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Andrew Jauch
Prof. Richardson
English 1201
24 March 2019
Studying is an important tool that that everyone will most likely use at some point. This
may be studying before a test they are taking in their high school math class or before a large
final exam that they have in college. Either way, studying is a skill that will follow most people
throughout their entire lives. There are multiple different approaches when it comes to studying,
some being more effective than others. One aspect that can affect how someone studies is what
noises are around them. The main source of noise for many people would be music, but what
music would be the most efficient at helping someone study? There are many different genres of
music ranging from heavy rock, classical music, pop music, or anything in-between. On top of
the different genres of music, some of the music has words in it while others may have no lyrics.
There are also multiple ways that an individual may be studying the material. It may be done
through reading text, watching a video on the subject, playing a game related to memory, or
other forms of studying. All these different variations of music and environments could lead to
different levels of efficiency. It is the most effective way to study is with either with a music
genre that the individual enjoys or music with no lyrics. This is because music with lyrics can be
more distracting.
The first thing to look at is the different genres of music and see how they can affect the
efficiency of studying. When someone think of studying, the stereotypical music that is played is
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classical music, not more intense music like heavy rock. Even though the classical music could
be helpful, there are more aspects to the effectiveness. In an article written by staff at Vaughn
College they explain the Mozart Effect. “A group of studies found listening to Mozart can cause
can cause a temporary ‘enhancement of special temporal reasoning performance,’ which means
the ability to think through long-term, more abstract solutions to logical problems” (Vaughn
College). The name ‘Mozart Effect’ misleads many to believe that they must listen to classical
music to achieve this effect. That is not true, as said by staff at UTEP Connect, “many students
assume that this genre is the thing to play during study sessions. However… listening to
enjoyable music had a bigger impact on the Mozart Effect, regardless of type” (UTEP Connect).
This shows that it is not classical music that helps improve studying, but music that the
individual enjoys. There is not one individual genre of music that is more effective than others. If
the music is more enjoyable to the listener, then their concentration will be better.
Even though it is more efficient to listen to music that the individual enjoys, there are still
more aspects that could affect the efficiency of studying even more. One of these aspects is if the
song has lyrics. In an article written by Emily M. Hernberg, she says, “listening to music with
lyrics can be distracting while you read, study, and write. The study found that your brain can
struggle to process musical lyrics and do school work simultaneously” (Hernberg). Lyrics can
lead to distractions, making it even more difficult to study. The words of the song can begin to
distract someone studying from the work that they were trying to focus on. If it is a favorite song
of the person studying, they may start humming or singing along with the lyrics instead of
concentrating. As stated by Dean Burnett in an article on The Guardian, “Musical pieces without
words might be better working companions, as human speech and vocalization is something our
brains pay particular attention to” (Burnett). It is part of human nature for people to pay attention
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to voices. This is a reason why it is more effective for the songs that are used to have no lyrics in
them.
The next important aspect is the type of studying the person is doing. If the individual
who is studying is watching a video, some background music would not be harmful, if the music
is not too loud. If they are reading material to study, certain music will be less effective as seen
in research done by Pete Tze and Ming Chou,” This study shows that the performance of a
cognitive task such as reading can be affected by the type of music played in the background. In
this study, hip hop music had a significant effect on the performance of the reading
comprehension task when compared to the scores of the participants who performed the reading
comprehension task with no music in the background” (Chou and Tze). This shows that for
certain tasks like reading, music can be a distraction. This ties into what was said in the previous
paragraph that having lyrics in a song while trying to read can create more of a distraction. This
can also be seen in the same research, “the mean score for the classical music group was 64.41
with a standard deviation of 14.019. However, the mean score for the hip hop music group was a
bit lower at 58.32 and a standard deviation of 14.412” (chou and Tze). The results of the research
show that the students scored higher while listening to classical music with a score of 64.41 than
they did when listening to hip hop music with a score of 58.32. This could be due to multiple
reasons, but some main ones are the fact that classical music is less distracting than hip hop
music. Hip hop music has lyrics and words to distract the students from reading while classical
music is only instruments. Without having any lyrics, classical music would become way less of
a distraction while trying to read. There would be too many overlapping words in the students
mind with the words on the page and the words coming from the song that is playing.
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Fig 1. Listening to the right music while studying can help improve focus (CMUSE)
An argument that some people may make is that it would be more productive to have no
sounds while studying. These people would prefer to study without any music playing at all. This
is seen in an article written by Saga Briggs, “They did the best in the quiet and while listening to
the repeated ‘three.’” (Briggs). The people who were being tested had to memorize letters in a
certain order while there was either music playing, repeated sounds, or no sounds. This can be
seen again in a paper written by Rong-Hwa and Yi-Nuo, “The Attention test results indicate test
takers exposed to background music tend to score lower than those without such exposure”
(Huang and Shih). During this experiment, the participants were taking a frequently used test to
check concentration level. “’Chu’s Attention Test’ is a standard evaluation tool frequently used
in occupational therapy in China” (Huang and Shih). Although no music may have been more
efficient in these cases, there are still multiple benefits of listening to the right kind of music.
This can be seen in the article from Vaughn College, “several research studies are proving that
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listening to the right kind of music can put your mind into study mode. Here are some of the
benefits of tuning into the right tunes: Relaxes mind, Increases concentration, lessens
terms and finals week” (Vaughn College). The right type of music, like the music discussed in
previous paragraphs, helps. In the end, whether the individual prefers to study with or without
music may be more of a personal preference, but there is research showing that listening to
In conclusion, studying is something that everyone must go through during their life.
there are many aspects that go into how someone may study, and it may be different for every
single person. While studying, most people wish to be as effective as possible, focus on what
they are studying and retaining information. Music can be the first step in trying to achieve this.
The first aspect that needs to be taken into consideration is what type of music is the person that
is studying listening to. To have the greatest outcome of the Mozart Effect, the individual should
listen to music that they enjoy. Even though it would seem like classical music would have the
greatest impact, there is a greater connection between the Mozart Effect and music that is
enjoyable to the listener. The second aspect to look at is if the music has lyrics or not. If music
has lyrics, the person studying may become more distracted. It is normal for human brains to be
drawn to words, like those in the song. If they are trying to read, the words would make it more
difficult. It may also cause the individual to hum or sing along. The argument could be made that
studying with no music is the best way to go about studying, but there have been proven benefits
of listening to music. Altogether, the best music to listen to while studying would be music that
is enjoyable with no lyrics in it. Knowing all this information, someone can begin to have better
focus while studying. Listening to the right type of music, an individual can begin to see a big
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improvement in multiple parts of their life. Being able to study better would lead to better grades
on test or quizzes. The individual may even begin to become more organized and productive
Work Cited
Briggs, Saga. “Why You Shouldn't Listen to Music While Studying.” InformED, 19 Oct. 2014,
www.opencolleges.edu.au/informed/other/why-you-shouldnt-listen-to-music-while-
studying/.
Burnett, Dean. “Does Music Really Help You Concentrate?” The Guardian, Guardian News and
Chou, Ming and Peter Tze. “Attention Drainage Effect: How Background Music Effects
sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d
b=ehh&AN=48656647&site=eds-live.
Hernberg, Emily M. “SiOWfa15: Science in Our World: Certainty and Controversy.” SiOWfa15
sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/12/04/listening-to-classical-music-vs-music-with-lyrics-vs-
complete-silence-while-studying/.
Workers.” Work, vol. 38, no. 4, May 2011, pp. 383–387. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.3233/WOR-2011-1141.
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www.utep.edu/extendeduniversity/utepconnect/blog/january-2018/the-best-music-for-
studying-when-you-need-motivation-and-concentration.html.
Vaughn College. “Studying to Music Can Put Your Brain in the Right Frame of Mind.” Vaughn
www.vaughn.edu/blog/best-study-music-and-benefits/.