Students usually find it hard to find the perfect study environment, especially when they’re living in crowded dorm rooms, or if they have to share their living space with their family. Instead, they end up creating their own study environment by blocking everything out using music. The question is, which songs are considered good studying music?
Should you listen to music while studying?
Many of the youth today are happy to pop in their headphones and start playing the newest tracks of their favorite artists, but it is possible that some of the upbeat and deeply lyrical songs today are not a good form of background noise.
A study was conducted on whether or not background music can improve a person’s ability to concentrate on a cognitive task. The results showed that the performance of the subjects that listened to background noise were less satisfactory compared to the subjects, who performed tasks in complete silence.
Basically, you should not listen to anything at all when you’re studying. Even if it’s difficult to achieve in this day and age – especially in crowded cities and universities – there are still a lot of options for people who want to improve their study sessions.
- You can visit the library.
- Ask your roommate for some scheduled quiet time.
- Tell your family to bring the noise levels down in the house while you’re studying.
Do whatever it takes to get the peace and quiet you need to concentrate on your books. If that fails, you can still listen to music; however, you’ll have to accept the fact that you’ll have a harder time concentrating.
What is the least distracting music to listen to while studying?
Instead of worrying about how music can distract you, maybe you can consider it as a way to help you become smarter instead. Although the previous study mentioned tells us that listening to background noise or music is detrimental to your concentration, there are still certain types of music that can counteract that by making your smarter.
Two groups of students were given lectures in order to determine whether the presence of classical music can improve their performance in a post-lecture examination. One group of students listened to the lecturer without any background music, while the other group listened to a lecture that was accompanied by music from composers like Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, and Tchaikovsky.
The results showed that the students who listened to a music-enhanced lecture performed better on the post-lecture quiz. Judging from this example, it is safe to say that the best music to study to is classical music.
But what is the best classical music for studying?
According to another study on the effects of music, researchers found that people, who listened to Mozart, showed a marked improvement in memory, understanding, and problem-solving. Even though the previous study used Beethoven as one of the music pieces during the lecture, this study found that there was no evidence of cognitive improvement in their subjects.
So, in reality, the best study music is not classical, rather the best music for studying is actually composed by one man. Fortunately for all of you, Mozart’s work is free to listen to on different streaming websites and apps like YouTube, Pandora, and Spotify.
If you’re worried about variety, Wolfgang Mozart has over 600 compositions. By the time you get sick of listening to classical music, you will have graduated already, or you may even find that it has become a pleasant part of your day-to-day life.
