Written and published weekly by Cheryl Johnson, the Musician's Helper
Please enjoy the content and get in touch if you have questions. I'm interested in your concerns and happy to help!
Today, let’s take our music topic a different direction. Humans aren’t the only ones that enjoy music. In some recent research I learned that researchers have found some interesting ways music affects animals. I love to drink milk. You give me a warm chocolate chip cookie and an icy-cold glass of milk, I’ve got all I need. This article states that music helps to increase cow milk production. Cows have this love of classical music. When listening to this genre they calm down and it reduces depression. As the depression decreases, there is a hormone called oxytoxin that increases. The increase of oxytoxin increases the production of milk daily by three percent. British Columbia actually announced they are planning on releasing an album specifically for farmers to play for cows. Music Increases Milk is the planned name of the album. Other animals react to music, too. Cats love guitar but hate harmonica! Fish have no preference but when music is played they press their lips to the glass to feel the vibrations. Researchers have also worked with monkeys. They don’t care much for human music, but if you make it for them they will groove to their own beat. Tamarin monkeys prefer silence to classical music. But when a psychologist and a musician teamed up to compose music based on the pitch, tone and tempo of the tamarin calls, they discovered that the music made for them significantly affected their behavior and emotions. Zoos are a favorite place to visit when given the time, so it was surprising to learn that classical music has also been found to soothe the wanderlust of zoo elephants. Playing Beethoven to the animals reduces the abnormal behaviors like swaying, pacing and trunk tossing. The classical artists have been used to make life more comfortable for the elephants. They don’t seem to have a favorite artist, but the classical genre seems to reduce their anxiety and calms them. One of the zoo directors said that elephants are sensitive beasts and they communicate in deep infrasonic vibrations. So, it would not be surprising that classical music has this calming effect on the elephants. Due to the study on elephants, dog shelters have begun playing classical music as a calming effect on newcomers to the shelter. The dogs are usually scared and this music seems to help them adjust to their new surroundings. Long continuous notes seem to have that soothing factor, while short repeated notes tend to increase the motor activity in the dogs. So, canine owners, instead of focusing on their beds, toys, etc to keep them happy, you may want to invest in a CD of Bach or Beethoven to calm your pup. When doing my research for this post, I also came across an experiment where mice were used. They were put through a maze three times a week. The mice that were the control group eventually cut five minutes off their time going through the maze. The Mozart listening mice actually cut eight and a half minutes off their time. However, those mice that were listening to hard rock sadly took 20 minutes longer to navigate the maze. The young man working this experiment said he had to cut it short because all the hard rock mice killed each other. The Mozart mice did none of that. It’s been said that listening or learning music makes you smarter. Not sure about that, but I do know that music has been known to lower blood pressure when listening to Mozart. It’s the rhythm of songs that appeal to infants rather than the words. Researchers found that babies get carried away by music. That’s why nursery rhymes are important to learning for babies. The simplicity and repetition appeals to them. When you add motions and gestures, it aids in the memory of the words. Music does stimulate the mind. So whether it be man or beast, music is important to our lives. Music can be the bridge to communication and learning. As shown in studies, music soothes and calms, not only humans, but many animals used as test subjects. Our brains are wired for music. Music was talked about in the Bible. When King Saul was troubled, he would call for David to play his harp and it would soothe his spirit. So the calming effect of music is recorded from ancient times. Today, I am going to show you some accessories that you may want for your guitars, drums or keyboards. Let’s do our part to be smart...BUY Instruments and accessories! PRS Paul Reed Smith ACC-3135 Signature Guitar Strap Etched with Paul Reed Smith's signature, this gorgeous strap goes perfectly with your Paul Reed Smith guitar.
These are just a few of the amazing products at zZounds for you to check out. Please look into these if you are in want of anything musical! Thank you for reading and remember to B#....God Bless!
4 Comments
6/19/2016 08:16:39 am
Cheryl,
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Cheryl
6/19/2016 07:53:47 pm
So glad you liked it. It was actually a pretty interesting topic to research as well. :)
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