We have all experienced similar moments in which music has helped to temporarily induce us into a particular state, but how many of us have tracked its long-term effects? What if you knew that in just three weeks you could lower your heart rate, depression and anxiety levels, just by listening to music?
Four years ago, the Psychology of Music journal released a study exploring the potential benefits of regular listening to Indian instrumental music. The research sought to test effects on our physiological being (such as heart rate and blood pressure), our psychological being (such as depression), as well as human anxiety.
Forty college students were given an initial assessment of the above physical, psychological and anxiety related levels. The next morning, they spent 30 minutes listening to Indian flute music through headphones with closed eyes. When finished, they went about their lives.
After the 20th listening session, tests were re-administered.
After just 20 days, all levels of tested anxiety decreased, alpha waves in the brain, which indicate a relaxed state, increased, individual scores on an administered depression test went down, and the average heart rate dropped from 76.2 to 75.5 beats per minute. The control group (which spent 30 minutes every morning sitting in silence), showed no significant changes of any kind.
Plenty of research has explored the short-term ability of music to calm us, but what I found most notable in this study was the attention given to permanent benefits. If all this could happen over just 20 days, what could happen over the course of an entire semester? A year?
While the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of instrumental Indian music specifically, I can’t help but think that results would occur from listening to compositions of our own choice.
I’m sure many of us already listen to 30 minutes of music a day — if not by choice, then perhaps in grocery stores and retail shops. What is significant is setting aside time for music and music alone.
As American composer Aaron Copland wrote, music offers much more than the pleasure of its sound — what we might refer to as “background music.” He and many others have described music as being both emotionally expressive and as containing a quality unique to music and nothing else.
Ludwig van Beethoven said, “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”
Should you be inspired to carry out a personal study of your own, I will leave two suggestions: First, try incorporating more instrumental music into your listening repertoire — your brain won’t have to work as hard to decipher linguistic messages.
Second, consider expanding your listening experiences to include live concerts. There are plenty of free concerts given by faculty and student orchestras in ASU’s own school of music, so money doesn’t have to get in the way.
If 30 minutes a day is more than you can do, maybe you can simply change the way you treat music when it is around. Try closing your eyes and really listen, rather than just hearing.
Reach Ruth at ruth.wenger@asu.edu.
