What a sad world it would be without music. A lot of people might think it’s manageable but a closer look will tell you it’s one nightmare you never want to happen. Think long hours driving in your car listening to the sound of silence, instead of music. Or for that matter, think about having a party at home with just the chatter of people talking and no music. It’s one drab affair worth throwing to the dustbins of history. Right? Come to think of it, you might not even survive a day without it.
But music serves a purpose more than just plain entertainment. In fact, it’s one of man’s invention that live up to the hype. For one, the enjoyment has been instrumental in getting people a little closer to healing. On the other end of the spectrum, music has done wonders for kids. It has nurtured young minds and given them the chance to excel in a more competitive world. So, every time you bang your head to The Hu’s multi-million-viewed video on YouTube for Yuve Yuve Yu, you actually are giving a salute to humanity getting better each time.
Music Heals
One of the most dreaded diseases to have plagued humanity is cancer. There’s no doubt about that. Even America with all its technological advantage seemed helpless to the deadly fangs of cancer. In 2020 alone, government data shows more the 600,000 people will die of cancer in America. Breast cancer in women still accounts for the biggest share of that pie.
And although music has not become an ultimate cure for cancer, it has helped people with the disease get better. Music therapy, for instance, has been instrumental in reducing anxieties for patients undergoing chemotherapy. Further, it has helped stop vomiting and nausea for chemo patients.
Music can even restore lost speech. It sure sounds impossible. But people who have lost their ability to speak due to a traumatic head injury or a stroke may have something to celebrate with music. Patients with this predicament are told to sing, a faculty using the right-side of the brain, even when it’s all done in the head. And in the process, this affects the left brain allowing speech to slowly develop.
Miraculously, this process of singing from your head has done wonders for Gabby Giffords, a former U.S. Representative. By applying such musical technique she was able to testify before Congress two years after being shot by a gunman speechless.
Music Get the Best of the Young Out
Music also does wonders in molding the young. Even from the womb, unborn babies may gather a host of positive long-term effects for brain development from listening to music. This is dubbed by experts as the Mozart effect.
Even better, learning to play an instrument at a young age is a way to inculcate discipline and foster the benefits of routine in a child. Lessons in guitar, for one, help young kids master the art of multitasking. When playing, one hand is forming chords on the guitars fretboard while another is strumming or picking individual strings.
And you could be prepping a future genius by teaching your child the rudiments of music. Of course, at first, you will have to patiently teach them the ins and outs of a musical instrument. But once their skills are all set, a child’s ability to create is enhanced. He now can write melodies and create songs.
There may never be a more classy example of how essential starting kids early in music is than Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This child prodigy has become the epitome of what a musical genius can do. Starting to play musical instruments at 3 years old, Mozart was composing music at the tender age of 5 and conquering the world with his music in his teen years.
Even with his limited time on Earth, Mozart was able to compose a prodigious amount of works, numbering over 600. These greatly changed the history of Western music. These works include operas and symphonies. After his death, other great musical minds pay tribute to Mozart in their music, people like Ludwig Van Beethoven and Joseph Haydn.
Furthermore, music has had a positive effect on the formation of great men. Many of the leaders in society learned to play music at a young age. The 6th President of the United States, John Quincy Adams, is one fine example. He played the flute. And so does the founder of Webster’s Dictionary, Noah Webster to name a few.
Music is definitely one of man’s greatest inventions. Not only does it help him heal, but it also makes him capable of achieving greater things in life. So if you’re feeling down and out during this pandemic, music might just offer the solution you need and fast.