It’s a question which makes us dig deeper into who we are. Why is music important to human beings? Maybe it’s just like breathing.
Although music is an art form, it’s so much more than that. It reaches places where no ordinary mode of speech can travel, and it brings out things that we never knew existed within ourselves. It is almost as if it hypnotizes and pulls hidden tokens from our past as well.
So why is music important? Maybe it’s because it is timeless, necessary, and beautiful, all rolled into one.
Music builds a poem
Often, in my younger years, I wrote poetry. I scribbled verse after verse, looking to crack open something within and set it free. I had other motives as well, to make beauty and expression alongside my piano lessons.
But why talk about poetry when music is our focus? It is because the music was the life of my poetry, it guided me, inspired me and filled each line with its own blood.
On one particular night, as I enjoyed hours of music, I felt a loud pleading for inspiration. I had previously been inspired by poems from a 19th-century anthology, and with the music ringing in my inner-most being, I composed a poem.
Since I was then a member of a writing site and forum, I posted my poem for all my friends to see. Later that night, I was harshly criticized by a troll, named Drew.
Drew asked me where I stole the poem, and I said it was original. He then asked me if it was original, then where did I get my ideas. To him, based on my previous work, this poem was just too sophisticated for me.
I told him that music had laced each line of the poem and that writing this piece had been a dance. Of course, he didn’t believe me, or at least he said he didn’t.
Music affects us physically and mentally
Music is ancient, most of us know this. It played the largest part in the raw beginnings of the human language. Before the articulation of words, there were sounds which closely mimicked song.
Even now, as we talk to our newborn babies, we use “sing-song” voices and cute sounds instead of structured sentences. But to explain everything that music has done and created would take writing a book. So, let’s just examine its power to enhance the mind and body, shall we?
Stimulation from birth
The mind of a child can betransformed by music. I am sure most people heard about the effects it has on the unborn fetus. You’ve probably seen many images of headphones on pregnant bellies. Well, if not, just trust me on this one.
Even small children automatically dance and seem to understand music well before taught to do so. Why? Because, as I have mentioned before, music is ancient and it’s the basic building block of communication. Why shouldn’t we recognize it?
Synchronizing has positive outcomes
Why is music important in groups?So, you might not think about the effects of singing together as being all that circumstantial to the brainpower of music, but it is. Apparently, synchronized voices have a way of uniting otherwise anti-social groups.
Voices combining is actually like pulling people together and teaching them to harmonize, not only at the moment but also afterward.
Palvi Sisko Eerola said,
“Singing together increases affiliation within the group and may even make people like each other more than before.”
Musicians have higher IQs, respectively.
Studies have shown that playing musical instruments can not only result in a high IQ but can also improve verbal and visual skills. Visual perception and cognitive abilities in children can improve greatly due to extracurricular music classes.
Music doesn’t just affect the mind either, it can also greatly influence our physical health as well!
So, I have anxiety, and some days are like hell on earth, truth be told. But, when I listen to certain genres, I find my anxiety symptoms fade, and they are replaced with a calmer exterior. This is aside from the positive mental influence that music has on my condition.
But there are other physical improvements caused by music! Check it out.
Our hearts love music
So, in keeping with what I said about anxiety, look at it from the perspective of heart disease. Music has the ability to decrease the heart rate – well, unless you are dancing like a maniac, that is. Of course, some fast-paced music does increase heart rate as well.
In Twenty-three separate studies, results show that blood pressure and anxiety both were reduced in heart patients when listening to an increased quantity of certain genres.
Woah! Wait! Could music also cure traumatic brain injuries?
Recent studies show that music rehabilitation has been successful in cases of stroke patients, where regaining gait and mobility was the objective. There are also cases in which hearing, which is said to be compromised in 60% of most stroke patients, can be improved or even recovered with the use of music therapy.
Music keeps us motivated, this can affect our desire to stay fit!
Now this one comes from personal experience. In past and recent years, whenever I try to motivate myself to get physically fit, I always make more progress with music. In fact, I don’t know many people who work out without music of some kind.
Rhythms coordinate with our movements which make exercise more fun than a chore. This is another way music is so inspirational and yet medicinal as a mindset.
Why is music important to human beings?
What a loaded question! Well, I didn’t write a book for you today, but I think I unloaded a bit of what music is good for. But even if it didn’t do any of these things, it would still be a treasured part of our reality. Without music, the world would be a dull place, indeed.
Why does music feel like a mandatory part of life? Whether you play an instrument, conduct a symphony or just listen to your headphones while dancing in the kitchen, as long as the music is a part of your life, you are partaking of true happiness. You have found a mate for your soul.
For in that moment, the moment that rhythm takes hold and chills spread down your arms, you are finding what it means to truly be in love.