By: Christine R. Guerrero, RMT, MLS (ASCPi)CM
Febuary 14, 2016
"Without my morning coffee I'm just like a dried up piece of roast goat."
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) The Coffee Cantata
"Coffee: Induces wit. ..."
Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
Most people do not think of classical music and coffee together, and yet one of the best ways to maximize one's thinking is listening to classical music while sipping a strong, brewed cup of coffee. Many indeed challenge this notion, saying that any music (including heavy metal or death rock!) one enjoys maximizes ones thinking, and brewed coffee a mere luxury for people with money. Even though brewed coffee is expensive and classical music is often boring or tiring or both, still one should start listening to classical music while studying and reading with brewed coffee or cappuccino or espresso, whatever your preference because while the classical music stimulates our brain into working effectively, it does even more by improving the attention span and by enhancing concentration and focus.
A bag of coffee beans can cost more than half of a day's salary and a cup of freshly brewed coffee can range from a thirty pesos to a One Hundred and fifty pesos depending on the branding or the name of the coffee shop or establishment. And although the taste of fresh coffee is irresistible, not everybody likes the taste of coffee, sometimes it maybe too acidic or too strong for them and these could turn them away and would prefer a better alternative than coffee such as adequate water consumption, organic veggies, balanced diet and tea for healthier brain leading to an effective studying and concentration. Same in the case of classical music, not all has a love for classical music or has a taste for one. Because classical music is not very popular in today's societal musical taste, it will be very difficult to ask a college student to switch music genre from pop to classical; In my own experience, transistioning from pop musical preference to a classical music did really took me a long time to like it, at first I thought of it as boring and uninteresting. Greg Sandow argued in Pop vs. Classical that pop music has the same effect as of the classical music, it can also stir one's emotion, evoking emotional and spiritual content, implying that listening to pop music could also improve one's concentration and studying.
But although brewed coffee can be expensive and classical music is often boring or tiring or both to modern hearers used to pop music, still one should start listening to classical music while studying and reading with brewed coffee because while pop music may have the same effect as classical music, it is classical music that has a greater effect than pop music in stimulating our brain into working effectively. According to the article Studying for finals? Let classical music help,
University research in France, published in Learning and Individual Differences, found that students who listened to a one-hour lecture where classical music was played in the background scored significantly higher in a quiz on the lecture when compared to a similar group of students who ?heard the lecture with no music.
The researchers speculated that the music put students in a heightened emotional state, making them more receptive to information.
And if one is inclined to think that any other genre of music will have the same effect, the article continues, "But make sure you are listening to classical music, because not all music aids blood pressure, a University of San Diego study found."
Scientists at the university compared changes in blood pressure among individuals listening to classical, jazz or pop music. Those listening to classical had significantly lower systolic blood pressure when compared to those listening to other musical genres or no music at all.
If testing anxiety causes sleepless nights, classical music can help soothe insomnia. A team of researchers at the University of Toronto found that tuning into classical music before bedtime helped people fall asleep faster and stay asleep longer. Works by Brahms, Handel, Mozart, Strauss and Bach were effective sleep aids because they use rhythms and tonal patterns that create a meditative mood and slow brainwaves, the study found.
What this means is that while a person studying to the tune of classical music is just as receptive to one studying with pop music in the background, listener of classical music is more relaxed which enhances significantly the effect of study.
The most important reason why one should start listening to classical music is, according to Chris Boyd Brewer, "Baroque music, such as that composed by Bach, Handel or Telemann, that is 50 to 80 beats per minute creates an atmosphere of focus that leads students into deep concentration in the alpha brain wave state. Learning vocabulary, memorizing facts or reading to this music is highly effective." Thus, it help establish a more positive learning state than pop music, create a more desired relaxing atmosphere, increases attention span, focus concentration and improve memory. This all the more when combined with coffee, which improve the brain's memory and attention span because of caffeine's cognitive enhancing effect, one might find classical music and freshly brewed coffee a perfect combination for optimal learning.
So you can see that although brewed coffee is expensive and classical music is perceived as either boring or tiring, still one should start listening to classical music while studying and reading with brewed coffee or cappuccino or espresso, whatever your preference for two main reasons. First, while both pop and classical music may have the same effect (which is debatable, at best), classical music stimulates our brains more effectively than pop music, it does even more by improving the attention span especially when combined with coffee. But most importantly, the combination of classical music (or more specifically, Baroque music and Mozart) and coffee has greater effect on the person's concentration and focus than pop music ever would, for pop music is more distracting and therefore less conducive to focused study. Bach, the preeminent Baroque composer whose music is one of the suggested listening for studying, has expressed his love for coffee through the Cantata he made about coffee. I think that Gustave Flaubert got it right when said, "Coffee induces wit," for many years later science proved his assertion. I had my caffeine fix this morning and Vivaldi on the background, this two components when combined together instantly enriched my brain with so much ideas that needed to be written down, so here it is, my thesis on coffee and classical music. And coffee need not be very expensive at all, for one doesn't have to go to a coffee shop to get one's caffeine fix. There are now easier and cheaper ways to brew fresh coffee at home. So try sipping warm coffee, turn on youtube and play some classical music for studying and concentration--simple and easy as pie.
Citations:
Chris Boyd Brewer, Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom, John Hopkins School of Education, 1995
