The Benefits of Classical Music
By: Natalie Farah Persaud
📷@_curtisperry
Classical and orchestral music benefits the mind greatly, both through listening and playing, so next time you are feeling a little indecisive about attending an Ottawa Pops Orchestra concert or any other, consider these facts.
Firstly, listening to all music, but especially classical, triggers a release of dopamine in your brain; dopamine acts as a “reward” chemical, when something positive occurs, it tells the brain to continue that action. According to Cleveland Clinic, since dopamine is also an important neurotransmitter, it helps with almost all bodily functions, such as sleep, memory, mood, and even lactation. So next time you may be struggling to sleep, you want to soothe some stress, or you’re just in a bad mood, you can try listening to music.
Not only does sleep affect adults, but it has a greater effect on children and babies, including in the womb. An article by Unicef states that when a baby is exposed to a lot of music from a younger age, the auditory cortex has distinct differences from a baby who did not. As this is the part of the brain in control of processing sounds and speech, the baby’s skills in the area seems to have been more developed. In young children who consistently play an instrument, there is a noticeable change in their general abilities in numeracy, literacy, fine motor skills, and social-emotional development. This may occur because playing an instrument allows children to practise a lot of these skills all at once, without having to focus on one at a time and being more proficient in some rather than others.
It’s clear that music has a massive impact on the brain, however live music has been shown to have an even greater impact. In a study by PNAS, people listened to both a recording and live performance of music, then their brain activity was monitored via MRI. Compared to the recording, the live music evoked much more activity in the amygdala, the emotion control centre of the brain. This means live music can more notably and effectively cause the benefits mentioned previously.
Music can do some amazing things beyond just making people happy, from childhood to adulthood, both listening and playing. Maybe attending that concert is a pretty good idea.
