You are in your car and there is music blasting from the radio. You are in the subway and there is music playing through your headphones. You enter a store and there is music playing to create a specific environment. If you think about the most important moments in your life, you can probably connect them to a particular band or song, even a music genre. One way or another, music has always been a big part of our stories. We relate it to when we are happy, and we rely on it when we are going through tough times. Music has always been reliable.

What about listening to music when we are studying? Is this a yes or a no? CNET published an article earlier this year on “The best music to listen to while you work or study," which discussed what kind of music you could be listening to while you are focusing on work or studying. Many people believe the only genre of music you should be listening to when doing schoolwork or any sort of important task is classical. According to Amanda Capritto–the author behind this insightful article–this idea “stems from the "Mozart Effect," a term coined in 1993 when scientists discovered that listening to Mozart's Sonata for 10 minutes resulted in better spatial reasoning skills -- a particular type of intelligence that involves visualizing and manipulating images in your brain."

If we agreed with the “Mozart Effect," we would be saying only classical music can help you concentrate better and develop this particular way of manipulating images in our brain. However, this is not the case for everyone. There are those who simply do not enjoy classical music, or this genre does not help them focus in the way it is expected to. Feeling an attachment to music is a very specific emotion that goes hand in hand with other aspects of our lives. That is why everyone should have their personal preferences to what kind of music they listen to…particularly when studying.

In my opinion, listening to music while studying can be extremely helpful. One reason is it creates an environment in which you feel relaxed. By choosing songs or bands you typically listen to, you are positioning yourself in a safe place where you know you have control of what happens. This will allow your studying process to be as smooth as possible.

There are people who tend to concentrate better when they have noise around them. For some reason, it builds a sort of bubble that keeps outside distractions from interrupting their thoughts. Having this barrier with the outside world can lead to more and better concentration. It does not work for everyone, but you can always give it a try and see if this new method will give you better results than your typical studying process.

The truth is that both music and studying are personal experiences that will be different for every person. The only way to find out if music will help you study better is to give it a try. Select those songs that you know transport you to a state of calmness and peacefulness. Once you think you have the right music, focus on studying and see how that helps you. Maybe it works out, maybe it does not.

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