A popular notion with regard to music is that listening to Mozart and other forms of classical music actually makes you smarter! There are a large number of people both in the scientific community and otherwise who seem to take this seriously, hence we figured we’d look into the matter ourselves to really find out the truth once and for all.
Where it began
A study conducted back in 1993 by Raucher, Shaw and Ky, published in Nature Magazine, researched the effect of listening to Mozart on the human brain’s spatial reasoning capabilities. A marked improvement in this area was noted according to their study but the improvement was in this area only. In other words, the researchers themselves made no claim whatsoever about listening to music giving you a general boost of intelligence! The idea however seemed rather attractive and given our affinity to gravitate towards quick fixes, the theory of the ‘Mozart effect’, quickly caught on!
What we proceeded to find out?
The study was repeated by a number of researchers however not all of them were able to replicate the original results. One such study found like many others that listening to Mozart in fact had no effect on cognitive abilities whatsoever! In other words, the Mozart effect theory has been officially debunked! That being said, research on the effect of music on cognitive function and intelligence is still very much ongoing. There is also other research claiming not to debunk but to possibly provide further clarity!
Where do we go now?
Does this mean listening to music, especially that which is classical, is a useless endeavor? Absolutely not! Even if listening to music doesn’t work like taking a magic intelligence pill, the benefits of it are still massive. Music teaches us to appreciate different sounds. Study of music gives us a window into history and human emotion across the ages as well as exposes us to cultures and knowledge we might have otherwise missed out on! Keep listening to what you love! Keep encouraging your kids and young ones to do the same. An article in psychology today suggests how singing to your young ones is actually really beneficial!
Conclusion
Though it might be sad news to some that the theory of the Mozart effect is a wonky debatable one at best, there are still a large number of positive effects music has on us as people, which are proven! Furthermore, learning or playing an instrument, music composition and learning to read music all have huge positive effects on the mind! If you feel just picking up an instrument won’t cut it, there are some pretty cool music composition and notation software types available out there for all levels of musicians to add that extra edge to their art!
Music Jotter is easy to use music notation software that allows you to create, analyze, sample and play back music via realistic playback or semi-real time recording. For more information, visit our website https://www.musicjotter.com/.
