Music makes brain grow ?

[dennis08]

A wise man once told me that Listening to classical music can help a certain part of your brain grow and you tend to pick up more sounds.

If this is true then won't techno music do the same thing?

After all some techno songs have large amounts of noises and such. So can all this be true?

[dennis08]

Nobody knows ?

[MadHyeNa]

It's called the Mozart-effect. Google it!

Fast paced, high BPM types of music like techno, electronic, NuNRG, happy hardcore, dance, trance, etc. are fast paced and perhaps more loud, and mix in a greater variety of genres but ultimately their quality of tones is not that kind of complex when compared with classical baroque music. Furthermore, it is not only about large amount of noises.

Some music have some sort of positive energy around them. It is crucial to understand that music sparks mental imaginary and therefore creates picture in the minds of the listeners. Chillout ambient tracks or slow paced romantic songs induce relaxing feelings. NuNRG and techno might on the other hand be considered as energetic. Other genres might be picked up my some people as positive or negative. This is not about what we want. I am sure that you referred to Techno from this perspective because yes, Techno genres are energetic due to their fast pace and high BPM and therefore induce proactivity and energy boosts. Music affects our mood, mental state.

On the other hand, complex classical music manipulates the Spatial-Temporal Reasoning of a human being. It has lasting effects especially on kids. Even though this topic is really controversial and some say that it is just a placebo while others argue that the effects can be actually lasting. Regardless, in my opinion, there's nothing to lose. Oh, and it won't make you smarter, nor will it increase your IQ. These are biased statements and obviously marketing gimmicks.

Listening to classical/baroque music accesses those dormant parts of your brain that ultimately affect your spatial-temporal reasoning and due to this people usually receive a few point boost on their IQ. Its results can be used to spark creativity, maintain attention, achieve a higher perspective and from that to come up with possible solutions and so forth.

Win Wenger in his book called "The Einstein Factor" mentioned F major classical baroque music. F major contains those tones that are the most effective for your brain. Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 1 - BWV 1046 are, in my opinion, one of the best F major tracks. According to others Mozart's D minor and major produce some sort of positive results too. It's up to you. You may try few of the commercial tracks and see for yourself.

Furthermore, if you are interested in cognitive sciences and to improve your intelligence, make yourself smarter, improve your memory, then I'd recommend you to pick up Win Wenger's "The Einstein Factor" as soon as possible, and Dominic O'Brian's "How to Develop a Perfect Memory." You might also want to endeavor into Paul Scheele's Photoreading and Tony Buzan's "Mind Map" books. Oh, and endeavor into lateral thinking, too.

Also, if you aren't familiar with brainwave entertainment then you need to try them out. Binaural beats (but also isotronic- sp?) are excellent and they won't fail. By inducing higher beta levels you will achieve greater mental focus and that's best when you are doing maths and such. ADHD/ADD kids are lacking these beta waves and they spend most of their waking time in alphas; hence their defficiency. On the other hand, for accelerated learning purposes you'd want to be in a relaxed but alert state and that is low alphas. Try it out. See for yourself. Experience. Practice. Practice. Read & study.

All the best.

[Ilya]

I'd say, this is natural. Classical music consists of many tones, timbres, and other musical terms I'm not familiar with.
To appreciate classical music, your brain has to learn to distinguish between the different nuances of the music. I've read about the experiments, when people were given single tracks from the classical piece of music. Say one instrument only, or just one note played with one instrument. After some time, the people learned to distinguish details they never even imagined were there. Their ears didn't change, so the obvious conclusion that their neural pathways changed in a way to allow them this new skill.
Now, it is debatable what's happening when we learn such things as listening to the music. One idea is that neurons and pathways are added whenever they are needed. Another is that on the contrary, the unnecessary pathways are switched off to allow to tune into the right sounds and philter out the rest.
In any case something is happening in the brain. It is also debatable if learning to listen to classical music can make you smarter or provide "additional" neurons for other skills.
What I know from my own experience is that listening to classical music puts me in a very productive state, while modern music, even good old rock'n'roll distracts me from thinking. I've discovered it in school while trying to study in headphones. I wasn't a classical music fan then, but the only radio I could listen to and stay productive was UK Classic FM.
In fact, I'm listening to it right now, eight years later.

[Brad Isaac]

Playing around with various music while you casually try to learn new stuff is fun. I'd suggest give it a try.

Much of the research on optimizing your study via music points to baroque music (Bach) as being the best music to study. I've done some experimentation and found that both Baroque and Mozart's music does help my retention.

Another tip is to relax while listening and studying. If you are tense it doesn't matter which music you have playing.

[Strangemagik]

I dunno but that reminds me of an article I read the other day in the newspaper about music and brain activity. It stated that activity in the brain INCREASES when the music goes OFF. It was surely interesting.

[Namaste]

Apparently, it applies only to spacial intelligence and the effect lasts for 10-15 minutes - Human Intelligence: Mozart Effect

Having said that, listening to (and reading about) classical music will certainly make you more culturally aware (not to mention more interesting at parties), thus possibly indirectly influencing intelligence levels.