The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “without music, life would be a mistake.”

Few would argue.

Music remains one of the most magical, inexplicable, and fulfilling aspects of the human experience. It can be a simple distraction or a work of art, but the science behind it remains the same. Music is sound, a vibration, organized over time.

Music is so broad that it is a field of study in itself. From the history of music to its criticism and philosophy, to its very science and art: people have been fascinated with the beauty of sound since the beginning of civilization.

By altering a few of its elements, music can change dramatically. Pitch affects the note or the melody; rhythm can affect tempo and meter, dynamics can determine the loudness or softness, timbre and texture refer to its quality or color. Tweak any one of these elements, and you can create a different song.

From work to school, mental health research to developmental studies, music has proven to have a profound impact on humans. Over the next for days we will cover the various ways music can affect your life.

1. How does music affect the brain?

Music can affect different parts of your brain. This is because sonic vibrations are picked up by your eardrums, which send information to your brain by firing off neurons, or electrical pulses. These are called brainwaves.

Sound and brainwaves are linked. In this section, we’ll explore the various ways that music can impact the way your brain works.

Music and Language

Studies published in The Journal of Neuroscience have shown that musical training can improve your speech. The Harmony Project in Los Angeles followed two dozen children, two nights a week, as they learned to play various instruments, such as flutes, oboes, trombones and trumpets.

Since 2008, 93 percent of high school seniors have graduated in four years, attending colleges like Dartmouth and NYU. This is staggering as 50 percent, or more were dropping out of schools in the same neighborhood where the programs were based.

So what is the explanation for this success? Nina Kraus from the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern believes that students enrolled in the music program improved their ability to process pitch, timing, and timbre. These three elements are key in learning the language. As a result, they can make better sense out of the consonants and vowels than their peers.

Music and Mental Health

People who suffer from some form of mental illness have historically found comfort in both listening and creating music. The National Alliance on Mental Illness believes it is due to four possible reasons:

• Lyrical Meaning – when patients suffering from a mental health disorder listen to or write meaningful lyrics, it can be a way to process thought and emotion. Lyrics can help someone describe or pinpoint a certain feeling they may have in ways that normal conversation cannot convey.
• Emotional Expression – The simple act of creating music or playing an instrument can have a therapeutic effect. Playing the drums can provide an outlet for anger or high energy while playing the piano can be relaxing and soothing.
• Active Music Listening – Music is based on rhythm and repetition. These aspects help engage our neocortex, the side of our brain that handles perception, spatial reasoning, conscious thought, and language. Music can be used to alter or enhance certain mood states.
• Song writing – Creating art has long been a free and useful way to share one’s story or experiences. Sometimes art is the only way a person can convey their feelings. Creating something honest and personal can be a statement of pride and self-love.

But what about people diagnosed with a particular mental illness? How can music help these people?

Let’s take a look at a few:

Alzheimer’s and Dementia

Patients diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease often receive music therapy as a form of treatment. This is because music is so closely tied to memory. Neurologist Oliver Sacks says, “Music evokes emotion, and emotion can bring with it memory… it brings back the feeling of life when nothing else can.”

In 2010, a group of researchers at Boston University learned that when Alzheimer’s patients completed some memory tests, they were able to recall more lyrics “when they were set to music rather than just spoken.”

Epilepsy

One study showed that singing with a group can improve the cognitive abilities of patients with dementia. The study was conducted in an American care home over four months, where scientists met with patients three times a week. Half the group sang to a series of familiar songs, while the other half just listened. The patients also took cognition and life satisfaction tests.

Their findings were striking: those that were in the active singing program “[improved] cognition in patients with moderate to severe dementia,” said lead author Linda Maguire. “Musical aptitude and music appreciation are two of the last remaining abilities in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

According to the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, “music can shift mood, manage stress-induced agitation, stimulate positive interactions, facilitate cognitive function, and coordinate motor movements.”

Depression

Humans have used music to treat depression since ancient civilizations. Greek philosophers, such as Thales of Miletus, used music to treat people affected by the plague in Sparta, 600 B.C.

In more modern days, music therapy was used after World War 2. Soldiers afflicted by PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) were institutionalized, so local musicians visited veteran hospitals to perform music for them. Medical teams spoke of the emotional and physical benefits that the melodies were able to provide, and soon used musicians for therapeutic support.

In a 2011 study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers from Finland studied 79 people between 18 to 50 with depression. 46 participants received standard care, but 33 also received 20 bi-weekly music therapy sessions. These lasted an hour and involved a variety of acoustic and percussion instruments.

After three months, music therapy participants showed significant improvements in their symptoms compared to those with just standard care.

Anxiety

Anxiety is often misused but is understood as a disorder that can cause nervousness, fear, apprehension, and worry about a certain event with an uncertain outcome. Just like these other disorders, music has been shown to alleviate the symptoms that many of these patients face.

Researchers from the University of Utah Pain Research Center found that music helps divert individual responses to experimental pain stimuli. One hundred forty-three subjects were evaluated for the study. Participants were instructed to listen to the music and pick out any deviations from the melody, or “deviant tones.”

As the study went on, the researchers found that pain stimuli decreased, as music-task demand increased.

They concluded that music could help reduce pain by activating sensory pathways that compete with the pain pathways. Music could help alleviate pain by diverting the senses through those pathways.

By Alex Frank, Music Instruments Center (MIC)