{"id":11008,"date":"2015-02-16T05:58:29","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T10:58:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/?p=11008"},"modified":"2017-07-27T11:22:29","modified_gmt":"2017-07-27T16:22:29","slug":"music-tames-the-savage-beast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/tartan-news\/2015\/02\/16\/music-tames-the-savage-beast\/","title":{"rendered":"Music tames the savage beast"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Do you listen to music when you are sad? Do you and your friends listen to music when you are together? When you exercise, does it seem as if the music keeps you going?
\nIt is proven that listening to and playing music has many benefits for our brain development as well as our emotions.
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\nSome people take part in music therapy, the clinical and evidence-based use of music involvements to accomplish customized goals. Such programs are designed to help induce wellness, manage stress and enhance your memory, along with many other reasons.
\nHave you ever heard it said that Mozart makes you smarter? This is due to a 1993 study conducted on college-level students that were instructed to take a spatial reasoning test while listening to a Mozart sonata, and then take yet another similar test. You might be able to guess what the outcome of this study was\u2014it led to claims that listening to Mozart temporarily increased people\u2019s IQs.
\nAnne McCrea Soltysiak, department of psychology at Sinclair Community College, has her PhD and studies neuroscience and the brain.
\n After discussing the results of the 1993 test results stated above, Soltysiak said classical music enhances cognitive ability.
\n\u201cParticipants who hear Mozart may be expecting to do better on a test of cognitive ability, which acts as a kind of primer for the better performance, making the participants try harder,\u201d Soltysiak said.
\nSince 2000, the study of music neuroscience\u2014which draws on cognitive science, music education and neuroscience\u2014has become ever-growing. People are fascinated that music can have so many benefits for us, such as speech perception and the ability to understand emotions in the voice, and the ability to multitask.
\n\u201cMusical training literally enhances the development of brain structures in measurable ways,\u201d Soltysiak said.
\nAni Patel, associate professor of psychology at Tufts University and the author of Music, Language and the Brain, said that listening to music can be meditative and soothing, however simply plugging in your iPod is not going to make you a more intelligent person.
\n \u201cThere is now a growing body of work which suggests that actually learning to play a musical instrument may have impacts on other abilities,\u201d Patel said.
\nStudies have shown a distinct connection between teaching children and adults to play musical instruments, and their improved executive functioning such as problem-solving skills, switching between multiple tasks and focus.
\n \u201cThere is some evidence that musical training, along with other brain\u2013enhancing activities, may help to keep our brains healthy into old age and provide some protection against dementia,\u201d Soltysiak said.
\nChad Cook, music student at Sinclair Community College, said he plays many instruments, and has even taught himself how to play several of them, such as the trumpet, saxophone and piano.
\n\u201cI have been playing most of them for around nine years,\u201d Cook said. \u201cI most often listen to different styles of music at work. It helps me stay focused on what I\u2019m doing, while simultaneously keeping me relaxed.\u201d
\nDiverse genres of music have different effects on our brain. If you choose to listen to loud hip-hop while you are trying to study for an exam, you may not be able to study as effectively as you would if you were listening to something with a lower tempo and volume.
\n\u201cI will absolutely listen to music while studying. Especially when the music doesn\u2019t have words\u2014it helps me get into the material and keeps me from becoming distracted by outside noises,\u201d Cook said.
\nThis validates that music has a varied affect on each individual in more than one way. Soltysiak states that she never tries to listen to music while grading students\u2019 work or writing lectures because it reduces her ability to focus on the task at hand.
\n\u201cI play in a band, so music is extremely important to me. I listen to it more so while commuting on I-75 to help me de-stress from some of the rude drivers out there,\u201d Soltysiak said.
\nShe said music connects people on an emotional level.
\n\u201cI can\u2019t imagine living without music,\u201d Soltysiak said. \u201cNot only does it help to calm and comfort us at times, but it can also be an energizer for when you need to clean the house or do your aerobic routine. Music provides emotional connections between people. Who doesn\u2019t have a romantic \u2018our song\u2019 as a couple?\u201d
\nMaybe since learning this new information about music, along with all of the benefits, you might take up some lessons playing the piano or the drums\u2014maybe you will have your children and loved ones join you. You could easily modify your studying methods to listen to wordless music that helps you concentrate more. Experimenting with different styles and genres is important. We are ever-changing beings; we are capable of creating better habits and forming new hobbies that will ultimately help us through our journeys in life.<\/p>\n

Bethany Mason
\nReporter<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you listen to music when you are sad? Do you and your friends listen to music when you are together? When you exercise, does it seem as if the music keeps you going? It is proven that listening to and playing music has many benefits for our brain development as well as our emotions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[2084],"class_list":["post-11008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-bethany-mason"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2Ry","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11008"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11008\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11016,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11008\/revisions\/11016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}