How music effects mental health

Music Effects: Music can be a positive force for mental health, calming, relaxing, intellectually stimulating. This is true for adults, teens and children. Our choices as well as the intensity and frequency of the music we listen to can effect our mental health. Music stirs up emotions. Some of the greatest composers were borderline geniuses, but also, many had personalities that could be described as deeply emotional or even volatile. Mood disorders can be effected by both the type, intensity, and amount of music we listen to.

Music has potential to benefit a child or teen in their cognitive development and otherwise.

* In an analysis of U.S. Department of Education data on more than 25,000 secondary school students, researchers found that students who report consistent high levels of involvement in instrumental music over the middle and high school years show "significantly higher levels of mathematics proficiency by grade 12." This observation holds regardless of students' socio-economic status, and differences in those who are involved with instrumental music vs. those who are not is more significant over time. (Catterall, J, Iwanga, J., 1999.)

* Education in the arts makes better math and science students, enhances spatial intelligence in newborns, and let's not forget that the arts are a compelling solution to teen violence, certainly not the cause of it!" Michael Greene, Recording Academy President and CEO at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, February 2000. (Music Education Online).

* Both music and language are processed in the same area of the brain. Children and youth who develop skills of playing an instrument often times develop greater language capacity as well as the greater adeptness in the ability to learn a new language.

* Students with coursework/experience in music performance and music appreciation scored higher on the SAT: students in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math, and students in music appreciation scored 63 points higher on verbal and 44 points higher on the math, than did students with no arts participation. College-Bound Seniors National Report: Profile of SAT Program Test Takers. Princeton, NJ: The College Entrance Examination Board, 2001. (Music Education Online).

* Music teachers provide good role models for inner city children. The percentage of high school students, in one study, who viewed music teachers as a role model was higher than for any other discipline, 36% for music teachers, 28% for English teachers, 11% for elementary teachers and 7% for phys-ed/sports teachers. (Hamann, 1993)

* Active participation in playing music and music appreciation has been demonstrated to increase self-esteem.

So there are many positive benefits for children and youths to be actively involved in learning about a wide variety of music, and learning to play music.

Abstract from article Listen! music maters 7 surprising benefits of music education, by Abigail Connors, early-childhood music specialist and author of 101 Rhythm Instrument Activites for Young Children.
"Listen to the singing, the laughing, the jumpning, stomping and clapping, the exuberant thumping of drugs, the rhythmic rattling of maracas, and the festive jingling of bells. Listen to children making music, and it's easy to hear they're having fun." She continues, "What's not so obvious is that while children are singing and clapping, jumping and wiggling, and shaking and tapping on instruments, there's a whole lot of learning--and growing--going on.

Music activites boost brainpower. Numersous studies have shown that participating in musical activites can increase children's success in school, I.Q. scores, and cognitive sills such as reasoning and memory." Playing music, she notes, can promote healthy brain development. To teach a child to play the piano, violin or other beautiful instrument, is of value!

How music can effect our psychology and mental health disorders.

Music can have a calming influence and instill a feeling of well being. Our genetic makeup has a bearing in the way the brain processes music. Some listen to music as something light and in the background, for others we absorb every note, every emotion, and it becomes a deep part of our psychological profile. Since young people and, today, children, often times listen to hours of music daily from many sources, it helps shed light on the impact that music might be having in terms of the mental health of children and teen mood disorders.

Some have noted today that persons who are very talented musically, creators of new and innovative music, have a tendency towards mental health disorders. Music borders on the spiritual. It can be something that stirs up from the very depths of one's soul, one's emotion, and is subject of study in emotion psychology.

It is not surprising, then, that some psychologists acknowledge and have written about the effect that music can have in mental health and how the chemical balance of our minds can be affected. Music can be a highly emotional form of communication.

On the positive side, music has been used both on a personal level, in education and in professional therapy, called, obviously, music therapy, to impart pleasant thoughts and to calm the mind. Music therapy is a specific branch of psychology that has already been developed and is being used in a clinical setting.

Music Psychology and Children

In the classroom, typically in preschool and kindergarten, soft and calming music is often, almost ubiquitously used to help children to relax at nap time and other times of the day. Some high schools use classical music in the hallway speaker in the morning periods and other times of the day. This adds to a peaceful and calm atmosphere in some large city schools.

Music Effects

On the other side of the coin, music such as hard core, hard rock, punk, and hard alternative take your mind to highs and lows in your mood on a wild chemical rollercoaster ride day in and out. Hip hop also increases your excitement level and all of this regularly can affect one's emotions as well as the dopamine level in our mind.

Dr. Joel Robertson in his book Natural Prozac writes about how music can effect the dopamine level in our brain, and how wise choices in music can affect a positive effect in the treatment of depression.

Music can be one of the factors behind bipolar disorder or ADHD. Why can 20 students listen to the same music and only 1 or 2 suffer from mental health problems. Each of our minds is wired differently. There is a complex predisposition in our bodies and minds which combines with psycho-social factors, such as the dynamics of one's family life, one's workplace or school environment, interpersonal relationships and one's inherited emotional makeup, which can explain why music affects some person's one way, but not others.

When do young people (and children) listen to music?

On ipods going to school, between classes, at times, during class and in the hallways. At home watching or listing to music videos on cable or satellite TV, or on the Internet. On the Internet at school, often with music videos from YouTube. In the car, CDs and radio.

The Psychology of Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana and pop-music for girls

Some schools have adopted a no-ipod policy because they feel that that constancy of music between classes, in the halls, and often times, in class, can interfere with the cognitive processes necessary for the powers of mental assimilation needed to learn. In other schools, there are no restrictions on ipod use.

How young people and children can benefit from music:

Music, psychology and mental health disorders

One well known example of a singer with mental health difficulties is Axel Rose the hard rock singer well known for his bipolar disorder, of the group Guns 'n Roses. To what extent does is his disorder affected by the intensity and frequency of the music that he performs? Also, to be considered, as one listens intently, identifies with the mood and emotions of a song, a entire CD, and when listens daily to that music, on the radio, car stereo, ipod or some other way, the emotions of that music become one's own emotions. In a similar way that a brain cell transmits an electrical current through the axon to the dendrite, skips the gap chemically, to start again to the next brain cell and start the process anew, musical energy is transmitted electrically from one person or group to another through modern technology.

Those emotions, then are transmitted through our sense and become our own. If those emotions are happy and positive, our brain will assimilate those emotions, if they are angry or emotionally pained, or minds similarly assimilate those same emotions, which are apparent in the brain through combinations of neurotransmittors and thought patterns. The chemicals in one mind, then, influence the chemicals in another, or in masses of people.

Music, then, and mass media, has tremendous influence on both the culture, and the mental and emotional state, as well as the chemical balance of millions of minds.

As a general recommendation by mellowing out in our taste in music, toning down the intensity and quantity, it can positively effect our mental health.

The following is information from the American Music Therapy Association, Inc., Silver Spring, Maryland. (off-site link). http://www.musictherapy.org/faqs.html#WHAT_IS_MUSIC_THERAPY

What is music therapy?
Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accomplish individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has completed an approved music therapy program. (American Music Therapy Association definition, 2005)

What do music therapists do?
Music therapists assess emotional well-being, physical health, social functioning, communication abilities, and cognitive skills through musical responses; design music sessions for individuals and groups based on client needs using music improvisation, receptive music listening, song writing, lyric discussion, music and imagery, music performance, and learning through music; participate in interdisciplinary treatment planning, ongoing evaluation, and follow up.

Who can benefit from music therapy?
Children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs, developmental and learning disabilities, Alzheimer's disease and other aging related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, and acute and chronic pain, including mothers in labor.

Where do music therapists work?
Music therapists work in psychiatric hospitals, rehabilitative facilities, medical hospitals, outpatient clinics, day care treatment centers, agencies serving developmentally disabled persons, community mental health centers, drug and alcohol programs, senior centers, nursing homes, hospice programs, correctional facilities, halfway houses, schools, and private practice.

Like Art Therapists, Music Therapists are board certified and licensed.

References for Music Psychology page:

1. Catterall, James S., Richard Chapleau, and John Iwanaga. "Involvement in the Arts and Human Development: General Involvement and Intensive Involvement in Music and Theater Arts." Los Angeles, CA: The Imagination Project at UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, 1999. NELS:88, National Education Longitudinal Survey)

2. Connors, Abigail, (August 2009). Listen! music matters 7 surprising benefits of music education. NJ Family.

3. Hamman, D. L., Walker, L., (1993). Music Teachers as Role Models for African American Students.Journal of Research in Music Education, Vol. 41, No. 4, 303-314, (1993). DOI: 10.2307/3345506. http://jrm.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/4/303

4. Music Education Online. Children's Music Workshop. (Retrieved August 4, 2009). http://www.schoolmusictoday.com/advocacy/benefits.html

5. Robertson, J., 1998. Natural Prozac. San Francisco: Harper Sanfrancisco.

Music to listen to: Off-site links

Pachelbel Canon
Simple Pachelbel Canon Sheet music

Johann Strauss - Emporer's Waltz - Youth Orchestra

Emporer's Waltz Andre Rieu - and ballet.

Mozart - Air on G-String

Air on G-String - Single Acoustic Classical Guitar

Air on G-String Sheet Music

Beautiful CD Music Store for Youth, Children, Expectant Mothers

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