What is Music for?

"Music calms the beast". Surely you have ever heard this popular saying. It may seem like an exaggeration; Music probably won't help you if you find yourself facing a hungry lion that wants to eat you. But, joking aside, if we take the concept of "beast" from the proverb and identify it with our beasts of life everyday life (such as stress, tiredness, irritability, insomnia or a bad mood), things begin to have more sense.

The usefulness of music is reflected in several benefits for the human being. That is why it has always been present, in one form or another. There has not been a society that has not included musical expression in its cultural manifestations; and it is that music goes hand in hand, always and (probably) forever, with the human being.

What is music for?

In an interesting experiment carried out by Dr. Frances Rauscher and her team in 1993 and whose result was published in the scientific journal Nature, it was observed that the students who listened to the Sonata for two pianos in D major

of Mozart (the K. 448), presented a substantial improvement in his space-time abilities. Soon the news began to circulate that the music of the great Austrian composer, and specifically this piece, positively stimulated certain areas of the brain.

More recently, the experiment was endorsed when rats were exposed to the same music and the animals were able to solve the mazes proposed by the researchers much faster. In the 1990s, the phenomenon was popularized as the “Mozart Effect”, a concept first coined by otolaryngologist Alfred Tomatis (1920-2001) in his work Pourquoi Mozart? (Why Mozart?) and, later, dedicated Don Campbell with The Mozart effect. Although there is no agreement among experts as to whether this "Mozart effect" really exists, it cannot be denied that music in general (and classical music in particular) has a series of obvious benefits on our body and on our way of communicating with others. the rest.

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A music for each personality

Although in this article we will talk about music in general and its important contributions to our lives, not all types of music provide the same benefits.

For example, and beyond the "Mozart effect", it has been proven that classical music has, in general, a very high sedative capacity, as well as contributing to improving concentration and memory. At least, this is what can be deduced from another famous experiment, led by the medical doctor Hans-Joachim Trappe (1954).

The study concluded that classical music activated brain areas that are related to creativity, in addition to immersing the brain in the so-called "alpha mode"; that is, it induces him to a state similar to that of meditation. Dr. Trappe's research also presented the effect on the body of other types of music: while popular music stimulates a good mood, heavy music or techno provoke greater aggression and increase the heart rate.

From the study it can be deduced, in addition to the fact that not all types of music produce the same effect on our body, that there is music for each type of personality or for specific moments of the day. Thus, for exercise, salsa or mambo may be a better option, which, according to Trappe's experiment, stimulate body movement.

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7 important properties of music

Below, we summarize the 7 most outstanding properties that music has, so that you are aware of how important this cultural expression is.

1. modulates emotions

Closely related to what we talked about in the introduction about "taming the wild beasts", music has an unparalleled ability to modulate our emotions. Thus, if we feel restless or irritable, a piece of classical music or meditative music can almost immediately plunge us into a highly beneficial and pleasurable state of relaxation.

In the same way, a sufficiently fast music, with an accelerated and forceful rhythm, immediately leads us to action, since it raises the heart and respiratory rates. Thus, this type of music is ideal to accompany sports competitions, personal physical exercise or other tasks that require active movement.

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2. contributes to happiness

Listening to music causes our body to secrete a series of neurotransmitters that significantly improve our feeling of happiness. Among them are the dopamine (which produces well-being) and oxytocin (commonly called "the love hormone"). On the other hand, listening to music that we like is a pleasure that makes us feel comfortable and at peace.

3. Helps reduce stress and insomnia

Listening to sedative music before going to sleep is highly beneficial to improve our rest. Relaxing music produces slow brain waves (alpha waves, also called relaxation waves) that induce sleep.

On the other hand, music is very beneficial to combat stress. In fact, a study by the American Society of Hypertension concluded that listening to 30 minutes of classical music a day lowers blood pressure, which helps reduce stress. That is why, in recent years, the use of music to relieve chronic stress (music therapy) has increased.

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4. Improves learning abilities

Concentration, the assimilation of concepts and memory are significantly benefited by music. We have already discussed the effects of listening to Mozart's music, but any type of music with a sufficiently harmonic structure has this effect on our brain.

5. decreases pain

Listening to relaxing music daily helps reduce chronic pain by up to 21%. It has been verified, for example, how daily contact with sedative music or classical music considerably relieved the pain of patients admitted to the ICU.

When listening to relaxing music, the body releases endorphins, our natural pain reliever. Besides, has an immediate effect on our parasympathetic nervous system (that is, the system that regulates "unconscious" functions, such as digestion or salivation), which allows us to return to a state of rest after an episode of stress.

6. allows expressing emotions

Like any artistic and cultural manifestation, music allows expressing emotions in an easy and direct way, much more immediate than other types of art. In her article on the benefits of music, the psychologist and doctor in neuroscience Ana Asensio gives the example of the pianist James Rodhes (1975) who, thanks to music, managed to "exorcise" the fears and demons he carried from his stormy past.

7. Help in clinical treatments

In the aforementioned article, Dr. Asensio maintains the importance of music in the treatment of diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's, since it awakens new neural connections in affected people and reinforces their memory. On the other hand, music has a prominent role in the treatment of disorders such as ADHD or autism spectrum disorders (ASD).