By Dr. Gianpiero Greco
Music is applied to all ages and affects the heart rate, blood pressure, breathing (greater amount of O2 available for the various areas of the body), the level of certain hormones, in particular that of stress, and endorphins.
Listening to Mozart's music you have benefits on memory and learning, as it promotes concentration and improves productivity (Jausovec et al., 2006).
Glenn Schnellenberg has shown that children who attend music lessons have higher IQ growth than other extracurricular activities, which however make a good contribution to the development of intelligence.
For Schnellenberg, the alleged "Mozart effect" would be due to a more generic effect of music, which is able to relax and improve mood. Provided, however, that it is the preferred one.
Music helps relieve chronic pain and improves mood. This was demonstrated by a study (Siedlecki et al., 2006) on chronic pain linked above all to pathologies such as osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis.
The music soothes the pain after a surgical operation, allowing to reduce the administration of painkillers, with consequent reduction of adverse effects of drugs such as nausea and vomiting (Cepeda et al., 2006).
Music is also used for terminally ill patients with cancer (Hilliard RE, 2003) to control pain and promote physical well-being and relaxation, probably thanks to the higher release of endorphins induced by musical activity.
Music has also been used in delivery rooms (Chang et al., 2008) . The mothers who benefited from it requested a reduced administration of anti-pain medication during labor, because the music induced the visualization of positive images and relaxation, also favoring the dilation of the cervix and the correct positioning of the child.
It has been shown (Wachi et al., 2007), with subjects employed in a large company, that the musical activity is able to reduce objectively the level of stress, even from the biochemical point of view, reducing the inflammatory markers and improving the activation of the natural killer cells of the immune system.
Playing a musical instrument in an amateur way is an effective system to combat stress (Bittman et al., 2005) .
Psychological distress is a risk factor for many skin diseases, in particular psoriasis (Lazaroff et al., 2000) . Music therapy sessions have led to a decrease in blood pressure and heart rate, a reduction in the urge to scratch and cutaneous manifestations as a whole.
A study carried out on patients suffering from Alzheimer's (Ziv et al., 2007) shows that music can benefit by reducing the negative consequences typical of their condition.
Listening to music for two or three hours a day in the period following a stroke facilitates the recovery of verbal memory, stimulates the ability to concentrate and improves mood by preventing depression ( Särkämö et al., 2008) .
Music: psychological effects
Height: a high-pitched sound generates more tension in the listener, on the other hand a less acute sound leads to lower voltage.
Intensity: a stronger sound has an energizing, weaker relaxing effect.
Stamp (Young's law): with a released arm and curved fingers a sound is produced in which consonant harmonics prevail, a sound that the listener perceives as full, round, rich; vice versa, holding the rigid arm and the outstretched fingers produces a sound in which the dissonant harmonics prevail, a sound that the listener interprets as poor, rigid, angular.
Duration
Rhythm: regular has a stabilizing effect; irregular (various durations) destabilizing.
Execution time: fast excitatory effect, moderate serene atmosphere.
Melody: built on joint degrees it causes pleasant experiences, on the other hand it causes discomfort.
Harmony: consonant there is a sense of stability, of calm, of conclusion; dissonant restlessness, tension, expectation.
Effects related to the collective memory: the organ's tone generates mostly a sense of spiritual elevation, because for centuries, in Western music, this instrument is used in the ecclesiastical sphere during religious services.
Effects related to individual memory: every moment of our life is characterized by images, sounds, smells ... so, the recurrence of an image, of a sound sequence, of a bouquet of perfumes etc., can make a memory resurface, and vice versa the recurrence of a memory re-actualizes the visual, auditory, olfactory and gustatory sensations connected to it.
Anxiety, stress and Back Scool + Bibliography »
