Thomas J. West Music

You probably thought your parents’ insistence that you plunk away on the piano keys day after day was just for torture, didn’t you? But in fact, they were on to something you didn’t yet realize: music — especially music training — can actually improve your memory and other brain functions and learning skills. Your parents knew you weren’t going to sell out Carnegie Hall, but you should be grateful for all the college preparation they paid for, well before those SAT classes. Here are 10 ways music makes you smarter.

1. It improves hearing: Those who learn to play instruments have improved hearing "for all kinds of sounds, including speech," according to LiveScience.com. That new depth of hearing means that musicians are able to pick up on accents, speech patterns and rhythm, and even lower noise levels that other people may find difficult to hear.
2. Music training helps build neural connections: As children’s brains are still developing, musical training can help create strong neural connections, which improve abstract and spatial reasoning skills.
3. Musical training leads to better memory: Those who recite and repeat music often strengthen the connections and networks that improve memory of other subjects, thoughts, and lessons, too.
4. Musicians might be able to learn foreign languages faster: Foreign languages like Mandarin that rely on different pitches and tones to relate different meanings are most easily picked up by people who have at least six years of experience learning a musical instrument, according to a study conducted by Northwestern University researchers.
5. The Mozart Effect: In a study explained by the University of Texas, college students who were exposed to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos, K448, experienced an increase in spatial IQ, while students who were exposed to complete silence, dance music, short story readings, or a relaxation tape had no rise in spatial IQ.
6. Listening to "personally enjoyable" music also has positive effects: You may not have to listen to Mozart to reap positive benefits. Listening to any music that you personally enjoy can improve cognition, scientists found in a 2006 study.
7. Musical training can help dyslexic students perform better in school: Dyslexic children find it difficult to separate sounds — including voices — when a room gets too noisy. But musical training helps brains process the different sounds without having to make an extra effort. Therefore, dyslexic students would be better able to concentrate and listen to the teacher if they practiced music, even if they were plagued by distractions.
8. Music training leads to faster auditory development in young children: Young children — from preschool age to 10 years old — develop auditory responses and recognition skills faster than those who have no such training, putting them at the same level as children a year or two older.
9. Music can "tune" the brainstem: The brainstem is the part of the brain that controls automatic functions like breathing and your heartbeat, and music can actually change the way it functions. Scientists previously thought that music only affected the cerebral cortex, where reasoning and language are developed.
10. Music therapy helps stroke patients recover: Stroke patients who have lost the ability to speak benefit from musical therapy that challenges them to sing words first. In some instances, Harvard Medical School neuroscientist Gottfried Schlaug found that patients with lesions on the side of the brain associated with language "could sing ‘Happy Birthday,’ recite their addresses, and communicate if they were thirsty" after music therapy.