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Can Music Help You Study? The Motivating Benefits

will tottle582 27-Nov-2018

If we think about studying, listening to music while doing so does not always seem like the natural solution. Surely it would be more distracting than beneficial after all? While it does depend on your personal preferences, music can actually be an amazing aid when you are trying to study and retain information. In fact, this article is here to tell you why this is the case, as well as the music you should be listening to in order to focus. 

Can Music Help You Study? The Motivating Benefits

How Music Helps with Studying 

There have been loads of studies on music and the way in which it helps or hinders our ability to focus and retain information. The most notable of these is the Mozart Effect, a 1993 study that was carried out to see how music affected spatial reasoning in children. While many misinterpreted it and it became known as a study that shows Mozart’s music makes kids smarter, this is not the case.

Spatial reasoning is all about seeing the bigger picture, visualising parts of an object that we cannot see in detail when given one side to look at. It relates to our ability to retain information and grasp concepts that are larger and more complex. Classical music can improve this ability for a limited period of time, around 15 minutes.

Music makes you feel good as well, releasing dopamine into the body which is responsible for making us feel good when we do things that we enjoy. An improved mood and overall feeling boosts productivity and motivation, so you are better able to focus on your work and the task at hand. It’s got to have the right tempo though, something we look at in more detail in the next section.

What Should You Listen to? 

Even when you are studying with music, there is a way to do things right. The experts agree that the best music to listen to is classical or the sounds of nature, and this is for two reasons. The first is that there are no lyrics to distract you in any of these pieces, and so you cannot sing along or get drawn in by the words and deeper meanings. The second is that the pace is generally upbeat, but again it is not so much so that you become distracted.

However, there have also been studies that show listening to music that you enjoy has a positive result on studying and the exam results that accompany it. It leads to a better mood and improved dopamine levels that ensure you remain motivated and productive. You just have to make sure it has a good tempo so that the music isn’t too slow, and therefore has the potential to leave you drowsy.

Similarly, if you listen to music you hate the results of the same study showed poorer performance on exams because the students felt irritated or distracted by it playing in the background. Therefore, the best options to go for are the ones we have laid out for you above.

To Conclude 

Hopefully, this has taught you more about the way in which music can motivate our minds and really help us to focus more on things like studying and even work. We’ve mentioned before that its effects are often down to individuals and the way they learn, but it is well worth trying to see if it works for you. If you want to learn more about the relationship between music and studying, we have a detailed guide you can look at. 

About the Author

Will is a freelance writer & blogger. If you are interested in more information on music therapy, audio guides, and gear reviews, be sure to check out Will’s articles at Myaudiosound.co.uk

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Can Music Help You Study? The Motivating Benefits



Updated 07-Sep-2019

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