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SageMusic: Let’s See What Happens When the Brain Plays a Musical Instrument

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Written by Curtis Dean
For most of us, listening to music is a soothing relaxation. By then, imagine the feeling of fulfillment when you create your own music accompanied by your knowledge and skills in playing an instrument?

Playing an instrument is a good habit since it is something that would fire up your passion and, at the same time, will give you a sense of satisfaction. More so, learning music will work to everyone who will pair it with willingness and willpower.

However, playing music knows no age. And if this comes up with your mind as you ponder if this worth pursuing, then you need more motivation why you must engage by this time. Here are the things that you need to know from playing a musical instrument.

Connection Between Music and Brain

I’m going to pick the guitar away. I’m going to join a band or attend a music lesson. Hence, music is something that many individuals always assure to list down on their to-do list forever. You do that since you play a musical instrument, yes, because you are enthusiastic about everything that links to music. The need to become a successful guitarist requires commitment and courage.

The output of a musical instrument includes various elements of the central part which are the brain and spinal cord and external nervous systems which are the nerves found outside of the brain and spinal cord.

The motor structures in the brain regulate both small and broad action to create the sound while a performer plays an instrument. The sound is produced by perceptual receptors, and can then be modified by the signaling device. Sensory input is often transmitted to the brain through the fingertips, hands, as well as arms.

When the performer is reading music, sensory data is sent to the brain to interpret and evaluate motor central instructions.

And the brain, of course, emotionally addresses the music!

After 15 months of early childhood practice, the use of a musical instrument will trigger various changes in the brain. Such improvements are associated with adjustments in other engine and auditory capabilities. In the hippocampus, a brain region associated with learning and memory is also an area in which these functional and structural change happens.

Neurogenesis – the development of new neurons is an important mechanism for memory and concentration in the hippocampus. Therefore, music practice will enhance neurogenesis related to improved thinking and cognitive function.

play musical instrument

Photo by Saeed Khosravi

What Happens When the Brain Plays a Musical Instrument:

There are so many things that happen within us that we are not totally aware of. here are the benefits of playing musical instruments and how they affect positively the functions of our brains.

  • Learning an Instrument Accelerates Brain Development

At USC Neuroscientists, have successfully undergone a study examining the cultural, emotional, as well as the cognitive advancement effects of music lessons on children.

The findings of the study indicate that learning music accelerates the production of the human brain auditory course and boosts its performance.

Assal Habibi, the lead author of the report, presented the conclusions of his team that these results show that music instruction among children are more precise in the treatment of sound than the other two study participants.

Like a muscle, music performance exercises the mind really well. Scientists at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston have also demonstrated this. They found that male musicians possess greater minds, unlike men who are  not widely trained in music.

  • Increases Blood Flow in Your Brain

Studies have shown that brief pulses in musical preparation improve blood supply to the left side of the brain.

When you need a shot of energy, this may be useful. For 30 minutes, conserve your energy and get into a jam.

  • Strengthens the Brain’s Executive Function

Critical tasks such as processing of information, retention, behavioral control, decision-making, and solving problems are covered in cognitive control. You will increase your prosperity if improved. The music preparation of both children and adults will enhance and develop cognitive functioning.

  • Increases Myelination

We always hear that music enhances the functioning of our brains, ends up making us smarter, tends to help us focus better, and much else; still, we didn’t even realize how exactly this works … until now!

Some of the music experiments and their impact on the brain are focused on objective findings, including better performance scores, enhanced concentration, and/or sensitivity to detail —— this kind of stuff.

There have also been reports of emotional benefits-showing more comfort, less anxiety, and a greater connection to others. Many significant factors in recommended practice habits are used to sustain the way your brain works.

  • Rely on what you’re doing and eliminate disruptions from you.
  • Slowly start and ensure you perform correctly before you attempt on playing faster. 
  • Split up the schedule so that you can take gaps in sessions rather than perform very long regular meetings at a time 
  • Do sample performance without your piano in your imagination.

In explaining the above preparation guidelines, the word “successful work” is often used, and stress that any repeated movement in our Myelin will stimulate this development. 

It would mean that if we maintain playing the music incorrect it would carry the misleading info to our body. We shouldn’t want to do that since we now understand how useful the Myelin increase is!

play musical instrument

Photo by Lukas Rodriguez – Pexels

Which Musical Instruments You Should Learn?

Whether that’s rock ‘ n ‘roll, dance music, hip-hop or traditional, it later turned out, your gray matter tends to prefer the very same music that you do. 

“It depends on the situation,’ says Yonetani. Scientists have claimed for some time that classical music has enhanced neural function and made their listeners wiser, a condition that stimulates the Mozart effect. 

However, Sugaya and Yonetani disagreed saying it’s not necessarily true. They have observed in recent research that dementia patients react favorably to the music they’ve grown up listening to. 

“If you play somebody’s favorite music, it will light up different areas of the brain,” explains Sugaya. “This means music-related experiences are vivid associations this rarely die out — even in people with Alzheimer’s.”

Bottomline

Enjoyment extends well beyond this moment because it affects the effect of our hormones as well as cognitive functioning directly. Although the study has shown that people who play instruments are wiser, there are so many advantages that you could get from playing instruments.

Feature Photo by Marcela Alessandra

About the author

Aubrey Stevens