As the last note of the piece rang in the air and the elderly residents of the assisted living center burst into applause, a frail woman approached the piano. A family friend of mine, she suffers from dementia, and on some days cannot remember who her daughter or grandchild are. Yet, without sheet music, she sat down and played Beethoven’s “Für Elise” almost flawlessly. That moment was one of the first times I realized the extraordinary, almost magical power music holds.
Four years ago, I picked up the cello for the first time. I immediately fell in love, entranced by the deep, soothing sound and the feeling of bow meeting string. That love has stayed with me ever since.
Melanie Ambler, a Stanford Medical School student who has done research on the effect of music on the brain, said music causes the release of chemicals in the brain that are correlated with mood.
“I think music has such a profound effect on us because it engages the brain in unique ways,” Ambler said. “When we listen to or play music, our brains release chemicals like dopamine and oxytocin that are connected with joy and reward. That’s why music can give us chills or lift our mood so quickly.”
A 2020 AARP survey found childhood exposure to music produced lasting benefits. Sixty-eight percent of those introduced to music as children rated their ability to learn new things as excellent or very good, compared to 50% of those who never were exposed to music growing up.
Ambler also said music and memory are tightly linked.
“As a Fulbright Fellow in France, I studied patients with amnesia and looked at whether they could still recognize new music and artworks,” Ambler said. “I found that even when certain kinds of memory are impaired, music can often remain a stimulus that allows for people to develop a sense of familiarity.”
Harvard Medical School has reported that listening to and performing music reactivates areas of the brain tied to memory, reasoning, speech, emotion and reward. Other studies have shown health benefits as well. University of Helsinki researchers found stroke patients who listened to music improved verbal memory and attention more than those in a control group or who listened to audiobooks. They also reported less depression.
The same survey by the AARP found that respondents who currently go to musical performances versus those who either do not currently or have never gone to a musical performance rated their ability to remember names, make decisions, solve problems, focus and learn new things as much higher. In addition, 69% of respondents who currently go to musical performances rated their brain health as excellent or very good, compared to 58% for those who have gone in the past and 52% who have never attended one.
For high school students, music can be beneficial not only for happiness and mental health, but it can also help academics by improving many areas crucial to success in school. According to a Johns Hopkins Medicine article, “Research has shown that listening to music can reduce anxiety, blood pressure, and pain as well as improve sleep quality, mood, mental alertness, and memory.”
For me, listening to music, whether classical or rock or anything in between, has a positive effect on my well-being. Although I don’t listen to music while studying or trying to focus, as many people do, when I listen for fun, it always makes my day a little brighter. However, I have found an even better method of reducing stress is actually playing music; something about being able to produce sound that is pleasing to the ear reduces the stress and pressures of the outside world.
While listening to and playing music is beneficial to neurological health and well-being, it also connects with us emotionally. Music can express emotion and convey messages that people could never express in words.
For Scott Krijnen, the director of the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra, playing music when he was younger gave him an outlet to express himself when he struggled to do so himself.
“When I was young, I would have strong feelings, (but) I wouldn’t know how to express them, and I learned how to do it through playing my cello,” Krijnen said. “It gave me a voice that I understood, and it allowed me to process.”
While listening to music on Spotify or Apple Music may be more convenient, listening to live music actually has more benefits and is so much more enjoyable. There’s also something about seeing and feeling the energy of live music that no soundtrack can replicate.
When I went to see the San Francisco Symphony perform Tchaikovsky at the Stanford Frost Amphitheater, I could feel the energy of the performers as they played their hearts out for the audience. That, and the thunderous applause at the end of each piece, was an experience no recording could ever give me.
As Krijnen put it: “Live music is multi-faceted; the sound goes through your body. There’s no sound system in the world that goes through your body. And it’s not just hitting your eardrums. It’s washing through you. You feel it in your chest cavity.”
And although AI may eventually create “perfect” music, it can never replicate a live performance. Live music is communal by nature. Few people sit in circles with their friends playing Spotify, but countless people attend concerts with friends and family.
Both playing and listening to music reach a part of our souls and minds that is so fundamental to who we are as humans. And in this age when AI and technology are becoming an indisputably essential part of all of our lives, when people are questioning what’s real and what’s not, sometimes we need to remind ourselves what makes us human.
Krijnen agrees and said music is a human quality that has existed since the dawn of human time.
“Since the history of our species, we’ve had song, we’ve had dance, we’ve had rhythm,” Krijnen said. “It’s been part of ritual. It’s been part of ceremony. It’s been part of the biggest parts of our lives.”
And not only is music good for our mental health, it can help build community and make connections that could last a lifetime. Since discovering my love of playing cello, I have also discovered that while playing music by myself is enjoyable, playing music with others is so much more fulfilling. Through music, I’ve made so many friends that are so important to me, and were it not for us playing music together, I would have never even met them.
Like me, Katie Gilchrist, an orchestra and band teacher at Paly, said her experience playing music with others means more to her than simply the music.
“I remember band being by far my favorite class in high school because of the community that it built,” Gilchrist said. “You get to be a part of something way bigger than yourself.”
Paly orchestra and band teacher Michael Veizades agrees.
“It is kind of like a sports team where you get to work together but in a different setting,” Veizades said. “We get to rely on each other, and it’s really a way that you can build community and relationships with other students, and that’s really powerful.”
Most importantly, playing music helps us connect with others; music performance is a gift, both to the audience and the performers. Whenever I play music for others, although the concert is supposed to be for the audience, it impacts us, the performers, as much, if not more, than the audience.
Music can also help us connect with people we would usually never interact with. In high school, where our extracurriculars and class choices surround us with like-minded people who are similar to ourselves, most of the time we are trapped in an echo chamber, having our thoughts and actions reflected back to us by those who are around us.
In our current political climate, where one of our society’s main afflictions is our dividedness, we need to learn to bridge our differences. This starts with empathy, and learning about someone’s music — and therefore them as a person — is a very strong first step towards healing our country and our world.
Music is the perfect pathway to bridging divides, as it is devoid of the things and ideas that divide our society. When I play music with others, I don’t need to know what politicians they support, what god, if any, they pray to, or anything else about them. The only thing I need to know and that matters is the fact they are musicians, I am a musician, and we are in the same room working together to make the best music that we can.
Music can also bring people together and bridge divides. In this day and age, where peoples’ views on political and social issues are so polarized, we need more than ever to be able to overcome our differences and come together. Because music is such a nonpartisan thing that everybody of all backgrounds, political stripes and economic status can relate to and enjoy, it’s the perfect vehicle for bridging our differences. Not just at this moment, but through time, music has always been a way for people to connect with each other without the distractions of the outside world.
As Krijnen put it, sharing space with music with others has always been a special thing.
“If you look at the history of the world, there’s been different places where (humans) share space, and I think one of the most common ones, cross culturally, is music assembly,” Krijnen said. “(Any place) we’re together in music is a place that is not divided by religion, divided by anything else. We just share space, and we make music.”
And ultimately, Krijnen said for him, playing music for others and helping them through music is one of his favorite things about playing music.
“When you’re on stage, and you’re a musician, you’re not just a person anymore; you’re part of a community, and so your roots go deeper,” Krijnen said. “I know that not everybody has a place that they feel welcomed, and so if I can give that to somebody, there’s no better feeling.”
So I exhort you: Play music with others when possible. Listen to it live when you can, and always remember that music has been, is, and will always be a part of us.