Music is a powerful thing: the beating of a drum has led revolutionary battles, a string quartet accompanied the sinking of the Titanic. However, the art of music is not only powerful when it comes to historical events. In fact, it could change how you, as an individual, function.
Studying is one of the most common reasons to listen to classical music. Although it differs between people, a study done by the University of Phoenix says that it’s very common for music without words to help people concentrate and temporarily improve some cognitive functions, such as memorization. Instead of listening to your favorite rapper or band while you’re concentrating, waste less of your time and brain power by listening to an artist (one of my personal favorites being Vladimir Ashkenazy), which will make your thought process run smoothly.
Stress is something that is carried for the duration of every person’s life. It seems that people, particularly our more active teenagers, are looking for ways to alleviate that stress. Well, studies show that ten minutes of listening to classical music (particularly Mozart) is more relaxing and beneficial than ten minutes of meditative silence. By this logic, it makes sense that listening to music for a small amount of time each day could make you a generally more relaxed person.
There has been plenty of research to prove my point, but I have other motives for listening to classical music than stress release or improving my studying habits. The truth is that masterfully composed, intricately crafted music with no distracting lyricism is so enjoyable that it can stand alone as an activity, rather than it being in the background while doing something like homework.
It makes me sound like some kind of surrealistic nutcase, but artists like Chopin will give prominence to my own thoughts and allow me to be freely introspective. The music almost acts a facilitator to my thoughts.
For example, I can listen to something like Waltz No. 1 in E Flat Major during passing time at school and my mood is immediately elevated. This also seems to shift my perspective and allows me to step back from a situation and reevaluate things. On that note, I would strongly suggest this for someone in dramatic relationship scenarios or otherwise stressful situations.
So make a Beethoven or Bach station on Pandora, or you could look for a “best of” album on Spotify. Whatever the media source, it will be worth taking five or ten minutes out of your day to indulge in.