Music has been shown to improve productivity and cognitive function, with most researchers agreeing that the effect of music on concentration and productivity depends on the listener’s enjoyment of the music. The right type of music, at the right time, and for the right task can be a powerful productivity booster. However, there is little knowledge on such effects in school environments.
Students who listen to music while studying or working don’t always make them less productive or efficient. Listening to music often makes it to the list of tips and hacks towards achieving better work productivity and cognitive performance (D’Angelo, 2022; Robinson, 2020; Spherion Staffing and). Background music may help student productivity, while live music is marginally more successful at decreasing distractive behaviors.
Research suggests that listening to music can enhance focus, improve mood, and reduce stress levels. The right choice of music, such as instrumental or ambient music, can help block out distractions, improve concentration, and maintain focus. Research also shows that music produces several positive effects on the body, including reducing stress, easing test anxiety, and improving performance.
The null hypothesis is that background music has no positive effects on students in a classroom setting. Some people benefit by listening to music while studying, as when the right brain is stimulated, academic tasks are more readily remembered. Music activates both the left and right brain simultaneously, which can maximize learning and improve memory.
In conclusion, music has been shown to have positive impacts on mood and task performance, but there is limited knowledge on its effects in school environments. If you prefer to study with music, there’s no need to give up on it.
📹 Is It Okay to Listen to Music While You Work?
Cognitive psychologist, Dan Willingham addresses the affect of listening to music while you work .
Is it better to study in silence or with music?
A study revealed that students who preferred music while studying exhibited diminished performance on a reading-comprehension assessment. The suitability of music as a study aid was contingent upon the nature of the work being undertaken. The majority of studies have demonstrated that music has a deleterious impact on reading comprehension, with only one study reporting no effect.
What are 5 advantages of listening to music?
Music has numerous health benefits, including being heart healthy, enhancing mood, reducing stress, easing pain, and promoting emotional expression. Research has shown that music can improve blood flow, lower heart rate, lower blood pressure, and decrease cortisol levels. It also boosts the brain’s production of dopamine, which helps relieve anxiety and depression symptoms. Music is processed directly by the amygdala, a part of the brain involved in mood and emotions.
Music can reduce stress by triggering biochemical stress reducers, and it can help relieve symptoms of depression. Music therapy has been shown to relax agitated patients, improve mood, and open communication. It can also manage pain by reducing stress levels and providing a strong competing stimulus to pain signals.
Music can help people eat less by slowing down during meals and consuming less food in one sitting. Additionally, listening to top workout tracks can boost physical performance and endurance during tough exercise sessions.
In conclusion, music has numerous health benefits, including improving mood, reducing pain and anxiety, stimulating memories, managing pain, and promoting emotional expression. Music therapy, used by hospice and palliative care board-certified music therapists, can enhance conventional treatment for various illnesses and disease processes.
Does music have a positive effect on students?
Music has been proven to have positive effects on both the body and brain, enhancing learning and memory. Studies have shown that music activates both the left and right brain simultaneously, maximizing learning and reducing stress. It also helps students cope with high stress levels during busy semesters by processing emotions and strengthening their resolve. People often turn to music they can relate to, as it helps them deal with stress.
If university life has made you feel down, dazed, or distracted, putting some music on while you study can help you concentrate on your studies, keep stress at bay, and put you in the learning mood. This is why parents and professors are urging students to tune into iTunes and explore the benefits of music for their studies.
Does listening to music boost productivity?
Music at work is often used to improve mood, relax, and engage employees by blocking out distracting noise. Studies show that 88 percent of workers produce more accurate work when they listen to music, and the type of music can also make a positive difference. Pop music is particularly beneficial for data entry workers, as ambient music generally improves accuracy in 92 percent of workers, while pop music helps over half of them do their tasks faster. Despite concerns about employees’ ability to focus while listening to music, it is a valuable tool for productivity.
Does music make students more productive?
The available evidence suggests that music can facilitate enhanced cognitive engagement, which in turn improves attention to both current events and future outcomes. This can be advantageous for academic pursuits, particularly when assimilating novel information, as it can facilitate the comprehension process.
What are the pros and cons of listening to music while studying?
Music can boost productivity, improve mood, and spark interest in routine tasks, especially among surgeons. However, it can also cause harm to ears, isolate individuals, and make the mind forgetful. While music can provide a helpful boost, it’s important to consider whether it brings only positive effects. Some argue that it can be distracting, and certain styles of music may have a more positive or negative impact. Regardless, the primary question remains whether music brings only positive effects or if there are arguments about its distracting nature.
How does listening increase productivity?
Active listening is a crucial skill that can lead to increased productivity and innovation when executed correctly. It allows individuals to process information, ask questions, and gain new perspectives, resulting in better problem-solving and understanding. This can help move forward with a topic, project, or change, avoiding small issues that were missed early on.
Truly listening to people can improve morale, as employees who feel heard and understood by their manager have positive effects on retention and engagement. Active listening also results in better communication, as it allows for a deeper understanding of the team’s needs and desires, which can help with future planning, retention, and engagement.
Furthermore, active listening can foster a greater relationship with employees, as they feel more trusted when they are truly understood and responded to. This can lead to increased job satisfaction, as employees want to be engaged in their work and enjoy their team.
Motivation can also increase when employees feel heard, as they may receive helpful advice, feedback, praise, or feel valued enough to have undivided attention when speaking. Overall, active listening is a powerful tool for fostering a positive work environment and fostering a positive work environment.
What is the scientifically best music for studying?
The 60-beat rhythm and calming effects of Baroque and classical music make them ideal for studying due to their ability to enhance attentiveness.
Does listening to music improve academic performance?
Studying can be stressful, and excessive anxiety can hinder learning and memory consolidation. To help block out distractions, improve concentration, and maintain attention during study sessions, students can choose instrumental or ambient music. Instrumental music removes vocals from a piece, leaving only the sound from the instruments. Classical music, like Mozart’s works, is also instrumental and beneficial for studying.
Instrumental or familiar music reduces the likelihood of getting caught up in lyrics or unfamiliar rhythms, as it does not require switching attention from the song to the words being processed. Ambient music accentuates the textures, mood, background noise, and atmosphere of a given place, creating a calming effect. For example, a playlist called “Coffee Shop Ambiance” can include acoustics, espresso machine sounds, cups clattering, or low tones of other people in the coffee shop. This helps students maintain focus and concentration during their studies.
How does listening to music help students work?
Music has the potential to activate both the left and right brain simultaneously, enhancing learning and memory. It also has a profound effect on mood, blood pressure, and heart rate. According to Dr. Masha Godkin, a professor at National University, music can take a person from Beta to deeper Alpha and Theta brainwave states depending on the music. To focus and study effectively, choose tunes that keep you awake without causing you to shimmy and tap to the beat.
📹 Should You Study with Music? | The Science-Backed Verdict
Not all music and not all individuals are created equal. Find out if and when you should study or work with music, and when you …
Thanks for this post. Does it matter whether the music has singing? I would think that wordless music (and not Muzak where the listener knows the words and would fill them in) would be less distracting than music with singing (at least in a language that the listener understands). Is there a decline in performance even with purely instrumental music?
I’m in college and listening to something while the teacher/dr. Is explaining makes me focus more and removes boredom but almost all the teachers have strict rules and I can’t do what will make me A BETTER STUDENT but it seems they just like to stick to their own stupid rules that doesn’t help anybody i thought we are not in school anymore but they treat us like children. i hope this doesn’t happen in the work place too which is what im afraid of.
I have ADHD and have always found music helpful in focusing my mind while studying, otherwise it runs off in a million directions and I struggle to get work done. There was a study conducted that I read about which also seemed to indicate that those with ADHD performed better in a classroom environment when music was playing, so I think it’s quite dependent on personality
this may sound weird but I usually study with whale sounds or alpha waves when motivation is low. The novelty and rhythm keep it interesting without being distracting. Alpha waves purportedly also improve concentration/memory. If I’m not in a mood to listen to ANYthing but need to blur out surround sound, then I put on a noise canceling headset. Happy studying everyone!
i need to create more accounts to upvote for mention of deadmaus I have ADD/ADHD probably of the learned variety b/c of my job for that reason and one other i am easily distracted by pretty much all things. i need music as a mask from people generated noise like talking, chairs being moved on hard floors (ie coffee shop), etc. EDM seems to work pretty well w or w/o lyrics, i turn on slacker and go to club hits with some wireless headphones my world becomes one of productivity.
As a person with ADHD I have to recommend that, if you like it, you should consider listening to instrumental smooth jazz or something similarly quiet, slow and soft toned while doing math. It probably won’t work for everybody but if you have ADD or ADHD it might just help you focus. It worked for me. Although this was when I was doing math problems. I’m not sure how well it would work while you’re actually “studying”. Cuz anything that requires reading becomes substantially more difficult. However it can help you to relax more deeply during breaks by listening to calming music, helping you to focus better after the break.
Music helps me remember things. I’m not gonna listen rnb or lyric driven music, because I’ll “go to places” in my head thus being distracted. The keys for me are: It must not have known lyrics, it must be in the background (low volume), usually I use the same music… so I feel like when the music plays in my head during an exam, what I studied just pours out effortlessly, it’s like Shonda R’s the hum. I face a lot of uncertainty without the Humm.
I want to be able to study while listening to music but I just can’t lol. My mind gets too distracted even if it has no words. I’ll just imagine au stories with made up characters that fit the ambience of the song for some reason. Then instead of studying I’m crying because my main character dies in my mind or some shit.
This might sound odd, but what I’ve experienced and tried is this: I wear headphones when listening to music, BUT I will actually move the other earpad off my ear and have just 1 in. Somehow this makes studying very enjoyable and allows me to focus way more. I’m not sure why it works, but for me it just does.
As a physics student, I actually find that music can be very helpful to keep myself focused while solving long problems and while exercising in different areas of math and physics that I’m familiar with. Since I am not really thinking too deep trying to understand what’s going on (since I already know), the task starts to be more focused on optimizing steps and solving the problem as efficiently as possible. There I’m just getting used to work with the concepts I already learned, and learning the methods and strategies for using then for problem solving, and music becomes very helpful to keep myself focused through the sometimes tedious tasks. But before that, when I’m reading about the concepts and learning how things work, I find music really distracting. Generalizing the idea I’d say (in my experience) music can be helpful when trying to exercise your brain and hone your cognitive skills, but not when trying to learn something completely new or when trying to understand or think deeply about something.
My dad or mom wont let me listen to music and study at the same time nor will they let me study with friends Cuz they say “u cant study and listen to music at the same time cuz u will lose your concentration” and also ” if u study with your friends then u will not study u guys will just keep talking” Tbh || i tried it when i was at my cousins house and we study in the same grade so we tried listening to lofi music and in 10 minutes i could memorize lots of thing like a lotssss and i think itz because of when listening to music i dont have any tensions and it makes me feel relaxed but well my parents wont let me ;-; And for a month my cousin stayed at my house and we studied together and i improved like 45% while i was studying with her BUT WHY THE HELL DOESNT MY PARENTS UNDERSTAND THAT MY WAY OF STUDYING IS DIFFERENT NOT LIKE U GUYS
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I only listen to music when I study because I have the shortest attention span, and find most study fucking bores me out of my mind. And let’s say for example studying with music, lowers my production by 30%: I either go through a tiny amount of stuff before stopping to go procrastinate looking in the fridge for some food to magically appear, or spend a longer amount of time but actually get shit done. But I also listen to vaporwave which is pretty chill, I really feel the same sort of workflow when I do and don’t use music. Except I can stay relatively on task when listening to music
That’s not a conclusion. This is just a lack of understanding of the protocol and a general inability to replicate something which deals with the trickiest thing on Earth to figure out – human psyche. From a polymath perspective it is utterly ridiculous to even suggest that there is no effect. The other labs managed to isolate things to the degree of preventing the people being studied of doing the associated activities which will manifest in the major boost. Music is a life style approach not a lab in a vacuum to measure IQ tests before and after listening to music. That is a total lack of understanding how human organisms work and how to improve things in life. If you want an instant improvement in IQ test scores then have the test subjects do some mindfulness awareness for a bit before the test. Music can boost people in all sorts of ways – but not in that kind of setting they are trying to test. Method, method, method. This is case of us noticing something empirically and trying to devise theories to formulate it for the sciencey way of writing things. Unfortunately pedantism seems to be more important than being useful for most people claiming to do science.
I really hate math but has to do a mandatory elective this semester, so what helps me to study the whole day is listening to lofi music and make me actually work hard and studying more enjoyable. But I can’t listen to music if I need to read or taking notes, it make sense why I can’t study with vocal musics either as it distracts me.
I am really bad at concentrating, with music I just eliminate distracting factors in surrounding sounds for sure in the library. However this isn’t the only reason. A big part of my getting to studying has to do with motivation. For sure the start. What kind of music really depends on the mood. I usually turn on Lo fi, or chill/cozy music. If im feeling too sleepy for it I turn on some ‘epic’ soundtracks. Deadmau5 also has some beautiful tracks but sometimes too beautiful that u pay attention to it. All without vocals of course. My study is mostly calculating and reporting stuff, which is fine with music. But when I really have to read something carefully I turn down the music volume (I do the same with parking, I turn down the music so my eyes work better, lol) I still keep the music on low tho to drown out background noise
If I listen to music when I’m studying for language classes like literature I can’t focus because I really need to put my whole mind into studying and understanding is the first priorty in that kind of lessons. That includes history etc. . But when I’m studying for math or physics I solve the problems faster with the music that makes me hyped up. But also there is this thing that if a song reminds you of things that happened in your life and you become lost in your thoughts you should probably not listen to that music because that music is keeping your focus out of studying.
I usually put on a 1 hour-long song for background noise for three reasons. 1) Pure silence drives me nuts normally, even more so while I’m trying to concentrate. Having tinnitus (constantly ringing ears) makes silence a Dream at times. 2) My mind will latch on to anything it can to combat the silence- distant voices, the wind, the heater/air conditioner, and sudden noises. I find it Much easier to ignore those sounds with steady music playing, and for Sudden noises that shock me out of the groove for a few moments the background music makes that sound much less sudden, and makes it easier to forget about it and concentrate fully on the task. 3) Having the song be around an hour long helps me time myself, and remember to take breaks when the song ends. =)
I have pretty severe ADD and it is extremely hard for me to get in the proper zone to study or do coursework. I’ve found for me the best thing is to be in a dimly lit room with sound cancelling headphones playing both instrumental music as well as thunderstorm sounds simultaneously in the background. Caffeine helps me focus as well as doing a light workout right before I study.
I personally think music decreases my effectiveness by a little bit, but helps me to be motivated and keep up my attention span for so much longer. Therefore it is a cost-benefit thing for me and I choose to listen to lofi music while studying. If I try to get a lot of flashcards super quick done, then I skip the music
I tend to have Test Shot Starfish’s Andromeda and Approaching Dragon on repeat when doing programming work to help me warm up to pace and to clear the distractions lingering around my mind before starting my work. However, I’ve noticed that the louder the volume of the music, the harder it is for me to process my work, and I would usually have to turn it down gradually as time goes by. Eventually, after a couple of hours, I seem to be able to perform better without any music.
I would’ve approached this differently. These tests limit the variables. Instead of controlling as many variables, you should let it flow and measure more dependent variables, which were otherwise controlled. What I’m getting at is that instead of checking if music helps people during study, analyse the whole process. By listening to music, at least for me and I assume many others, it makes study more tolerable and easier to get into. This allows longer study periods, as well as more frequent. Even if music is proven to decrease direct performance, it could improve it by allowing you to do more study than you otherwise would. Music, for some people, could even double the amount of time spent studying, that there would have to be a very large decrease in performance to make listening to music while studying bad. In conclusion, I believe that music can indirectly benefit certain people while studying. These people specifically have to be able to use music as motivation to study and make it more bearable. That is exactly how music helps people study, in my opinion.
This is interesting. I have a lot of personal experience with this (as probably almost everyone perusal) and I would like to add that while I agree with the finding that introverts might not want to add stimuli to the mix because they are already over-stimulated. However, it can occur that one puts headphones on to get away from noises around them and that that will still not be enough and so putting music on that you enjoy will vastly improve your performance, if it is hampered by external noise. I’m autistic and this is HUGE for me. I’m also living with way too noisy neighbours, which is a big problem for me and even causes me to want to flee from my house pretty often. But.. that’s a whole other story. I definitely agree that mood is important as well as it can just put you in a good mood to listen to music you enjoy. Or, if you’re sleepy, keep you awake a bit better than you can by yourself. I’m always sleep deprived so… I would know (though when it gets too bad, not even the loudest electronic music will keep me awake… during the day… my body refuses to sleep at night all too often. Again, a whole other story there). I myself will generally pick music that doesnt have too much singing in it, because singing, especially if I know the words, will distract me from tasks of medium or higher complexity, or when my working memory needs more space. If I still want singing, I generally go for languages I have not mastered yet, although the more I master them, the less of an option this becomes as well.
I’ve personally found it depends on what space my mind is in…some days I’m extremely focused and pushing to get the work done and on those days, as long as the music has a pumping beat, like EDM for example, I can use the rhythm to push past the distraction (because it always feels like a distraction) and create good feelings to maintain the momentum of the flow I’m in…other times when I’m not as focused I end up giving into the distraction and find it takes me twice as long to comprehend what I’m reading. Oh I’m quite extroverted.
I realised, when I’m doing a copy past kind of work ( sketching, writing, etc ) music helps. It gives me enthusiasm to do more. But, when I’m reading something where I need to understand the concept ( literature, articles, history ) it distracts me. So basically, music is good for practical studies not theoretical.
It you get distracted easily when studying try listening to music like in my case instead of getting distracted by my phone or thoughts or food, music give my brain something else to enjoy simultaneously while I’m studying so I dont need to get up or to stop studying BASICALLY IT PINS ME TO MY DESK SO I DONT STOP STUDYING BCOZ OF BOREDEM
Two Steps From Hell (and epic music in general) is the best study music for me. As for mixes, EpicMusicVN’s “best of epic music” 2012 and 2014 articles are great too. In general while I enjoy epic music as I study, I avoid those with heavy bass or electronic stuff because personally I find those distracting. I also avoid touchy-feely emotional or outright sad music for obvious reasons.
I use music for prolonging my study stamina just as you do. Instrumental only. I greatly enjoy classical, but only string arrangements. Piano strokes produce sounds that are too punctuated and distinct such that it interferes with my inner dialogue. Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schönberg are my usual companions. It works best with maths and physics exercises. I avoid music and practically all other kinds of distractions when studying text heavy material whether or not it’s concerned with flat memorization (vocabulary) or is heavier on relationships and abstraction (macroeconomics). I am an extrovert, but not the party animal kind. More Odysseus and Machiavelli. MBTI: ENTP Enneagram: 8w9 Socionics: LIE-NI
That’s BS. Your brain is still processing sound. How can you be fully concentrated on your tasks? When music is played, your brain will start to analyse the harmony/chord progression, the arrangement, the songwriting techniques, the effects/mixing/production. Listening to music while studying will never work. Never. It’s like playing a movie while reading a book. It’s a distraction. Yes. Music does stimulate your brain. It does get you into a good mood. It does help relaxing. But so does playing sports/doing exercise. However, you won’t do exercise while you are studying, simply because it affects your concentration at the time. What you should do is committing to a 100% fully focused, silent, intense half to one hour studying session. Take a break, play some music/do some exercise. Now you are relax, your brain is stimulated, and you are not in the intensive mood anymore. So you can now go for another intense studying session.
The Karaoke Edition of 1989 by Taylor Swift (instrumentals with background vocals, and lead vocals omitted) is something I can envision being of assistance in helping to focus on a specific task (reading, memorizing, etc). It is relatively familiar, fairly low-impact in terms of loud audio production technique, and would have the added benefit of helping drown out any undesired noise in the room. It’s kind of like enhanced white noise, in a way. It might help people who are learning to develop good study habits transition from just listening to the radio or Spotify, etc. Harm reduction!
Try prooving a theorem while listening to music. You can’t. My personal 2 rules regarding music and studying: 1. If the problems are as easy and repetitive as driving a car, music is fine. 2. If I like the music, I’ll get distracted (this is why I feel that a lot of people don’t like classical music xD )
Emancipator is amazing (personally a huge fan of safe in the steep hills and soon it will be cold..)If you prefer his music then I’m sure you’d love Bonobo and Tycho. As a mathematics undergrad (and now graduate student) I love listening to soundtracks from movies that motivate me- the imitation game, theory of everything, interstellar, hidden figures (instrumental) etc. while working on a particularly hard problem set/ research project.
It depends on what you are studying really…. If you are studying something that requires logic and brain power (math, physics, programming etc) then some music can be helpful. But if you are studying something that requires memory instead of logic and brain power (medicine, literature and especially business) you can’t really listen to the while reading and trying to memorize which state had the highest GDP last year. Maybe that’s why I went into programming. I can combine 2 things I love – problem solving through logical thinking and music.
When I use thisislangage’s flashcard style revision, I usually listen to a playlist of songs, with many in foreign languages. Some of them have English lyrics, but as I’m practicing bilingual tasks, perhaps the effect is different, as it doesn’t distract me much. All the songs are very fast rock / metal which is helpful as it makes me answer the flashcards quickly. In fact, I think that the drum parts to the songs are much more distracting than the lyrics. Personally, I really dislike songs like HR8939, as I find the speed way too slow, and it makes me proud slowly. However, on the other hand, doing the fast-paced revision does become tiring.
Everyone’s advocating for listening to music while studying but I can’t be the only one who finds it very stressful and distracting, no matter what I’m studying and no matter what kind of music/sounds I listen to. In order for me to deeply focus on something I’ll have to ignore all my surroundings and sounds coming from around me and only focus on the task at hand. Listening to music while studying basically means I’ll either have to 1) Constantly switch my focus between the music and the task (multitasking, never being able to deeply focus), or 2) Just completely ignore the music, in which case having it just come to my ears is completely useless. Neither of these options is good. Music-free studying can feel boring at first, but in my experience I have been way more productive when studying in silence. I prefer listening to music when I do something that’s been “automatized” by my brain, like walking or doing the dishes.
@MedSchoolInsiders on the subject of music with vocals. When you say don’t listen to music with vocals does this also include music with languages we don’t understand? If not then would it be okay to study with foreign music like k pop, j rock, and other foreign music? Please tell us your thoughts on this.
Adam Neely has a article on how rhythym is perceived by the human ear/mind and goes into detail about what specific BPM humans stop hearing “music” or a “beat”. I’ve found that the slower or “droning” the music, the more catalystic it becomes to studying in regards to reading/comprehension. Those “meditation alpha waves” music playlists are helpful, but this might also be because that music is on repeat/so slow we can’t perceive it has “music”.
Without music (mostly piano like Ludovico) I become more distracted. I need a constant identifiable background noise to be laserfocused, ’cause without it my attention, focus will drift to other noises like dog barking, neighbours chatting, honking and stuff. Moreover, the changes in the music will help to regain my focus when I start daydreaming and it occurs like every 3-5 minutes no matter what I study and how interesting it is.
I personally prefer to study in a noisy ambient, like the metro, the bus, a pub (not too noisy of course); in this way, since I can’t clearly understand every single conversation, I don’t get distracted. If I listen to music while studying, i tend to notice the logic behind the composition/production process (I study music composition, so it’s normal), to me it’s just like studying being near two people that are having a conversation, there’s a high chance that I get distracted. On the other hand, if the ambient is too quiet, the very first occasional little noise (e.g. an ambulance passing by, my dog, some neighbour, etc) would most probably break my flow and concentration, and we all know that re-building the momentum is not efficient.
I just thought this up in a 5-second meta-cognitive break. The “Silent” music hypothesis In the introvert/extrovert hypothesis of studying, it’s found that music improved the extrovert’s reading comprehension. It is hypothesized that extroverts are under-stimulated and music puts them at the ideal arousal state to receive information. Introverts are over-stimulated, which is why the music stimulated them too much to receive information. The introvert may listen to a mundane, uncharacteristic, relaxing music with a headphone, isolating outside noises, where the introvert can tune out the only available audio information easily due to its mundane nature. That, or our introvert may just have tinnitus. That’s what the silent music hypothesis is.
When I’m on my laptop, I go on YouTube and play instrumental studio ghibli music lol, YouTube has a 24/7 “radio” on just instrumental studio ghibli music, which is sooo fantastic and all the music has the same vibe so it’s different songs but they’re all piano or something so it doesn’t really distract you and I’m personally a huge fan of studio ghibli
I like the hypothesis proposed that claims that there is a type of music that can assist you in retaining information, but if you are looking for advice i’d suggest being actively involved in your current activity is far more important and arguably more beneficial. Definitely take your time to discover what works and what doesn’t work based on your prefferences, speculation and past experiences. As for what that elusive brain expanding music could be, i’d say it should be something that doesn’t particularly beg for attention (I.E abusive use of crescendos and volume, difficult to count meters etc) all the while providing a reasonable amount challenging and or engaging musical concepts such as tonality, silence and syncopations, Which is why you could see a case being made for classical musicians (including Mozart…) Me personally i’d say these stipulations i’ve suggested can definitely be found In certain Isolated works from the french impressionist period, which will often feature calm passages in between sections of highly diverse and unpredictable musical movements. A fair amount of musical education is recommended but not strictly required, these are compositions that are structuraly large which in turn allows you to be engaged with them for extended periods of time, but it doesn’t mean everyone will enjoy it or even that every piece is appropiate under the context of study. Music is subjective anyways so don’t worry about it.
I listen to songs in the languages i dont know. I know Hindi and english, So at the start of study session, i youtube ” best romantic (language) songs ”, and it mostly comes up with a playlist of soft soothing music, without any distraction. I have tried Tamil,Telugu, Malyalam, german, french so far.
When it comes to studying, music doesn’t help, I prefer silence or a study group with flash cards for memorization. But I will say that music does help from a focus perspective for me; for example, I drive better with music on and though music doesn’t help with studying, it somehow helps when doing homework since it helps me focus.
What if and why I can focus better with music? I find myself thinking random subjects pretty often, and when reading something that is not of my interest, I tend to get easily lost even though I can still study with little to no problem, but with instrumental music (specially techno, house…) those random thoughts just don’t “have space” in my focus. I’m used to multitasking like folowing a women conversation at lunch (I’m male) or playing an instrument while paying listener attention to the rest of the band but I don’t really know if this has something to do at all.
I tried studying with all kinds of music genres.. In the end what really works for me is techno music, it’s repetitive, has no lyrics, it just becomes a background sound (much less boring than classical music from my point of view..) and it helps me concentrate when there are noises or people talking around me Am I the only one?
Well, as a musician, studying IT in collage i found every kind of music distracting as hell because your mind works differently. I find myself looking into the details of the music, like “wow this guy really nailed this crescendo” and start fantasising about if i would play it, or if it’s all computermade how i would make it with instruments xD
I don’t use it so much but to me listening to music while studying is just to be in a mood were you cut out yourself from the conditions of your surrounding reality. It evoke to the mind that an other (better) reality is possible. But then i won’t listen to the music at all in the process of studying. If not it will disturb my concentration. Music is there just as an airlock. But i can also use the music to go along with it. Everything is impermanent so every circumstances need appropriate solutions. Therefore i need to select a music that 1 correspond to my mood (accompagnying) or my need (motivating me or calming me), and 2 must be strong enough emotionally cause i enjoy it this way, or light as a mere background sounds so i forget it easily. I’ll say also that it is good to change music style as every music have different properties. Many people tend to be factionalist in a music genre… to me it’s really a wrong view… Basically i would say that classical music in itself have very good properties (except from bad music writters of course…) but it also come with connotations (social, hystorical etc) that may leads to counterproductivity. Plus if one want to listen to Mozart and enjoy it personnally, freely, there it will provide a positive effect. If one have to listen to it because of one other’s rule or pression of course it will have a much less effect, and even certainly a négative one (=> intoxication).
I listen to “study music,” which isn’t really music so much as it is just a soothing, ambient background sound. I find this helpful because I live in NYC and it’s noisy here, so having big headphones over my ears helps cancel the noise, and having the ambient sound (which lacks beats or vocals or even rhythm) I find just helps put me in the proper headspace to focus. I think it would even help me focus in a library because I would still be distracted by people walking around, and all the ambient sounds that occur in a library. I don’t think the music I listen to makes me smarter or enhances anything, all it does is change or alter my sound environment to a more ideal one, allowing me to perform better and reach my potential.
07:14 This is very true, I mean even though the song choice I made was plenty of vocals because it was a rap i did put it not too high that’ll I’m jam in it but not too low that I’d hear others a such. Like it was background noise. I was able to listen to it on repeat and the vocals kind of just drowned into the instrumentals and became one mixed sound and I can listen to it for seven hours and when revising. The song choice I had was ‘All Eyes On You’ by Nicki Minaj ft. Meek Mill
Does this tie in with the arousal theory in ADHD? If someone with ADHD whose brain is already chronically under-stimulated were to listen to music while studying would it help stimulate some parts, while leaving enough mental capacity to complete work, or would it just distract the person as they already have difficulties with focus?
One thing I feel like you didn’t address and I don’t blame you because it’s abnormal, but people with disorders attention deficit disorder actually find on average that listening to songs especially with lyrics improve studying because our brains need more to focus on than one thing at a time to keep our attention. Therefore for someone like myself, if I don’t have music on preferably with lyrics I can end up spending an hour and a half thinking about everything but what I’m doing
For me I have to listen to music I don’t really know that well. A great example is the lo-fi hiphop beats playlist since it’s very easy to digest and hasn’t got any lyrics in it. I tried listening to music while studying before but I found myself not being focused and being rather distracted by the music (due to singing along or smth). When you listen to beats you can’t sing along I guess
Listening to vocal music while I read a book is more distracting. This would only be the case when I listen to songs in the language I know, because I would be trying to put meaning to the sentences in the lyrics and that is extra work to my brain. But, when I listen to JPop, I do not get distracted while reading. I don’t know Japanese, so I won’t be distracted much by the lyrics.
Usually it seems that my ability to think and understand really decrease when listeninc to music. As such I can’t really listen to music while studying. But if doing somethin I already know pretty well and that is not very challenging anyway music makes it more enjoyable. But I will do a sligtly worse job.
When I also listen to lyricless music, I sometimes learn and think better. If I have school anxiety, I do worse, even I’m listening to classical music. I think it was because I can’t focus to thinking properly because of fear of not listening to the lecture even though the lecture doesn’t have any sense at all.
what is the music that you played in the beginning, I really need to know. Also, personally the reason why I would listen to music is because of my family. I am a proper Asian and therefore I have the very least of privacy and personal space and I am ok with that but I can’t study when too many people are talking so I just have one sound that cancels all other. This was really helpful thank you for the article.
Personally, I listen to music while writing notes, not while trying to memorize an important term because sometimes my hand hurts while writing so music distracts me from it and helps me write for 5 hours. However, if you are trying to memorize any important term or of any sort, please don’t listen to music because when I tried it I ended up getting distracted and went from A+ to C.
Personally I do not study with music if all the material is in one source. I need my brain to pay attention. However when it comes to having to studying with multiple of sources which is annoying AF to my brain. Then I have to play a song on repeat or my mind will wonder off on things it would rather be doing. My brain is a weird place to live but I’m used to it now. /Shrugs
When I took a chemistry class last year, I started listening to ambient electronica music while solving chemistry problems. I started doing this because I had serious self doubt and worried I might fail the class. When working in silence, I would think about failing and about not being any good at chemistry, but with music, I would just get on with the problem at hand. Even after I discovered that I’m not bad at chemistry at all, I kept listening to music because I enjoyed it. It’s always good to try something new if you feel that your current study techniques aren’t working. Music is one way.
I’m new with this practice but I prefer intense, median to high tempo (if that’s a description) piano music and strictly ‘not’ the relaxing one. I mostly study with this ‘ youtu.be/vCBNJwDixYc ‘ playing. I begin with high volumes and lower them time to time as i feel it to be driving my head more than the study itself, till I finally turn it off signifying I’m for sure into the stuff I’m studying. Seems to me it’s the arousal effect you talked about in your article.
I have 0 evidence of what I’m saying but I find it hard to believe that playing classical music to children won’t have at least some positive effects, at the very least classical music knowledge isn’t a bad thing to have, now studying in a medical school is a much different subject, and I think that most people will have different methods to optimize studying when they are adults already, but for children that still need to get an actual feel for rhythm, need to stimulate there senses with new experiences, need to discover likes and dislikes, I don’t think that the music would be detrimental, at all.
I’d rather take longer to get done with my studies. Noone can (or should) learn for hours without braks anyway. So sometimes I just stop, listen two a song or two and after that, get back to work. I also listen to music when doing research and since the lines between theses two subjects are very blurred I might as well always listen to music 🙂
For me personally it is boring to study without music because if I don’t study with music I will fall asleep and I will use it for a boost kind of thing and I don’t listen to the music like lyrics or anything I listen to the waves. As you know there are many musics like waves and the natural sounds and these things could you tell me if the different waves and Hertz help better to concentrate.
If i can find absolute silence then that works best for me be finding that is hard so i use music more or less to block distractions! Always no lyrics, hear lately a lot of Pogo, Tycho, Nils Frahm.. all good stuff! I actually love classical music but i cant study to it because its usually too dynamic and ends up taking my full attention!
So true, I can’t listen to music and comprehend everything that I read at the same time whereas I just put the headphones on to do Math and Physics problems cause it makes study fun and enjoyable. Surprisingly listen to music increased my math scores cause I practiced more as I was able to study for prolonged period of time.
I grew in a very noisy environment, so even in school, my parents were always yelling and so on, so in order to study better I put music, I mean a controllable noise better than random noise. So when I got to college and started study computer science, I always study with music even if there is no noise by the environment, I kind of needed this noise. I don’t try to understand the lyrics when studying(English is not my native tongue). When I am coding at work I can’t listen to a podcast that needs my full attention, or even in Strategy or Fighting games I just listen to whatever I am enjoying and can focus on.
The desire to listen to music during studying is your consumer brains inability to be okay without a constant stream of stimulus. We are all fucked by operant conditioning to be addicted to constant entertainment. Do yourself a favour and see studying as a chance to get some much needed dopamine detox in at the same time. Get used to being bored. Be so bored that the stuff you’re studying becomes the most interesting thing. Then learnimg becomes the fun distraction music is now. And you’ll enter a whole new world of studying performance 😉
I listen to music with lyrics, I don’t pay attention cuz I know all the sobs by heart and just like them, and if I don’t have music I like, I get all up in my head and start overthinking and worrying about other things instead of the task at hand, music without vocals just increases the chances of me getting int my head.
Music doesn’t make us smarter. From my own experience I can say that i listen to music in class to avoid other noises like people talking. When I am studying alone at home I still listen to music because otherwise I feel depraved of stimuli which would make me do something more entertaining on the computer instead of studying. All in all I do lose focus sometimes due to the music, especially during reading. So I think it does have a negative impact compared to complete silence and focus.
Well I think if you’re outside and studying (i.e cafe, library) its best to have music on bc it’s really easy to lose focus if suddenly a loud noise comes in or a particularly loud conversation is demanding your attention. Otherwise if at home not having music or having it really low is better – of course, this is only if there is no other noise present. This is just on my experience and conclusion
I work in a noisy office and when I want to focus on reading documents, I listen to this ambient industrial music with no lyrics. thehyperdimension.bandcamp.com/album/neurosomantic-frequency-transmission Hope you like it since you listen to Deadmaus. Works well for my after work studying, too. If I listen to music with lyrics, it has to be either a familiar where the music including the lyrics becomes background or it has to be one song on repeat.
From my experience, any kind of music, vocally or instrumental, distracts me while studying. I am a software developer, and most of the time I spent in front of a computer, so listening to some music helps me not get bored when working on some problem resolution. But when comes to studying some new concept it makes me spend somes hours doing absolutely nothing.
For me, music is distraction while studying because I only have one mind in my brain, so I cannot perform two actions together listening and reading at the same time that’s a hard task. Imagine like you are talking to someone while you are reading chats On your phone, would you be able to concentrate or even know what that someone is telling you ?.
I’m a high-school student who’s pretty introverted. Well my neighbourhood gets pretty noisy sometimes, and that’s when I choose to plug in. I also plug in when I’m taking biology notes or some inorganic chemistry notes as it is mostly theoretical and a lot of passive writing – basically boring stuff lol. Other wise, music seems to have a detrimental effect on my studying. I never plug in while doing physics or maths stuff. What’s my jam? Usually Coldplay or Radiohead, or some indie songs. Sure they have vocals, but the vocals are sparse and instrumentals take up the largest parts of my song. The vocals are an instrument complimenting the other instruments in these songs. For Coldplay, I love “Brothers and Sisters” and basically anything from the album “Parachutes” (especially Sparks and High Speed). For Radiohead, anything from the albums Kid A, Amnesiac, In Rainbows, The King of Limbs, A Moon Shaped Pool is pretty good to study to (my favourites are Daydreaming, Codex, Lotus Flower, House of Cards, Nude, You and Whose Army, Pyramid Song, How to Disappear Completely, Everything in Its Right Place, Subterranean Homesick Alien).
Anything by Deadmau5 that has no lyrics has helped me for years. I suffer from ADHD and the lack of stimulation was eased by listening to the repetitive beats and electronics. Now that I am on meds for ADHD I usually study in silence. If you suffer from ADHD and cannot afford to get it looked into, Kratom helped me for over a year by increasing dopamine levels (the chemical that keeps you on task and interested)
Good article,,, for me listening music helps to reduce my over thinking and I can focus my study, usually I listen Yoga music, God Shiva mantra ‘s,,, later I ll change it to instrumental like flute, it’s calmful,,, after that I won’t listen any music,,,,, again I ll listen start to listen music while my house works, at dis time I love to listen rock music,,,,
When i study, i prefet silence because it does not distract me. When solving math problems, however, high rhythms help me do simple calculations faster and when doing just about any other task, i prefer music because it keeps my head cool and i dont get angry or bored if it gets either stuck or too repetitive. When the task is more attention demanding, i switch to instrumentals. From what im observing, im doing a little better than my peers.
My favorite study music is psytrance. It gets me in the zone, especially while programming. But also when I’m summarizing things/doing math exercises. I don’t know how much it helps in studying medical things, since I study computer science (not a lot of theoretical things to learn by heart but practical stuff).
I am learning Chinese in school and I’ve found that it is very helpful to listen to music, with or without lyrics while practicing characters. It lets me tune out and I find that I can practice for much longer without getting bored. Since this doesn’t require much concentration the lyrics don’t distract me
I am excited to see that the science here aligns well with what I have found true for myself. I study most often with instrumental music because of one consideration that wasn’t mentioned in the article. Silence is very hard to achieve. From a point of silence any sound has a very noticeable impact and becomes quite distracting. Listening to instrumental helps me most by creating a noise tolerance so that any outside noise has to be quite loud to get my attention.
I studied to Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 for one of my finals last semester. The piece is about 35 minutes long, and I had listened to the whole thing maybe 20 times in a period of 8 days. When I took my test, I found myself playing the piece over in my head, and that whenever I felt like I was blanking out on something, I’d just start humming the music and it would bring back that info I was missing. Kind of a coincidence that it happened to be classical music, but I feel like the main takeaway was the consistency of environment. Low key wanna do research on this with actual people one day
That aligns with my experiences. I study with music, always because I am used to it by now. The main point to me, which was not considered, is the noise cancelling aspect. The main reason for me is to block out irregular outside distractions. I mostly use instrumental music, be that electronic, classic or otherwise. I tend to stick to one album / style / song or alike, to not get distracted by changes in the background hum.
My experience is similar to yours. If I only plan to study for short period of time(which is almost never) I study without music but when I have a lot of work to do(thanks to med school that’s 99% of the time) I prefer to listen to music. I have three playlists of mostly movies soundtrack(all of them instrumental) and my brain actually made the connection that this music = work and it’s easier for me to start when I put this on.
One of the best effects that music can have is to help put me into flow. I’m in Computer Science so when I need to code for several hours I put on some dark synthwave music, which generally has fairly simple and defined rhythm, plus a hint of speed and aggression, but also some deep pads/synth textures. Getting lost in the music helps me enter flow state which helps me work so much more efficiently and for so much longer than I can maintain focus consciously.
I already study with non-vocal music. It may not help me study, but it does improve my mood, my motivation, and blocks sounds. I’m pretty sure I have misophonia and other sound related psychological problems, so blocking sounds is very important for my ability to concentrate and stay in a good mood. And I also listen mostly to classical.
i’ve been listening to radiohead a lot while i study and sometimes whne i’m deep in focus i seem to tune out the music i think it’s good practice for exams when there’s background noise which might make it hard to concentrate bur music may cause a decline in performance if i’m being totally honest – i highly rec radiohead w it’s slow vocals and catchy rhythms to increase ur motivation when studying
I prefer listening music on any studying activity because it keeps my mind focused on only these two things, when i study in silence, every little noise that was made around me will be processed by my brain and it will distract me, on the worst situation, sometimes thoughts just came out of my mind and it makes me very distracred. I hope that this is usefull for your research
Dude, that’s so true. I don’t like listening to music when I’m studying things that requires reading/comprehension but, when I’m drawing/calculating/etc, I feel so concentrated that I don’t pay attention to anything else, including time/exterior sounds. My personal suggestion is the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack. It is really good and also really helps me concentrate, but its so beautiful that sometimes I make a break just to admire the music I’m listening to (mostly happens with New Tail, Dragon Racing, This is Berk, Flying With Mother, the duet from Stoic and Valka and spoiler the one from Stoics funeral)