Music makes the world go round and it has been for centuries. There is a song for every moment, an arrangement for every mood and we all love music even if we may not admit it.
Have you ever stopped to consider how music can touch your life? What role does it play in your daily routine? How does music influence your emotions and decision making abilities?
Music takes up a lot of our time these days; from radio stations that always have something playing to roads that are filled with cars blaring their own tunes. It’s actually quite surprising that no one has taken into consideration how such an integral part of society like music can affect other aspects of our lives as well, but now someone has.
Researchers at the University of Vienna decided to look into the effects of music on our cognition and social behaviour.
Results of the research
It has been found that people who took music lessons as children had better results than those who did not, but can such things still be traced in adults? Does this mean that you should sign up for piano classes or guitar lessons right now? Not necessarily. These earlier studies which showed that learning an instrument as a child improved brain development and memory were really only observational and there wasn’t much more to it than that.
But this new study done by Andreas Vollberg of the University of Vienna actually allows us to see why we respond so positively towards music – dopamine. You may have heard of this neurotransmitter before because it is responsible for regulating movement, emotional responses like pleasure and motivation. It also plays a major role in learning and memory. The researchers found that dopamine levels increased significantly upon listening to music, but they were even higher when subjects participated in playing an instrument themselves.
The effect of music on the brain
Vollberg’s study suggests that listening to music doesn’t alone influence our behaviour but it actually motivates us to play an instrument. Our brains experience a significant release of dopamine when we listen to music and performing a musical task further stimulates this reward system, which explains why people spend so much time on learning instruments or just playing around with them for fun.
What is musicality?
Musicality is a completely different thing from being able to read notes from a sheet of paper, though they can be learned simultaneously. For starters, you have no point in signing up for basic piano courses if you don’t know how to read sheet music yet because the results will be limited at best.
This is where Solo music classes come into play; in order to get better at something you have to practice and those who want to understand the deeper mechanisms of music should probably start out with an instrument as well. It is a great way to learn how our brains function whilst having fun at the same time, but you should always consult your doctor before making any decisions about your health.
An important remark
It’s important for everyone – especially all musicians – to keep in mind that playing an instrument doesn’t mean that you will suddenly become a better person or a more intelligent human being. Even if there are some initial cognitive advantages, they do not persist into adulthood. As with many other things in life, musicality is mostly due to genetics so if someone simply lacks the motivation necessary for learning an instrument there isn’t much anyone can do about it. In any case, I am sure that there are more than enough people who can benefit from music, even if they do not actually play any instruments themselves.
Music has a lot of positive effects on our lives and it really does reduce stress and anxiety, but the findings from this new study can be applied to anything that makes us happy. It doesn’t have to be music either; maybe you like watching TV or reading books, as long as it brings you some joy there is no reason why not to try it out! You know best what you like and some people don’t feel any ‘high’ while listening to music so playing an instrument might be the only way for them to experience such a sensation.
Anyhow, it’s important to get out of our comfort zone from time to time and try new things, that is simply good for your brain. I personally quite enjoy learning about new findings that can explain why we do certain things or behave in a specific manner and this study is definitely one of the more interesting ones I have read lately.
Of course, there are many reasons why people might want to play an instrument; make no mistake, there are numerous cognitive advantages attached to musicality but these results shouldn’t be taken out of context and used as motivation for learning how to play an instrument in order to become better ator smarter.
- Letitia Roob, teacher at Solo Music