach. This connection between music and creativity could be because of the flexibility of thought that music can create. Listen to music and let those creative juices flow.
Studies have demonstrated that on listening to happy music people were able to come up with several creative solutions to the same problem. For gaining benefit from music it is not required that the person really likes the music. Just casual listening is sufficient to reap the positive effects of music. Increased creativity leads to higher productive output and faster studies.
Can Affect Your Moods
Music can have a deep impact on your mood. Happy music can put you in an optimistic mood and increase the energy levels. Of course, a better mood can relax you and make you try harder on the task and thereby increase productivity. Music can bring down anxiety levels and help the students face the exams confidently. Music is a natural remedy for depression, insomnia, anxiety, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Upbeat numbers can affect your mood positively and make you feel happy. Music can lower cortisol, the stress hormone, and reduce chronic stress. Music also boosts the production of dopamine, the motivation hormone of the brain. Listening to your favourite music can increase the production of dopamine and make you feel good. Music can also increase oxytocin in the brain to stimulate bonding and trust with others.
Improves Visual Attention and Decision Making
Music can stimulate positive mood and improve visual attention. This can be because of the release of dopamine when a positive mood is induced. This chemical has proven benefits on attention. Musical arousal also improves spatial reasoning. This can improve your processing of information and visual picturization.
Listening to music also helps develop reasoning skills and aids better judgement and decision making. Students benefit from improved ability to grasp the complex subjects and reason complicated problems.
Improves Focus And Retention
Conflicting opinion surrounds the effect music has on focus. There are claims that music can be a distracting element while studying. However scientific study proves that music stimulates the area of the brain that is involved in focus. So the right background music might as well help you learn faster.
Music has been linked positively to memory and emotions as well. Stimulating the brain with music might help in retrieving past memories faster. Music can create deep emotional memories in the brain. No wonder memorizing a movie song is easier than a mathematical formula.
What Music is the Best to Help You Study
Choose the music carefully because wrong music might be distracting and have a negative effect on the studies. The taste in music is a personal choice with each individual having a specific taste. What calms down one person might sound irritating for another. the choice of music depends not only on the personality or music preference but also on the study habits and the kind of subject you are studying. Here is a short guide on the type of music you should according to your subject of study.
Classical Music When Its Maths
Let's face it. Classical music is not popular and is usually not a preferred choice of music. Most of the young generation claim classical music to be boring. However, this genre of music has been scientifically proven to have many health benefits. Studies have shown that classical music reduces anxiety. Classical music can relax people even if they are not paying any attention to the music. Children who listened daily to one hour of classical music over a period of 6 months displayed higher levels of relaxation even without paying full attention to the music. It can help you stay focused and sharpen your brain to concentrate more on the numbers and maths.
You can listen to this three-hour classical music playlist for concentration and improved math learning ability. It uses binaural beats and alpha waves to bring tremendous improvement in brainpower and concentration and is perfect for relaxing and stress relief. It works as ideal background music and has some of the best music from renowned composers such as Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Debussy, Bach, Chopin, Haydn, and Schumann.
Mozart for Improving Mental Acuity
Mozart effect is a popular phenomenon in the music world. It is believed that listening to Mozart music can improve the intelligence of babies. The music of Mozart is complex and it has been observed that students perform better in the spatial task after listening to Mozart.
Here is a compilation of Mozart's classical piano music to improve mental performance. It has three hours of the best music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Use this piano music to improve your concentration and memory and to help you learn and recall better.
Instrumental Music for Focusing Your Mind
Instrumental music can be soothing for the mind. Instrumental music if played in the background is not only relaxing but is also perfect to set the right mood and ambience for studying. Choose your favourite instrument for this purpose.
If you are looking for some non-stop instrumental music to play in the background during your study time, you can use this two hours of instrumental music in the sounds of guitar and piano and also with soothing sounds of sea waves. Whether you are finishing your homework, or preparing for your exams, or giving the finishing touches for your project work, this instrumental music will play in the background giving perfect concentration and distraction-free environment.
Sounds of Nature to Relax
Studying requires high concentration and a calm environment. White noise and voices that happen while studying can be extremely distracting. Playing sounds of nature in the background can relax you, put you in the right mood for studying, and mask the white noise. It also has a positive effect on cognitive functioning and concentration.
Sounds of nature are always the best for deep relaxation. Sounds of waves can give a warm and comfortable feeling, while the chirping of birds or the whooshing of wind can take you to another world of beautiful and elated mood. This collection of eight hours of sounds of nature has twelve popular soundscapes to aid in your study or meditation. It has sounds from the forest, lake, river, waterfall, and ocean with bird sounds and even without bird sounds. these sounds are ideal to mute the white noise in the surroundings and to focus on the task at hand. If you want to have a good, deep sleep during your exams or if you are suffering from insomnia this collection of sounds of nature might be just right to relax you and put you to deep sleep.
Electronic Music for Deep Concentration
Electronic music is a bit repetitive and listening to it can aid in building up focus. Hence you listen to music with rapid changes, the new elements might distract you. The mellowed tone and the consistency of electronic music improves the focus and boosts the efficiency to perform repetitive tasks. This can build deep concentration an act as an effective study aid.
If you want a collection of some great electronic music, you can download these two hours of non-stop electronic music. It is ideal for improving your concentration and help you while studying or finishing your assignments. With this music in the background, you might be able to finish your portions faster.
5 Tips to Choose The Right Music For Studying
While considering to use music as a study aid the real challenge is not in selecting the right music but also in arranging the right method to play music so that it fades into the background without distracting you. Do it right with these tips!
Pay Attention To These Tips While Choosing The Music To Play
- Skip the Lyrics: Maybe you love to listen to songs with beautiful lyrics. But when using music as an aid for studying, it is best to go for music without lyrics. If you are familiar with a song, the lyrics might tempt you to sing along and cause unwanted distractions. If there is a particular song with lyrics that you might want to listen, it is best recommended to find an instrumental version of the song.
- Maintain an Optimum Volume: Too loud music can be highly distracting. It can also be a concern that loud volumes can, in reality, cause negative health effects and prove detrimental to studies. At the same time, keeping the volume low might not give the desired brain benefits. Maintain an optimal volume where the music reaches your ears and brain but at the same fades into the background. If you find your concentration wavering to the music too often than to the lessons, consider it as a sign that the volume is too loud and reduce it to an optimal level.
- Create a Curated Playlist: Keep a curated playlist ready before you sit down for studying. Include all your favourite music in the playlist. It might become truly distracting if you need to look for new songs in between your lessons. this might affect your concentration. Keep the playlist ready on your computer or phone so that all you have to do before commencing your lessons is to press the play button.
- Try Monotonous and Toned Down Music: No fast-paced songs while you are studying. The fast tempo and beats do the opposite effects of distracting you during your studies. Ideally, the songs you play while you are studying should be monotonous and repetitive with no surprises along the way. Slow songs that merge into the background are the best. If a song interests you in between or makes you want to tap your feet hum along or dance it is definitely not the song you should be playing.
- Avoid Headphones Headphones can be used while you are studying in the library or in other places where you cannot play music loudly. Usually, headphones do not allow the music to fade in the background. It brings your attention more into the music and could distract your focus
Bonus Tip: Save You Favourite Upbeat Numbers For Your Break!
So, you have been studying for long. It's time to take a break and refresh your mind. Save some of your fast-paced upbeat numbers for the break. This can leave you rejuvenated and keep your brain fresh to learn faster. Go ahead and enjoy the well-deserved break with your favourite song.
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Choosing the right music is important
While music to improve your focus, it hugely matters the kind of music you choose. So make sure to curate different playlists that will fit your needs. You can then play these whenever you are in need of some motivation. You can either go with YouTube where there are pre-existing playlists. Or you can try streaming services like Spotify which also offer preexisting playlists but you can also create your own.