Knowledge | Mezzo Music School

January 1, 2018August 24, 2024

Music Fast Facts – Week 6

This is the first of a two part article that very briefly explains how Music affects your brain. You will be amazed.

Hello 2018!!!

The brain can work in ways we can’t comprehend. In numerous studies they have been able to see just how much normal things like music can effect, and even alter, it completely. These facts about music will give you an insight into the complexity of your own mind.

1. The chills you get when you listen to music, is mostly caused by the brain releasing dopamine while anticipating the peak moment of a song.

Music Chills — Image source: www.wiretotheear.com

Dopamine is a feel-good chemical released by the brain. This chemical is directly involved in motivation, as well as addiction. These studies found a biological explanation for why music always has been such a huge part of emotional events around the world since the beginning of human history.(source)

2. There are few activities in life that utilizes the entire brain, and music is one of them.

music on brain — Image source: image source

With Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI), a research team recorded a group of individuals who were listening to music. They found that listening to music recruits the auditory areas, and employs large-scale neural networks in the brain. In fact, they believe music can activate emotional, motor, and creative areas of the brain.(source)

3. Playing music regularly will physically alter your brain structure.

Brain plasticity refers to the brain’s ability to change throughout life. Changes associated with learning occur mostly at the connections between neurons. When studying musicians, they found that the cortex volume was highest in professional musicians, intermediate in amateur musicians, and lowest in non-musicians.(source)

4. The brain responds to music the same way it responds to something that you eat.

As stated above, dopamine is a chemical released by the brain. This chemical is connected with the feeling of euphoria which is associated with addiction, sex, and even eating. Dopamine is what enables a person to feel the pleasures of such things. A study using only instrumental music proves that anticipation for a musical rush released the same kind of reactions in the brain as anticipating the taste of your food.

5. Listening to music while exercising can significantly improve your work-out performance.

Dissociation is a diversionary technique which lowered the perceptions of effort. This technique can divert the mind from feelings of fatigue, and heighten positive mood states like vigor. By using music during low to moderate exercise intensities, you will find yourself with an overall more pleasurable experience while working out.(source)

6. An emotional attachment could be the reason for your favorite song choice.

Favorite songs are often context-dependent. Even though many people often change their favorite song depending on the most recent releases, it is proven that long-lasting preferences are due mainly to an emotional attachment to a memory associated with the song.(source)

November 30, 2017November 30, 2017

Knowledge: The Power of Music Education

It’s not music propaganda when we say that Music has a profoundly beneficial impact on our lives. The following 11 facts come from the DoSomething.Org website and is a wonderful list of why encouraging, participating in, enjoying and experiencing music is essential to your well being.

Children who study music tend to have larger vocabularies and more advanced reading skills than their peers who do not participate in music lessons.
Children with learning disabilities or dyslexia who tend to lose focus with more noise could benefit greatly from music lessons.
Music programs are constantly in danger of being cut from shrinking school budgets even though they’re proven to improve academics.
Children who study a musical instrument are more likely to excel in all of their studies, work better in teams, have enhanced critical thinking skills, stay in school, and pursue further education.
In the past, secondary students who participated in a music group at school reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (tobacco, alcohol, and illicit drugs).
Schools with music programs have an estimated 90.2% graduation rate and 93.9% attendance rate compared to schools without music education, which average 72.9% graduation and 84.9% attendance.
Regardless of socioeconomic status or school district, students (3rd graders) who participate in high-quality music programs score higher on reading and spelling tests.
A Stanford study shows that music engages areas of the brain which are involved with paying attention, making predictions and updating events in our memory.
Much like expert technical skills, mastery in arts and humanities is closely correlated to a greater understanding of language components.
Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training.
Schools that have music programs have an attendance rate of 93.3% compared to 84.9% in schools without music programs.

November 30, 2017August 24, 2024

Knowledge: A brief global history of music

Music has been around since the beginning of mankind. All over the world, people sang songs of greef, sorrow, happiness, greed, and so on. Music is the most interesting method to share your feelings. It doesn’t matter if you’re singing with your voice, an instrument or even both of them, it’s a fact that our souls and bodies are feeling the vibe.

The history of music dates back 5000 years ago, when people started to hit stones and wood in a particular manner, making rough music. Even then, music was accompanied by dance; many songs and dances were made to celebrate different Gods. This kind of music developed in the following thousands of years, turning into ancient music, which isn’t well known and not by far cherished in the modern age.

Before the ancient times, you couldn’t say that the sound produced by bricks hitting other bricks or wood was music. In antiquity, people made music in an interesting and organized way, reflecting the fact that mankind already understood the fact that music is the most beautiful thing that needed to repeat itself.

In Ancient China, music could be found all over the empire, in different forms. There were anthems composed for the leaders and a very rich portfolio of popular music. The instrument had various shapes, with or without cords, percussion instruments and all sorts of pipes, whistles and trumpets.

In India, music was the main activity inside temples, and the most important way to send messages to the Gods. The instruments were very much alike those found in China.

In Ancient Greece, there was music everywhere you looked. From bars to the senate, from the streets to noble’s houses, music entertained people 24/7. In Greece, music became a subject of study, mandatory for any citizen’s moral formation. In Plato’s Republic, music shows young people the way to harmony and spiritual beauty. Aristotle thought that music can even cure different mental illnesses.

In Ancient Rome, music found its way in theaters, accompanying instruments and made the show whole. Also, in Rome, many musical genres were invented: cradle songs, wedding songs, party songs, labor songs and so on.

In Medieval times, music didn’t have the same development as before, but it did exist as a form of expressing different feelings. Although music was sung all over the medieval cities, the main places where music could be heard were churches, monasteries and such.

In the Renaissance, music exploded all over Europe, and had many schools. The French and Flamand school, The Italian School, with its main figure, Claudio Monteverdi, The French School- Claude le Jeune, and The English School- William Byrd.

The Baroque has 3 main periods: the early, the middle and the late baroque. Along with these 3 periods, the 17^th and 18^th century came with major changes and new instruments and world renowned composers like Johann Sebastian Bach, Georg Friedrich Handel and Antonio Vivaldi.

For the next hundred years, the classical period takes shape. In contrast with the Baroque, the Classicism is renowned for its rigor and balance. This current took shape not only through music, but also with literature and the art of painting.

The 19^th century is a romantic one, in all terms. I’ll give you 3 names and you’ll understand: Beethoven, Schubert and Weber.

The 20^th century comes [along] and, like all other things, music expands and develops by the day: From jazz to heavy metal, from rhythm and blues to death metal and from Moulin Rouge to Britney Spears.

[As for the 21st Century, the internet has brought about a major shift in the way we relate to, interact with and buy, music. The ability to select a single track from any album means someone can have a very ecclectic music library because they can now buy a single movement from a classical composer’s symphony but not get stuck with the whole album which they may not like or want. The musical tastes they are a changin’!]

November 4, 2017November 5, 2017

Does Classical Music make you smarter?

Music and IQ study: IQ depends on the music

A new study made by the BBMI (British Bureau of Music Interpretation) has just been released. This organization used its resources to make an International survey lasting 3 years. 17,000 people from 138 countries have been surveyed. They had to choose their 3 favorite music styles. Then, they passed an IQ test. Below, you can find the IQ average of the people according to the music they listen to. If you don’t want to take an IQ test, look below what music you listen to the most and you will find your approximate IQ.

Music style	IQ
Children music / cartoons	104
Classical	145
Country	98
Drum&Bass / Jungle	108
EDM / House / Trance	73
Folk	96
Hard-Techno / Dubstep	78
Jazz	127
Korean pop	76
Love songs	81
Metal	101
Minimal / Techno	85
Opera	132
Pop	77
Psytrance	114
Rap	88
R&B	79
Reggae	95
Rock	99
Salsa / Tango	106

According to the music and IQ study, people liking the same style of music usually have very similar IQs. We need to keep in mind there is usually a 5% error margin. That, for example, means if EDM is one of your favorite music styles, your IQ is between 69 and 77, if Korean songs are among your favorites between 72 and 80, classical music between 137 and 153…

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Our thoughts: listen to as much variety of music as you can. This is not a race, it is a journey. More thoughts and ideas on the power of music to transform our lives and express our feelings will follow.