#Imusic brain music professional#

While most activities like visual art, computing, and language largely work in only one hemisphere, music is one of the few activities that stimulates both sides of the brain. Just like any part of the body, any activity that stimulates the brain helps increase its overall functionality. The left hemisphere, sequential and linear in its data processing, moves step by step when processing new information (Williams). Almost nonlinear in processing information, the right brain is adept at visual imagery. The right hemisphere engages in synthesizing several different parts to create a cohesive whole when processing new information (Williams).

#Imusic brain music professional#

Yet music research indicates that the average professional musician or composer, despite incorrect personality stereotypes, encompasses both the analytical traits of the left brain and the more creative aspects of the right brain. We often hear about an analytical person, like an accountant, being left-brained while a more “free spirit”, like an artist or poet, is considered “right-brained”. How does music stimulate the right and left hemispheres?

Music listening and performance impacts the brain as a whole, stimulating both halves – the analytical brain and the subjective-artistic brain, affecting a child’s overall cognitive development and possibly increasing a child’s overall intellectual capacity more than any other activity affecting the brain’s bilaterism (Yoon).

Music research indicates that music education not only has the benefits of self-expression and enjoyment, but is linked to improved cognitive function (Schellenberg), increased language development from an early age (Legg), and positive social interaction (Netherwood).