Music that Boosts Learning and Relaxation
Science has long revealed music’s ability to influence healing of the body, increase learning, enhance memory, and affect us emotionally.
Think of how you learned the ABCs. Probably from the song, right? Material we learn accompanied by music is more easily remembered.
Music that Boosts Learning and Relaxation
Music bridges the right and left hemispheres of the brain, opening to more modes of thinking and processing information.
Specifically, “listening to Baroque music expands the brain, making you feel happier, healthier, and more able to perform at peak mental capacity.” - Dr. Gail Gross.
Music that accelerates learning should be relaxing. Baroque music follows a rhythm and beat around 60bpm is approximately the same as our heartbeat. This puts one into a meditative alpha state, sending more blood to the prefrontal cortex. When your heartbeat is in a deeply relaxed state, brain waves change from their beta frequency (13-39 cycles per second) to an alpha range (8 cycles per second). The Earn has an electrical magnetic field which also pulses around 8 cps. By relaxing into an energetically balanced state, the mind becomes more alert and receptive to learning.
Baroque Playlist
Listening to faster music with greater beats per minute evokes a different response and accelerates one’s heartbeat, which can be fun, but is not optimal for learning.
THE BENEFITS OF PIANO LESSONS
Studies show children ages three to five who participated in six months of piano lessons showed significant gains in spatial-temporal reasoning, which is the aptitude needed in engineering and math.
In another study, when second graders from a poor district in California took piano lessons twice a week for a year, their math scores improved and they performed on par with fourth graders from a neighboring affluent school system.
Sources
Gross, G. (2019) How to Build Your Baby’s Brain: A Parent’s Guide to Using New Gene Science to Raise a Smart, Secure, and Successful Child
Hoffman, J. et al. “The Effects of 60 Beats Per Minute Music on Test Taking Anxiety Among Nursing Students.” Journal of Nursing Education.