How Music Helps Enhance Learning

Humans love music. On average, each human spends over 32 hours listening to music every week.

From electric guitars to nose-flutes, music can be found in every nook and cranny of the globe. In fact, it’s one of the only remaining cultural universals across our species.

Given music’s essential role in our daily lives, it’s surprising that its adoption in educational settings remains limited.

Many schools and districts have even placed restrictions on the use of music as a learning tool, claiming that it can be a distraction. Websites like YouTube and music streaming services, which offer vast educational resources, are often blocked.

And in certain situations, this is true: listening to music in inappropriate situations (aka one earbud in while trying to listen to a lecture) are certainly distracting and detrimental to learning.

However, recent research tends to point toward the positive in terms of using music to improve learning outcomes. Within the proper context and situation, music can help students learn and actually enhance learning experiences.

While studying music composition and theory certainly has considerable effects on the human brain, the pure passivity of listening to music also shows profound benefits for learning.

Today, we’ll explore the reasons why music helps enhance learning, for all students in any classroom. Whether you’re teaching science, history, mathematics, or language, music can be a helpful tool to improve learning experiences for your students.

Here’s what the research says:

1. Music helps create a positive learning environment

Humans have a hard time learning when they’re stressed out.

Our brain and body must be in a state of calmness to gear up for learning. Studies have shown that using background music in the classroom provided an increased level of positivity and calmness in students (and teachers, too!). Students showed normalized levels of body temperature, blood pressure, and pulse rate translating to reduced anxiety, frustration, and aggressive behavior.

Researchers in a 2009 study examined the effect of music and the learning environment in a physiology classroom. Their findings indicated that playing music consistently throughout the term helped provide emotional support during stressful peaks and a feeling of safety within the classroom.

And many students will tell you that themselves! In a 2003 survey of college-level science students, 75% of science students reported that the use of music while entering class made them feel more comfortable in the classroom.

Personally, I’ve seen how music helps to set the tone for learning. I used to create educational music videos for younger students on my YouTube channel, Jam Campus.

The goal was to capture attention and introduce concepts in a way that felt fun and engaging. The feedback from teachers was overwhelmingly positive, and I began to realize how music could help students feel more comfortable in the learning environment, making them more open to participating.

Even simple background music during quiet work times can bring an energy to the room that helps students feel more at ease.

The right music can transform a classroom into a place where students are excited to learn, creating a foundation for higher engagement and participation.

And while I’ve seen this work best with younger students, I also believe adults can benefit from the atmosphere music creates. A relaxed learning space isn’t just for kids—adults, too, want to feel comfortable and engaged during training or lessons.

2. Music can improve memory recall

Music and memory have a powerful, well-established connection within our brain.

I’m sure you’ve had moments when a song from your childhood comes on, and suddenly you’re flooded with vivid memories of the people, places, and emotions associated with that tune. This connection between music and memory is strong.

Researchers at John Hopkins University claim that integrating music into a classroom setting can improve students memory and recall of the target learning material. Whether you’re playing an emotional song about World War II or a strong upbeat rhythm to help explain electricity, music helps activate the information mentally, physically, and emotionally.

And good news for using content-based learning songs, such as Jam Campus songs: when specific learning content is put to a rhyme and rhythm, the elements provide a hook for improved memory recall.

These types of songs work to improve short-term memory in our brain similar to the way mnemonic devices operate. Although rote memorization is far from the intended goal of learning and education on a broader scale, content-based songs may help students in the short term to memorize key lists, definitions, relationships and establish a foundation of vocabulary.

Content-based learning songs have also been shown to help students structure information into a specific, calculated pattern. And our brain loves patterns!

As we process these sensory inputs from a musical song, our brain is synchronously determining patterns to predict what will come next.

Along with predicting patterns, our brain also has a deep-seated love for surprises, releasing dopamine into our system and bringing us attention and inspiration.

When we listen to a song, we’re subconsciously detecting patterns while the music builds up anticipation. Most often that anticipation is satisfied.  However, when a slight variation in the song occurs and provides a surprise to our brain, our emotional senses are activated creating an enhanced memorable experience.

Back when I was creating those Jam Campus videos, I saw firsthand how educational music could help students memorize facts and concepts. By pairing information with catchy tunes and rhythms, I noticed students were able to recall material more easily. For younger learners especially, putting content to music can work like a mnemonic device, helping them store information in a more structured and memorable way.

When I transitioned into working with adult learners, though, I realized that while music still held value, its role was different. In adult learning environments, music is less about rote memorization and more about setting a positive tone and engaging learners on an emotional level.

For example, when you play a nostalgic or upbeat song before a training session, it can put learners in a better frame of mind. This positive association can then carry over into the lesson, enhancing their ability to retain the material.

3. Music helps solidify a foundation of concepts

Educators, specifically in the field of science, continue to stress the importance of students understanding simple vocabulary within a subject before being able to move on to more complex concepts.

A strong, foundational grasp of vocabulary helps students to make relational connections to larger concepts.

Along with textbooks, lectures and in-class activities, content-based songs provide students with an alternate method of understanding the basics. Research shows that alternate learning methods allow students opportunities to connect ideas and organize information through their own meaning.

This concept aligns with the constructivist perspective, claiming that content-based songs can help students to build meaning of in-depth concepts in their own meaning and on their own terms.

4. Music helps boost engagement and motivation

The word, “engagement,” is thrown around a lot in the realm students in the classroom.

To define the term, engagement is “the student’s psychological investment in an effort directed toward learning, understanding or mastering the knowledge, skills or crafts that academic work is intended to promote.”

Engagement is critical for learning. When authentically engaged, students show massive improvements in academic achievement and motivation to continue learning.

The use of daily popular music in the classroom has been shown to engage students by having to actively seek out meaning to song lyrics and selections. In this study, many students were reported to be actively singing along, joking about the music, or spending considerable time in thought about the relation of the song lyrics.

One reason why songs and YouTube music videos may help engage students is due to younger generations intimacy with digital technology. Modern research suggests that educators can help engage and motivate learning by using methods of familiar technologies.

And while proper learning and instruction techniques are certainly important, sometimes just a single spark of interest and inspiration is all a student needs. Research suggests that, regardless of instructional technique, students can learn as long as they are sufficiently motivated and actively engaged in classroom discussions and activities.

For adults, I see music playing a more subtle role in engagement. Instead of singing along (though that could be fun!), music serves as a signal that the learning experience is going to be dynamic and enjoyable.

It sets the tone that this isn’t a typical stiff, formal setting. A little background music can go a long way in making people feel more comfortable, relaxed, and ready to participate fully in the learning process.

5. Music makes learners happier

Research from Patrick Quinn & Angela Duckworth shows that happier students outperform their peers academically, even when controlling for factors such as IQ and past academic performance.

Additionally, experts from Stanford University claim that student happiness is a vital factor for predicting academic performance. To maximize happiness, they suggest that teachers design learning activities that capture attention and increase student collaboration and involvement.

And integrating music into the classroom is a great learning activity to start with.

Researchers from the University of Missouri found that happy and upbeat music was successful at raising peoples positive moods and happiness.

One reason is that when listening to music, our brain releases dopamine, which has been known to put us in a state of good feelings. Our dopamine levels can be up to 9% higher when we are listening to a tune we enjoy.

For some students, music has also been shown to make homework more enjoyable. When learning specifically from content-based songs, music serves as a relatable method of learning with an added bonus of boosting positive moods.

A 2013 survey of students in a college classroom found that 59/60 (98%) students shared strong positive attitudes toward the use of content-based learning songs in the classroom.

Using music to boost happiness will certainly not work for every student in every situation. But if there is anything we can do as educators to boost involvement and aid in the happiness of students, it’s worth a shot to give it a try.

6. Music helps improve student/teacher relationships

Even today, students tend to have a relatively stuffy perception of teachers. Recent surveys of K-12 students indicate that only 31% of students feel that their teachers make school an exciting place to learn.

As educators, shouldn’t we do all we can to inspire our students?

Along with smiling more often and having a sense of humor, teachers can also use music to establish long-term positive relationships with their students.

The use of music in the classroom can serve to remove barriers of students traditional expectations of their teacher. By using music and songs that students are familiar and comfortable with, the teacher appears more relaxed, relatable, and approachable.

In one study, an instructor played popular music every session as students entered the classroom. At the end of the term, 74% of the students reported that the music had a positive effect on their impression of the teacher. Many students noted the use of songs showed that their teacher actually cared about their learning, in turn, strengthening the student/instructor relationship.

How to use this information:

Integrating music into learning environments can have a range of benefits, from improving recall to boosting engagement and overall happiness. Here are a few tips based on my experiences:

• Use background music: Try playing light music at the beginning of a lesson or during quiet work times. This sets the mood and creates a relaxed learning atmosphere.

• Play content-based songs: For younger learners, educational songs (like Jam Campus) can introduce a topic and make the learning process more fun.

• Set the tone for adults: For adult learners, music can be used to signal that this is a positive, engaging learning experience. Whether it’s playing an upbeat song before a session starts or using background tunes during discussions, it can make a big difference.

Music is a powerful tool in learning, regardless of the age of your learners. Whether you’re working with kids or adults, it has the potential to create a more engaging, memorable, and enjoyable learning experience.

Give it a try, and see how you can use music to transform your classroom or training environment.