I've found that I study better when listening to classical, esp. Chopin or Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Jazz too, esp. Coltrane. I've been trying to find any website's that show strong studies for specifically baroque and jazz on people's brain waves, and this is the most interesting one that I've found so far but it's not quite what I was looking for (they make a really bad case for rock, though... it can't be THAT bad!).

http://www.epub.org.br/cm/n15/mente/musica.html

Has anyone else benefitted from classical when studying? I think it makes a big difference for me. If I find any better website's about this effect on brain waves I'll post another link.

Agree Subtle....I like classical while studying because it's nice background (and definitely motivating) music -- yet has no words to distract me....

I have been trying to figure out the best combination of environment/music and studying for the last 3 years in college, and I STILL don't really have it right, but here are some of the things I've noticed (for myself):

If I listen to music (especially upbeat or busy/fast music) on my way to the library, it really motivates me a lot. Freshman year that was probably my lifesaver. But once I actually GET to the library, I have to have it quiet or else I listen to whatever's going on. I've found that the best for me is if I don't listen to music at all, but if people are talking or there is just generally stuff going on, then I do better with the music becuase it blocks out the other things.

As for WHICH music to listen to, it has to be somthing I've heard lots of times before and know well, otherwise I find myself listening to it too much. I really like classical music, (I play the bass) so I find that again I have to know the music really well or else I'll be listening to it the whole time.

There are lots of studies connecting classical music, and especially mozart to helping children learn. So maybe that IS what's going on... of course I don't really know that much about it, so I can't say much :)

As my homework has gotten harder and takes longer, I've found that the best thing for me is just quiet. like I said before, the music can get distracting for me! it kinda sucks becuase I like the music!

Check out http://www.advancedbrain.com the sound health series is great

Neat, thanks for the link. I'll have to look into that sometime.

mozart

I guess I'm a freak then, because the music i listen to is anything but classical. 170+ bpm drum and bass is my "relaxation" music of choice. In fact, no matter what the mood/job/reason is, dnb is the best music for me because it's the only one that synchs with the speed of my brain :)

Quiet was my enemy when I was in college... I need sound in order to concentrate; otherwise my mind jumps all over the page. Any music, or television, worked for me.

mellow music distracts me while music from linkin park and incubus helps me stay on track... i dont know why

i think what music depends a lot too on what it is your studying/doing.

In highly publicized work, researchers at the University of California at Irvine (UCI) demonstrated that listening to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos (K.448) enhanced visual spatial learning skills. Frances H. Rauscher, PhD and her colleagues conducted a study with 36 undergraduates from the department of psychology who scored 8 to 9 points higher on the spatial IQ test (part of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence scale) after listening to 10 minutes of Mozart. Gordon Shaw, one of the researchers, suggested Mozart's music may be able to warm up the brain, "We suspect that complex music facilitates certain complex neuronal patterns involved in high brain activities like math and chess. By contrast, simple and repetitive music could have the opposite effect." In a follow up study the researchers tested spatial skill by projecting 16 abstract figures similar to folded pieces of paper on an overhead screen for one minute each. The test looked at ability of participants to tell how the items would look unfolded. Over a 5-day period, one group listened to Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos, another to silence, and a third to mixed sounds, including music by Philip Glass, an audiotaped story, and a dance piece. The researchers reported that all three groups improved their scores from day one to day two, but the group that listened to Mozart improved their pattern recognition scores 62% compared to 14% for the silence group and 11% for the mixed group. On subsequent days the Mozart group achieved yet higher scores but the other groups did not show continued improvement. The researchers proposed that Mozart's music strengthened the creative right-brain processing center associated with spatial reasoning. "Listening to music," they concluded, "acts as an exercise for facilitating symmetry operations associated with higher brain function. Don Campbell gives a nice summary of this work in The Mozart Effect, along with many other examples of music enhancing learning and healing the body. Campbell writes that in his experience Mozart's violin concertos, especially numbers 3 and 4 produce even stronger positive effects on learning.

read the whold article here:
http://www.brainplace.com/bp/music/default.asp

I like ambient electronica when I'm studying/writing papers. No words, and not too fast/hard, but also not slow and soothing (I don't want to fall asleep).


On a note unrelated to studying, but still to music, I absolutely love to get some good powerful electronic music going on my mp3 player and just going for a brisk walk to it... invigorates me, revitalizes me, makes me just downright happy as hell. I think if they could bottle the way music makes me feel into a drug, that would be one bloody effective anti-depressant.

this is going to sound way out in left field compared to everyone else really EXCEPT for Lexicon,

but I too study so much better with some rediculously hard and fast techno, not too loud just something in the background it makes my brain feel like its moving a mile a minute and i get alot done.

-g

Originally posted by ReasonPointZero
this is going to sound way out in left field compared to everyone else really EXCEPT for Lexicon,

but I too study so much better with some rediculously hard and fast techno, not too loud just something in the background it makes my brain feel like its moving a mile a minute and i get alot done.

-g

well, as I wrote above, the only music i listen to while working on anything is drum and bass, 180+ bpm of head-banging electronica. no words to muddle my thoughts, just a beat that matches the tempo of my brain. anything slower just screws things up...being a dj and all, i have to have everything on beat, and that includes my brain patterns :) make sense?