If you have ever jacked up productivity or changed your mood with a favorite band as background rhythms, you already know the power of music to increase brainpower? And are you also aware that rhythm amps up retention and overall cognition when we simply use music to improve focus.
Survey musical IQ as part of multiple intelligences, and we see why its cadence enhances leading and learning more than most people realize. Not all music is equal in its impact on our lives, however.
Interestingly some rhythms, such as baroque, induce enzymes in the brain and add amazing well-being and focus. Other tunes leave us punchy … and unable to focus. Has it happened to you?
Music holds an immensely powerful influence over the brain and yet few workplaces benefit from addictive musical sounds. Listen to inspirational music and calm your thinking to see how it works. Or ratchet up brainpower with Makeba’s, Pata Pata. Then read on to discover what research could offer your day.
Across genres, you’ll find that music puts you in touch with your inner beliefs and desires and the cadence can create an amazing mental landscape for you to read, relax or reflect on your day.
Or it can make you moody, edgy and anxious. How so? Music shifts your brain waves that control how neurons talk to one another. Watch the visible shift happen for people in this video.
Start with your favorite tunes from Psychologist Don Campbell’s list here and tell us how music alters your mental states. In his book The Mozart Effect, Campbell shows the following results for listeners:
Gregorian chant creates quiet in our minds and can reduce stress.
Slower Baroque music, such as Bach, Handel, Vivaldi or Corelli, can create mentally stimulating environments for creativity and new innovations.
Classical music, such as Haydn and Mozart, often improves concentration and memory when played in the background.
Romantic music, such as Schubert, Schumann, Tchaikovsky , Chopin and Liszt, enhances our senses and increases a sense of sympathy and love.
Impressionist music, such as Debussy, Faure and Ravel, can unlock dreamlike images that put us in touch with our unconscious thoughts and belief systems.
Jazz, blues, soul or calypso music can uplift and inspire us, releasing deep joy or even deep sadness, conveying wit and affirming our common humanity.
Salsa, rhumba, merengue and any form of South American music sets our hearts racing, gets us moving, both relaxing us and awakening us at the same time.
Big band, Top 40 and country music engage our emotions and comfort us.
Rock music, from Elvis Presley to the Rolling Stones, stirs passion and activity, and so can release daily tensions. Rock can also mask pain and cover up unpleasant noises. It also has the power to create dissonance, stress or physical pain if we are not in the mood for energizing.
Ambient or New Age music such as Stephen Halpern and Brian Eno has no dominant rhythm, so it elongates the sense of space and time, inducing a state of relaxed alertness.
Heavy metal and hip-hop music excites our nervous system, and sometimes leads us into acting out dynamic behavior and self-expression.
Religious and sacred music such as hymns and gospel moves us to feel grounded in the moment, and leads to deep peace and spiritual awareness. Sacred music often helps us to transcend pain.
Consider what tomorrow could bring at work if you swing a bar or two of mental and musical acumen into a project today. It’s also fun to match the music with the moment and watch what you learn
Not surprisingly, research also suggests that music may recruit neural mechanisms similar to those previously associated with pleasant or unpleasant emotional states. Or it’s no wonder that top workplaces look for music to rock productivity!
I’m listening to Benjamin Britton at the moment …. You? You may also enjoy this recent article of how your music affects your work.
Looking for music-related tasks that help learners use more musical intelligence to enhance their learning of any topic? If so you’ll enjoy these music-related tasks at my TpT site as well as an original soundtrack related to learning, and music.
Does the thought of running, hiking or twisting to aerobics motivate you?
People high in bodily
kinesthetic intelligence tend to shake n’ rattle daily, yet there’s
no need to slip into coach potato style if you’re less athletic.
What musical ditty would get you up and going today?
What if you heard that music makes it far easier to workout, and inspires you to run past physical challenges? Research show that music does just that, and you also remember more as well as produce more.
Dr Mark Andrews, at Lake Erie College, found that rhythm and cadence increased physical performance by more than 20% in many unmotivated fitness folks. Why so? It seems that music increased both physical performance and added a level of alertness, as well as improves memory. Not surprisingly, some musical genres even improved moods along the way.
The key is to match your music with your movements for best effects.
What music and/or movement could improve your personal and professional targets today?
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