Most people view musical ability as a talent you either have or lack. However, your brain is a flexible organ that changes in response to your actions and exercises. Learning music acts as a physical workout for your neurons. We recently analyzed research on the Nibble app, which shows that consistent daily learning leads to measurable changes in how you process information. This type of reliable data helps us understand that intellectual growth results from steady habits.
Whether you pick up a recorder or a bass guitar, you are initiating a process called neuroplasticity. This is the brain’s ability to form new connections between cells. Learning music reshapes you in powerful, measurable ways at any age, and many of these benefits are now supported by decades of psychology research. Let’s find out more now!
Focus 1. Growing Your Motor Cortex
As we mentioned above, neuroplasticity is the brain’s ability to change its structure, function, and connections in response to experience or input. Learning to play any instrument (recorder, bass guitar, etc.) is a complex form of training that has repeatedly been shown to induce structural and functional brain changes when practiced over time.
From the motor cortex’s perspective, it’s a key hub that controls every movement your body makes. When you begin learning music:
- You demand a high level of coordination from your hands.
- You have to move your fingers independently while keeping a steady movement.
- This effort forces the primary motor cortex to expand its volume.
Professional musicians have larger motor areas than non-musicians. You can achieve a similar effect on a smaller scale by practicing simple scales. This growth can also help you with other fine motor tasks in your daily life. You might notice you are more precise when typing or using tools.
Focus 2. Strengthening the Bridge Between Hemispheres
Your brain has two halves that usually handle different types of tasks. The corpus callosum is the thick bundle of nerve fibers that connects these two sides. Learning music requires both halves to talk to each other at high speeds. Your left brain handles the logic of the rhythm while your right brain handles the melody.
A study published in the Journal of Neuroscience shows that musical training increases the size and integrity of this bridge. A stronger connection allows information to travel faster across your brain. What does it mean for us?
- This speed makes you better at solving problems that require both logic and intuition.
- You can process complex situations with more efficiency because your brain cells communicate better.
Focus 3. Improving Your Auditory Processing
Most people struggle to hear a single voice in a crowded room, especially when it is loud. This is often called the cocktail party problem. People who spend time learning music develop a better signal-to-noise ratio in their ears. Your brain learns how to pick out the sound of a violin from a whole orchestra. Let’s highlight the main auditory focuses here:
- Auditory cortex: Improves how the brain processes sound, which helps you understand speech in noisy environments.
- Inferior colliculus: Enhances sound localization and timing, leading to faster reactions to alerts and sudden noises.
- Planum temporale: Supports language processing and verbal memory, making it easier to remember and interpret spoken information.
Therefore, musical training improves the brain’s ability to process speech. This also means you can understand people better when there is background noise, as your brain becomes more sensitive to the tiny patterns.
Focus 4. Expanding Your Working Memory
Working memory is the mental scratchpad you use to hold information for short periods. When you play a song, you have to remember what note comes next while playing the current one. This constant mental juggling strengthens the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. What does it mean? In layman’s terms, this area is responsible for your executive functions:
- Learning music forces you to store and retrieve data quickly.
- You are practicing the act of memory every time you repeat a melody.
Many musicians have superior working memory compared to those who do not play. This helps them remember instructions or lists more accurately in their jobs.
Focus 5. Delaying Cognitive Decline
Aging often leads to a loss of white matter in the brain, slowing your thinking. Engaging in learning music provides a protective effect against this decline. It builds what doctors call a cognitive reserve. This is a buffer that helps your brain stay functional even as you get older.
Actually, older adults with musical experience showed faster brain responses than their peers. A famous study by Ellen Bialystok showed that intense mental activities can delay dementia symptoms by up to four years. You are essentially building a stronger engine that lasts longer. It keeps your mind active and prevents the mental fog often associated with aging.
Focus 6. Fine-Tuning Your Emotional Intelligence
Music is a form of communication that does not use words. When you learn a piece, you have to understand the mood or the “feeling” the composer intended. This task involves the amygdala and the medial prefrontal cortex. These areas help you process and regulate your emotions.
Therefore, when learning a melody and how to sing a song, for example, you are more sensitive to the tone of voice other people use. You become better at detecting sadness or excitement in someone’s speech before they even say how they feel.
This social awareness improves your relationships. You can respond to people with more empathy because your brain is trained to hear emotional cues.
Final Focus: Increasing Your Attention Span
We live in a time where distractions are everywhere. If you start focusing on learning music, you will need to sustain attention for long periods. You cannot play a song if you stop every 30 seconds to check your phone, which starts doomscrolling. You need discipline to train your brain to stay on task.
The act of practice is a form of ‘Deep Work’ as described in a famous book by Cal Newport. It is a sustained concentration on a single demanding task. Practice requires sustained focus on one task and avoiding multitasking. You are teaching your neurons to ignore irrelevant things and focus on a single goal. This ability to concentrate transfers to other parts of your life. Your brain becomes better at filtering out the world’s noise.
