5 Music Facts That Will Change How You Hear Your Playlists

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Music affects us in ways science has only recently started to properly explain. Here are 5 facts about music.

1. Your favorite song can sync with your heartbeat

Studies show that a song’s rhythm can influence the heart rate of the listener, especially with slower-tempo music — a phenomenon called “entrainment.”

2. The piano has more keys than most instruments have notes

A standard piano has 88 keys, covering over 7 octaves — a wider range than practically any other traditional acoustic instrument.

3. Listening to music while studying doesn’t always help

Cognitive psychology research shows that music with lyrics can interfere with tasks involving reading and writing, since the brain processes language in parallel — instrumental music tends to have less of that effect.

4. The idea that “major scale = happy” isn’t universal

While in Western culture we associate major scales with “happy” feelings and minor scales with “sad” ones, that association isn’t shared across every musical tradition in the world — in some cultures, the emotional meaning of scales is quite different.

5. Babies recognize music before they recognize full words

Studies with infants show that rhythm and melody perception develops very early, even before full spoken language comprehension — music seems to be one of the first “languages” we process.