Tips for the Best Study Playlist
By Jo West
What kind of music do you like to listen to? Pop? Rap? Country? R&B? Heavy metal? All are valid choices, but have you ever been listening to a song while studying and wondered if it is the most beneficial ballad for your enrichment?
Firstly, listening to music in general while studying is superior to listening to no music at all. Just a few of the benefits of listening to music are increased relaxation, concentration, and focus. Having music playing also reduces distractions from your surroundings, with the noise of the music masking any incessant talking or overwhelming white noise where you are working. These benefits are possible because of the limbic system in our brain, which is responsible for processing emotions and controlling memories. It is activated when music is detected by the auditory cortex, the part of our brain that receives and processes auditory stimuli.
The real question is: What kind of music is optimal to listen to while studying? This question has more than one solution, but the primary genre that is most beneficial is classical music. Some studies have shown that listening to Mozart can temporarily enhance spatial temporal reasoning performance, meaning that you can think through “long-term, more abstract solutions to logical problems.” This is known at the “Mozart Effect.” The slow, melodic ballads of baroque music have also been said to enhance the study experience. While Bach, Vivaldi, and Handel may not be everyone’s favorite artists, their music can have a calming effect on the brain.
Secondary to classical music, are ambient music, tertiary instrumental, and quaternary jazz. Ambient music is characterized as being made with sounds of nature, like waves, birdsongs, or waterfalls. These sounds can be relaxing as well as mask white noise that would otherwise be heard in the absence of music, which is also allocated in the pros of listening to instrumental music. While jazz may not be contrived to be as elegant or soothing, the melodies and rhythmic patterns allow increased processing and brain stimulation, which can overall improve concentration and decrease study-induced stress. The most ideal conditions to reduce said study-induced stress would include having music to be around sixty beats per minute, so that there is no fast pace causing your heartrate to increase or causing your brain to feel as if its spinning; slower music tends to be more calming and soothing, which will make for a better studying experience all around.
All aforementioned genres are without lyrics and focus on rhythms and musical patterns within the pitch and waves. Having to process the words in the music as well as the words you are reading as you study make it harder to focus and can feel like a short-circuit of brain wires. If the music is only sounds with no words, however, the brain can increase its concentration on the reading rather than breaking down the words being listened to in the music.
The linked playlist in the featured image is my favorite for studying!
