How Does Music and Live Music Affect Our Well Being  Essay

Introduction

Music has the power to generate different kinds of emotions in human beings. Even in animals sometimes people see changes in mood when they play music. The type of emotion music evokes depends on the type of music. Feelings than can be generated by music include fear, sadness, and happiness (Goycoolea et al. 2013). Therefore, the mood-altering effect of music can either be positive (happiness) or negative (sadness). However, how music exactly affects emotion or mood is not so straightforward. While some music generally evokes same feelings in most people, many times individuals are affected differently by music (Rana et al. 2011). In the case of this paper, music refers to any singing, playing of musical instrument, pre-recorded music, and live music. Whether one chooses to play music, sing, or listen to music, there will always be mood altering and several other effects. And one of the most often cited reasons for this is that music usually engages individuals on both the conscious and subconscious levels. This paper explores the manner in which music affects wellbeing.

Psychological effects of music experience

Improve Cognitive Performance

Studies have revealed that when one listens to background music – music that plays while they are mainly focusing some other activity – it enhances they cognitive performance. This is especially true among older individuals. One such study is the study by Bottiroli et al. (2014) that revealed that playing music that is upbeat enhanced cognitive processing speeds and that playing both most types of music improved memory. Does this mean that students who play music while studying benefit greatly from the practice? Well, not necessarily. While some students believe that playing music while studying believe it enhances memory, other students believe it is a great distraction that helps them to study difficult concepts. However, it is not always a good idea to play music while studying.

This is because research shows that playing music while studying is only beneficial when certain factors are aligned. Factors such as the musical training of the listener, how much the listener is enjoying the music, and the music type being listened to. One 2013 study revealed that students who are musically trained generally perform well in examinations when they play neutral type of music because this music type is not very distracting and can easily be ignored (Gold et al., 2013). While students who are not musically trained perform well in examinations when they play positive type of music since such music evokes positive mood and emotions without affecting the formation of memory. Therefore, while music affects memory, how exactly it does depends on the listener. If a listener is distracted by some type of music, they are better off not listening to music when studying or doing something else as it is less beneficial to them.

Another landmark study that shows…

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…to an audiobook. This shows that music can truly enhance sleep and help deal with insomnia.

Enhance Motivation

For quite a long time, people have been saying they listen to music to motivate themselves. Fortunately, this effect of music is also research-supported. Music has been shown by research to be a source of motivation. In one study by Waterhouse and colleagues (2010), twelve male students were used as participants to investigate the motivation effect of music. The twelve were asked to cycle on an exercise bike for twenty-five minutes. They were asked to cycle at their own speeds. All the participants cycled while listening to music set by the researchers. Unknown to the participants, the researchers tweaked the tempo of the music while they were cycling. When the tempo or music speed was increased, the researchers found that performance increased in terms of power exerted, speed, and distance. In contrast, when the tempo was decreased, the researchers observed that the performance of the students decreased. This shows in clear terms that positive upbeat music can increase motivation and boost performance.

Conclusion

This paper investigated the effect of music on wellbeing. It found out that music generally has a positive effect on wellbeing. That listening to music can improve mood, increase motivation, deal with insomnia, reduce stress, and improve cognitive performance. The effect of music on wellbeing generally depends on the music and the listener. Based on the above,…