Effects of Music on the Brain

The website, Brain Health and Puzzles, presents an article that tells the negative and positive effects (or two sides)of music. The conflicting evidence of the music effects helps compare and show what to do to be more successful in listening to music. The main message of the website is to inform that music must have certain requirements or attributes in order to affect a person fully. I think this is the main message because it says from the article, listening to new and different music at different times is said to keep the brain more active and productive, not bored. On the contrary, when picking new songs, people need to be careful of picking the genre of the song. "Some types of music can cause the brain to lose it's symmetry between it's right and left halves, or hemispheres. We've all experienced this, when trying to concentrate on a task while loud or otherwise disruptive music is being played." What the quote says is true. Trying to find what to play on your ipod while trying to finish your schoolwork at the same time can be very stressful and can produce the lack of concentration, no matter how useful the genre might be. The genres of music is shown through study that listening to loud and disruptive music can affect people in a totally different way compared to soft and soothing music. On one hand, rap and heavy metal has been proven to negatively change how well a person can concentrate on a subject. Listening to loud music can also lead to learning disabilities, behaviour disruptions, and feelings of anger and hostility in children and teens. Learning from experience, loud music seems to pull the listener in more and doesn't let the listener focus again until the song is done. On the other hand, soft music like Mozart can lead to higher averaged scores and a better improved memory when studying vocabulary words, even when the student is foreign. One quote states, "What is more, they remembered the words over time at a level of 92% retention. This feat was accomplished with the use of baroque classical music. The tempo was the most successful at a steady rate of 60 beats per minute. At this tempo, people seemed to remember the most." Also learned from a small experiment, smooth music doesn't have as much of a pull on the listener, but does soothe the mind to do what it's supposed to do. "It has been shown over and over again that one of the strongest effects of music on the brain is in the area of memory." That sentence has been supported by young Mr. Mozart himself. Since he was a child, his memory has been phenomenal when trying to learn the piano.

The copyright is very recent with certain doctors credited on the side of the article. Also, the facts that are supposed to help people are true; I've learned them from experience along with background knowledge of past events. The websites I've explored still match the information of this article.

With the right attributes, hopefully, music can help all people medically and educationally day by day.

http://www.brainhealthandpuzzles.com/effects_music_brain.html