Music and Learning - Baroque Music

It’s 10:00 at night, that huge final you’ve been dreading is tomorrow, and you just can’t seem to summon the concentration you need to cram a few extra hours of study time to prep for it. Did you know that baroque music can help you study?

Fascinating studies on music and its effect on concentration and learning have yielded incredible results. Baroque music, typified by composers such as Mozart and Bach, is played at approximately 60 beats per minute and activates both sides of the brain, effectively increasing the listener’s learning capacity and the retention of information. Baroque music causes the heart rate slows down which relaxes the listener, enabling them to become more alert and improve concentration. The Center for New Discoveries in Learning reports that learning potential can be strengthened up to five times simply by listening to music at 60 beats per minute.

Not convinced? When Thomas Jefferson was struggling with wording for a particular section of the Declaration of Independence, he stopped to play his violin and was then able to find the appropriate words. Albert Einstein, revered as one of the brightest minds of our time, learned the violin as a child. He loved playing the violin and embraced the music of Mozart and Bach, two famous baroque composers. Einstein apparently found solutions to his equations while improvising on his violin, according to a friend of Einstein’s G.J. Withrow. How’s that for evidence about music and learning?

Fascinated about music and its learning benefits? Learn more about music by investigating music programs on My Colleges and Careers.

If you don’t own any Mozart, no worries. Thanks to the internet, baroque music can be streamed for free on Pandora Internet Radio.

And the next time you can’t think straight, turn on some baroque music and let us know how it works out.