Can Classical Music Make Us Smarter?

Image credit:blog.lib.umn.edu

Classical Music Developed in 18th Century

Classical music is usually seen as a choice of the refined, music for clever people having stylish taste and since many tend to listen to classical music regularly to relax, there have been claims that listening and playing classical music could do more than entertaining. Research has recommended that the music of Mozart could boost the power of the brains enabling us to grow more intelligent. Suzy Klein, writer and broadcaster visits the Royal College of Music Museum to explain toher, power of classical music and find out if it has made her smarter.

Classical music developed in the 18th century due to a way of writing music down which was accepted all over Europe. It not only enabled complex musical instruction on what to play, how to play and who played it but also helped to preserve music for the future generations. Classical has its own term like symphony, sonata and concerto which baffles those who are untrained. Music tends to have its own language with strange symbols and musicians need to be able to read these musical notations prior to picking up an instrument to play a piece of music.

Classical Music Associated with Intelligence

Plenty of practice is essential in order to play classical music of good standard. The reason to think that classical music is associated with intelligence is due to a study dubbed the Mozart Effect. Researcher carried out an experiment in 1993 and volunteers were divided into two groups with each group asked to perform complex origami style tasks.

Each group, in the experiment were asked to listen to different music and had their speed and efficiency measured while carrying out the task. It was found that the group which had listened to Mozart’s music excelled in the task and their IQs boosted for the duration of time they had performed the task. The discovery was published by the researchers in the respected science journal – Nature which unexpected started a phenomenon.

The classical music soon unlocked the doors of untapped reserves of the mind and gave way to the Mozart Effect. There were several issues that came up when other researchers struggled to duplicate the Mozart Effectwith some who produced a similar effect but not with Mozart’s music.

The Mozart Effect 

The Mozart Effect could have been generally de-bunkedbut with science’s attraction with music together with its effect on the brain led to a sincerely fascinating encounter where playing music was at the forefront. Boosting our brains with music may not depend on listening to it but in learning to play it and learning a musical instrument had indication of sharpening the learning skills, improve our motor coordination as well as our memories.
Besides teaching new useful skills, playing a musical instrument could also permanently activate our brains. Scan done on professional musician’s brains have indicated that there has been great development in areas which involve sound processing, coordination and movement when compared to non-musicians.

Though there is no confirmation that musicians could be more intelligent due to playing an instrument or singing, it is clear that musicians’ brains have improved for the better by their dedication and love for music. Often people tend to enjoy listening and playing music which enables them to relax and discover more about themselves. Music does help to change the overall mind set.