The Brain on Music

Music can enhance learning more than most people realize. Interestingly some rhythms. such as
baroque, induce enzymes in the brain and add amazing well-being and focus. Other tunes leave us
unable to focus. Has it happened to you? Across genres, youll find that music puts you in touch
with your inner beliefs and desires and the cadence can create an amazing mental landscape for you
to read, relax or reflect on your day. Or it can make you moody, edgy and anxious. How so? Music
shifts your brain waves that control how neurons talk to one another. Psychologist Don Campbell
tells us how music alters your mental states. In his book The Mozart Effect, Campbell shows the
following results for listeners:
Gregorian chant creates quiet in our minds and can reduce stress.
Slower Baroque music, such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi or Corelli, can create mentally stimulating
environments for creativity and new innovations.
Classical music, such as Haydn and Mozart, often improves concentration and memory when
played in the background.
Romantic music, such as Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky , Chopin and Liszt, enhances our
senses and increases a sense of sympathy and love.
Impressionist music, such as Debussy, Faure and Ravel, can unlock dreamlike images that put us
in touch with our unconscious thoughts and belief systems.
Jazz, blues, soul or calypso music can uplift and inspire us, releasing deep joy or even deep
sadness, conveying wit and affirming our common humanity.
Salsa, rhumba, merengue and any form of South American music sets our hearts racing, gets us
moving, both relaxing us and awakening us at the same time.
Big band, Top 40 and country music engage our emotions and comfort us.
Rock music, from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones, stirs passion and activity, and so can release
daily tensions. Rock can also mask pain and cover up unpleasant noises. It also has the power to
create dissonance, stress or physical pain if we are not in the mood for energizing.
Ambient or New Age music such as Stephen Halpern and Brian Eno has no dominant rhythm, so it
elongates the sense of space and time, inducing a state of relaxed alertness.
Heavy metal and hip-hop music excites our nervous system, and sometimes leads us into acting
out dynamic behavior and self-expression.
Religious and sacred music such as hymns and gospel moves us to feel grounded in the moment,
and leads to deep peace and spiritual awareness. Sacred music often helps us to transcend pain.
http://www.brainleadersandlearners.com/multiple-intelligences/musical/the-brain-on-music/