Music-making
Hundreds of millions of us engage with music each day.
Writes Daniel Bowling, Director of the Music and Brain Health Lab at Stanford School of Medicine, in Translational Psychiatry:
As far as we know, music has been with humans since our earliest existence. The first known evidence of human preoccupation with music comes from Stone Age flutes, carefully carved in wing bones and mammoth ivory some 40,000 years ago.”
In the modern day, these values that we place on music support an industry worth US$200 billion in the USA alone.
And the reason for all of this is the effect of music on emotion and whatever the rewarding feeling is for that interaction: alleviation of stress, pure joy, improvement of attitude, enhancement of community, or even just for the promotion of general wellbeing.
Bowling:
Over the past several decades, neuroimaging studies have demonstrated that taking pleasure in music is closely associated with activity in classical brain reward circuitry, including the dopamine pathway. Musical frisson—moments of peak neural excitement, piloerection [i.e., hair-raising], and ‘chills’ that occur during music listening—are associated with surges in dopamine in particular areas of the brain.”
No wonder it is pleasurable!
And so The Washington Post recently ran an essay by Richard Sima: “Why Singing Is Good for your Brain, Even if You Are no Beyoncé.”
If there is a song in your soul, sing it out loud—whether in your car on your morning commute or at karaoke with friends. Because making music—even if we aren’t especially good at it— can still be good for us.”
Yes, even karaoke, it appears, does good, as another study in older adults demonstrated a few years ago (though I’m not convinced it did any good to the hapless listeners who had to endure the hopeless singing). Another study of 8,000 Swedish twins, comparing music-makers with non-music-makers, found that more time playing music was associated with better emotional awareness. And scientists looking at the music-making of 132 older adults reported that six months of piano practice or active music listening (accompanied by lessons about music and a taught, structured way of listening) led to increases in gray matter in the brain.
In sum, making music can protect brain health as one ages and can build up cognitive reserves, or how resilient the brain is during aging. Whether one is good at music-making or not, neuroplasticity and the making of new neural connections is significantly improved by music-making.
Bowling’s bottom line:
Focus on engagement, not mastery. This shift in mindset may help with feelings of self-consciousness, though it can still be tricky.”
The Psalms strongly recommended music making. There are over 40 references in the Psalter to “music-making” alone, not to mention the use of instruments or even singing. But all directed to God, the only one truly worthy of our musical praise.
I will rejoice and exult in You;
I will make music to Your name, Most High.
Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre;
with a ten-stringed instrument, make music to Him.
Make music to God, make music;
make music to our King, make music.
For King of all the earth is God;
make music with understanding.
Psalms 9:2; 33:2; 47:6–7
Yes, …
Good it is, to give thanks to Yahweh,
and to make music to Your name, Most High.
Psalm 92:1
So …
I will sing to Yahweh in [all] my life;
I will make music to my God for always.
Psalm 104:33
And one day …
All the earth will worship You,
and will make music to You;
they will make music to Your name.
Psalm 66:4
SOURCE: The Washington Post; Translational Psychiatry
Abe Kuruvilla is the Carl E. Bates Professor of Christian Preaching at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville, KY), and a dermatologist in private practice. His passion is to explore, explain, and exemplify preaching. 