TIP SHEET #3: Why Listen to Classical Music When You Study?
- Classical music benefits your brain, sleep patterns, immune system and stress levels.
- Heightens your emotional state, making you more receptive to information
- Musicians use “chunking” – tying together bits of information into groups, then remembering the group as a whole instead of the individual pieces – that you can use to study
- Emotion from a calm piece of music generalizes to help calm you.
- Classical music lessens anxiety and reduces blood pressure.
- Other styles of music – i.e., jazz, rock, pop – don’t reduce blood pressure
- Slows your breathing and allows you to breathe deeply
- Relaxes your facial muscles and jaw so you don’t clench your teeth.
- Classical music helps soothe sleepless nights from test anxiety.
- If you tune into classical music before bedtime, you may fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer
- Its rhythms and tonal patterns create a meditative mood and slows your brainwaves
- Restrained music creates a nice background aura.
- Suggestions:
- Brahms, Handel, Mozart, Strauss, Bach
- Solo piano pieces – Mozart, Poulenc, Debussy, Faure
- String quartets give regular phrase structure
- Guitar and lute music produce soothing tones
- Elizabethan consort music in the late 16th century was written to create a pleasant atmosphere at court without demanding attention.
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