Learning with music, The positives and negatives

During active learning sessions the brain is doing more work than we actually think it is doing, it is receiving, processing and storing information. This cycle can actually define how anything we will do will turn out especially our grades, so I think its wise to know the good and bad stuff here.

People actually love to get the good news first so lets start from there, music has many positives to your learning cycle and below are the vital ones.

1. Beats stress while studying.

Music helps us to get rid of stress, this happens when we are in tune with the music, the vibrational patterns of the particular music are synchronized by the beating of the heart and cause an overall calmness in us. Stress really affects the brain let’s consider stress to be like holes on a straight road, the road is straight but we can’t drive fast because of the holes, same with stress, we have the urge to grasp what we are learning but we can’t do it fast because of stress.

2. Increases overall focus and removes distractions.

Have you been to a jazz concert before and seen a beautiful girl or guy? The music playing won’t actually be your focus at that moment but the soothing sounds will assist you to concentrate on that person. Music kind of creates the peaceful environment for the brain to consume details, it gives the brain the perfect working condition for absorbing information.

3. Puts you in the right mood to learn.

Trying to learn when you are very annoyed or heartbroken is a very useless effort, your mind is on the past event trying to process what happened why it happened and is answering a whole lot of questions. It is very unideal to try to process information at that time. Music is usually the quick way out, it helps you to free your mind also it helps create a new. This helps you to get things better and faster. Now the bad news, the bad effects of music on learning, you see everything on this earth is good when used wisely and bad when abused or used wrongly same for music. Music for learning can be very destructive for the learning process. Some of the many negatives are;

4. Can be a very big distraction.

You can’t follow two things simultaneously, yes I know a lot of people will say we have two parts of a brain but my question is can you focus on two different things with your eyes? No right, same as the brain. You can’t be focusing on lyrics or the beat and be focusing on a line in your book, its highly impossible. Music can serve as the distraction sometimes, sometimes you even find yourself writing or typing what you are listening to.

5. Makes you lose yourself.

Listening to music that brings memories or plans can cause you to lose focus, you can’t be thinking about that guy or girl or even the last dinner you went to or even deeper how you imagine yourself to be in the future and also be learning. Music will serve as a distraction especially when its from your playlist and you can really relate to it. So be careful what you choose to listen to.

Conclusion

Choosing to learn with music is a decision that can be very beneficial or very distractive to you, first you must know your attention strength and span, how long you can pay attention and how strong. Also, music must be chosen well, Jazz, soul music and blues or classical are very ideal for learning but hip-hop, rap and dance music must be avoided when learning but can be helpful at quickly changing moods.

SAMUEL HESSE

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