Effects and benefits of music on body and mind:
In ancient India, God was the divinity of music and medicine. Listened to, played, improvised, and danced, it is useful in the treatment of numerous diseases, from neurology to oncology. Music can heal, it is a complex activity, particularly representative of the higher cognitive functions of man and could be at the origin of the development of verbal language.
So let’s discover the benefits that music can bring to your health and well-being.
The benefits of music:
There are now countless studies that attest to the therapeutic power of the notes. Music is a panacea for health and has an enormous therapeutic power that ranges between the most disparate diseases: it helps against mood disorders, mental discomfort, depression, and a variety of clinical syndromes such as reading deficits and learning, autism, dementia, and neurodegenerative diseases. Furthermore, muscular exercise linked to the use of an instrument is excellent and at the same time pleasant rehabilitation therapy even in patients who have suffered motor injuries. Furthermore, the practice of music as a hobby or in the form of music therapy is an important method for strengthening the so-called ‘cognitive reserve’, that is, that baggage of brain function that in old age contrasts the development of dementia.
Music stimulates inner awareness, increases our well-being, and improves our mood; it affects heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, the level of some hormones, especially stress, and endorphins. Listening to Mozart’s music, for example, benefits memory and learning, as it promotes concentration and improves productivity. Music gives the listener the opportunity to express and perceive their emotions, to show or communicate their feelings or moods through non-verbal language. For example, in the case of people with autism, music allows the outside world to communicate with them, favoring the initiation of a process of openness.
It has also been shown that children who attend music lessons have higher IQ growth. compared to other extracurricular activities. Given the many benefits of music, it is not surprising that music itself has been used in rituals and ceremonies since the beginning of time. Nowadays, mothers-to-be share playlists for the delivery room to welcome a new life, and, conversely, those in need can resort to a harpist to help the terminally ill to “move on”.
Effects and benefits of music on body and mind:
Also read: How to simply learn a piece on the piano?
Features:
But what is it that makes one song more relaxing than another? Music has a strong impact on our brain, and music that has a more harmonic or relaxing frequency generates high states of well-being in us. In this regard, there is a well-known theory, albeit not yet empirically validated, which speaks of the benefits of relaxing music, with a frequency of 528 Hz, for our body. Below you will find some of the features you need to pay attention to find your healing music.
- Pitch: a high-pitched sound generates more tension in the listener, conversely a less high-pitched sound involves less tension.
- Intensity: louder sound has an energizing, weaker relaxing effect.
- Rhythm: regular has a stabilizing effect, irregular, on the contrary, destabilizing.
- Execution time: if it is fast it has an exciting effect, while if the time is moderate it will give a feeling of serene atmosphere.
- Effects linked to collective memory: the sound of the organ mostly generates a sense of spiritual elevation, because for centuries, in Western music, this instrument has been used in the ecclesiastical context during religious services.
- Effects linked to individual memory: every moment of our life is characterized by images, sounds, smells, so that the recurrence of an image, a sound sequence, or a certain perfume, can bring back a certain memory. That’s why we don’t all have the same reactions to a certain melody or piece of music”
Music medicine vs music therapy:
In music medicine a doctor makes his patient listen to per-recorded music alone. Music therapy, on the other hand, is based on the relationship between the music therapist and patient and on the active intervention of both, including through the use of simple musical instruments.
In both cases, however, it is essential to start from individual individuals and personal preferences.
The world by part of a qualified music therapist, with a user or a group, in a process aimed at facilitating and promoting communication, relationship, learning, motor skills, expression, organization. Music therapy aims to develop the potential and/or residual functions of the individual in such a way that he can better achieve and interpersonal integration and consequently can improve the quality of life thanks to a preventive, rehabilitative or therapeutic process “.