When we feel happy we listen to music, when we want to dance we listen to music, when we are sad we listen to music. For most of us music is a part of life. Music encourages us. Listening to music can also be therapeutic, relieving feelings of stress so you can concentrate better.

Music is used as a therapy. It is called music therapy. Music therapy can be simply described as  using music to address emotional,physical,cognitive and social needs of a person or a group. Actually  it is a clinical and evidence based intervention of music to accomplish individual goals. Music therapy includes a variety of activities such as listening to music, playing instruments, writing songs, discussion of music and improvisation. There are two fundamental types of music therapy: receptive music therapy and active music therapy (also known as expressive music therapy). Receptive music therapy is listening based and helps treat anxiety, while active music therapy is when the patient actually plays the instrument, engaging more parts of the brain than just listening to music. Music therapy is used to treat people suffering from various ailments. Not only emotional and mental issues but also it is effective for patients with physical ailments. 

First we’ll see how it works. We all know that music can make us feel better and music can fix our mood. Have  you ever thought about why? Music is a sensory experience that can activate all the areas of the brain at the same time simultaneously. There are four main lobes in the brain known as, frontal lobe,parietal lobe,temporal lobe and occipital lobe. 

Frontal lobe is responsible for concentration,abstract thought,memory, and the ability to express thoughts. Parietal lobe is responsible for sensing pressure/shape/size/weight/texture of objects and being aware of space & relationships of self surroundings. Temporal lobe relates with hearing & understanding speech, memory of past experiences and conversations. Occipital lobe contributes to vision,seeing and recognizing & identifying objects. In addition to those lobes there is a cerebellum and brainstem. Controlling vital body functions like breathing,heart rate & blood pressure is done by the brainstem and also it carries messages to muscles and nerves. Cerebellum coordinates muscle activity and muscle tone. So think, that may be the reason we feel to dance when we listen to upbeat music. 

How does music therapy work? Let me explain. The therapist discusses with the client and assesses the needs of the client and decides what technique is suitable. It may be writing a song or humming a tune or singing or improvising on instruments. While engaging in activities the therapist asks about the experiences of the client like  what the sounds remind them of or what they’re feeling.  They discuss the emotions and memories that have been evoked by the music or song they listened to.  By doing this, the therapist can explore the inner world of the client. To do this, it is not necessary for the therapist to have music skills, the therapist uses music as a tool to get into the client’s mind. 

How can we use music to relax without going to a therapist? 

Playing an instrument can help refocus negative energy into positive energy and to something we can enjoy.  Which helps us to relieve stress. Reduced stress levels leads to slowing down the heart rate and lowering blood pressure. But there is something you need to pay attention to. The type of music matters here. Depending on the type of music, it can either influence the brain beneficially or detrimentally. For example rock music has syncopated rhythm which bypasses the frontal lobe and thus escapes "our ability to reason".  A study has been done by neurologists and a physicist by using three groups of mice, was able to establish a link between the music type and the ability to make decisions.  In that study, one group listened to no music, another to Mozart, and the last to rock music.  Before letting the mice listen to music, they ran the mice through a maze to establish a base time of 10 minutes.  After seperating the mice into three groups and exposing to the music as mentioned above, a  month later they did the same test.  The mice that listened to no music at all reduced the time taken to navigate the maze by five minutes. The mice that listened to Mozart did even better. They navigated the maze in only one-and-a-half minutes. The rock music mice "bumped their way through the maze" taking 30 minutes. Not only that, the rock music mice started  to eat one another, due to that the experiment had stopped. When the researchers examine the brains of mice who listened to rock music, they were able to find abnormal branching and sprouting of the nerve cells and disruptions in the normal amounts of messenger RNA, a chemical crucial to memory storage. When looking at the people who listen to rock music, we see they are more prone to use drugs, they are much more likely to consider suicide. Music determines what kind of person you are. Therefore you should choose your music right. 

Here are some types of music that researchers claim to be good for the brain. 

Classical music , nature music, cinematic music, video game music, music between 50 to 80 beats per minute and your favorite music.