How Classical Music Rewires Your Brain (for good!)
Classical music (whether you think its ‘a bit posh’ or not) is real music! It’s created by people who know how to read music and play instruments, and there is more than enough evidence to suggest that it has huge healing benefits – whether that’s for mental or physical health. It can help dementia patients (who often people remember songs, when they remember little else). And can even calm patients down in dental surgeries!
Perfect Pitch is a book of 100 classical masterpieces to listen to, all intended to comfort and inspire. Find a short introduction to each piece, plus a recommended recording.
There was an interesting experiment once. Someone grew four plants, and each one had a different version of ‘music’. One had no music, one had rock music played to it. One had classical music, and the last one had Louis Armstrong singing!
The plant with no music made little difference. The other plant turned away from the rock music. The third plant liked the classical music. And the fourth plant adored Louis! Proving that even plants have good music taste!
How to listen to classical music
You don’t need a degree or be able to play an instrument to listen to good classical music. You can reap the benefits, simply by switching the dial on your radio. Try playing BBC Radio 3 or Classic FM softly in the background.
Try this sample playlist for a stress-free day:
- Mozart – Piano Sonata No. 16 (opening)
- Debussy – Clair de Lune
- Schubert – Ave Maria
- Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata (2nd movement).
- Elgar’s ‘Nimrod’
- Marianelli’s ‘Pride & Prejudice’ piano soundtrack.
Can’t sleep? Create a simple playlist of slow piano sonatas, gentle harp or soft string quartets. Avoid music with sudden loud notes or fast tempos. Play at low volume, around 30 minutes before bed.
Use a speaker (to avoid getting tangled in headphones), and set a timer to turn the music off automatically. Also turn off screens and dim the lights. This will help link your brain with music, and cues to rest.
The Schubert Treatment (a story of healing)
The Schubert Treatment is a book by an artist/therapist, who found that playing the cello had wonderfully positive effects on children with autism, along with patients in pain, distress or just before death. It features lyrical vignettes of patients she’s helped.
Doctors and nurses often turn to classical music to help people recover from surgery, or manage chronic pain. The music serves as a gentle distraction, taking focus away from discomfort, without causing side effects.
There’s good science to back this up: patients who listen to calming music often need less pain relief medicine and report lower pain scores. The healing power comes not just from the notes themselves, but from the way they help the brain release endorphins.
Researchers first noticed in the early 1990s that students who listened to Mozart, performed better in exams. And a study at University of Edinburgh in 2021 found that people who listened to Mozart’s piano sonatas for just 20 minutes, felt calmer and could focus better on simple tasks. Cortisol levels (which rise when in stress) dropped by 15 percent. All just from playing classical music in the room.
Why? Doctors believe it’s because Mozart’s melodies in particular have steady pace and repeating patterns. This helps the brain to line up with natural rhythms. Your nervous system ‘syncs’ with music, making you feel less jittery, and more clear-headed.
Music therapy for dementia patients
Dementia strips away memories and connections, but music often reaches through this fog, in a way that nothing else does. Many patients find the familiar tempos of classical music comforting. And some can even remember old songs, when they have forgotten all else.
A nurse at a London care home described how one resident, who had not spoken in days, quietly hummed along to an old Haydn string quartet.
How Music Thanatologists Help Dying People
Music thanatologists are trained in harp and voice to ‘send people peacefully out of this world’ with healing music, if requested. Symptoms eased include pain, restlessness, insomnia and laboured breathing. Thanatology can also ease emotions common near death – like anger, fear, sadness and grief.
Harpists can buy harp strings free from animal gut.
It’s important also to respect patients who don’t want music (many don’t). That’s why there is a campaign to ban piped music (not just in stores and supermarkets, but in hospitals, where patients literally have no escape, if they want some peace and quiet).
Music suggestions for hospice patients
Music critic Terez Rose suggests these ten songs for dying patients, in no particular order:
- Andante Moderato from Symphony No. 6
- Edward Elgar, Nimrod
- Fratres for Strings and Percussion
- Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis
- Edvard Grieg, Peer Gynt
- Mahler, “Adagietto” from Symphony No. 5
- Georges Bizet, “Entr’acte” from Carmen
- Johann Sebastian Bach, Air on G String
- Ralph Vaughn Williams, The Lark Ascending
- Antonin Dvorák, “Romance in F-minor”
Edward Elgar’s (Midland) Musical Footprints
Edward Elgar may not be a familiar name to many, but it’s likely you know some of his compositions. He wrote ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ and the Pomp and Circumstance March that’s often played at Last Night of the Proms. If you think you don’t know it – you do! Take a listen.
One of the first composers to embrace recorded music, he wrote a lot of his music in Hertfordshire. Happily married to his wife (who was cut off from her family for marrying a Catholic), his granddaughter married the pioneer of the Sunday School movement.
Elgar first discovered Herefordshire as a young man. He often travelled by bicycle from his home in Worcester, soaking in the rural scenery. Locals still remember stories of Elgar sitting under the trees, jotting down themes that would appear in his music.
Edward was what we would today call an ‘English eccentric’. He named his bicycle (Mr Phoebus) and created handmade soap (a bit dangerous, due to caustic soda).
He was an avid fan of Wolverhampton Wanderers, and would cycle 40 miles from his home in the Malverns, to watch them play. He even wrote England’s first national anthem (no doubt more lyrical than ‘It’s coming home, it’s coming home, football’s coming home!)
Join the Campaign to Ban Piped Music
Piped music drives most people crazy, and it can be everywhere from shops to supermarkets, and even in hotel lobbies and shopping centres. It’s not ‘optional’, so people have to put up with it, or leave.
Many people with hearing loss actually find it painful, and also it makes it difficult for them to hear what people are saying.
The Equality Act 2010 means that supermarkets that blast music into the ears of people with hearing loss, are actually breaking the law. This affects 15% of the UK population.
Co-op supermarkets are particularly bad, with blaring rock music, just for older people who wish to pop in for a loaf of bread.
I have left shops – unable to purchase the object of my desire. Because of hellish piped music. Joanna Lumley
Pipedown is the charity campaigning to ban piped music from stores (with some success). It’s also campaigning against leaf-blowers (often two hours of operation can hit 90 decibels and cause permanent hearing loss, even to neighbours).
Leaf blowers also are very polluting to humans, pets and wildlife.
Why Piped Music Needs Banning
As well as stopping people having the option of peace and quiet, it causes hearing problems, physical pain in people with hearing loss, and mental health issues.
But constant exposure to loud noise can increase stress hormones, and even raise blood pressure. It also causes migraines, insomnia and heart problems, and makes life uncomfortable for people with tinnitus (ringing in the ears).
Piped Music Harms Patients and Carers
In hospitals, piped music is hellish for people who can’t get away from it. Hospitals and care homes are meant to be places of healing. If people want music, they can listen to hospital radio. But not giving an option when people need to sleep and rest, is not good.
It’s even been found that people with anorexia find it hard to eat food, surrounded by loud noise. Any kind of addiction recovery is more difficult, away from a calm, supportive environment.
Dr David Oliver writes in British Medical Journal that noise pollution in hospitals is now at an alarming rate. Nonstop noise meals it takes longer for patients to heal. This causes more bed-blocking, so costs the NHS more money.
It would be far better to create quiet wards with ‘healing spaces’ for patients to recover, with peaceful surroundings and quiet.
Why Do Supermarkets Play Loud Music?
It’s believed that shops do it, literally due to research showing that certain beats of music (like bright colours) makes people stressed, so they buy more.
Think about McDonald’s, that paints its shops bright yellow and red. Or pubs that play loud music to encourage ‘vertical drinking (too loud to have a conversation, so punters just drink more, while standing up).
A few years back, Marks and Spencer trialled piped music in its stores. It got such negative reaction, that it at least listened to customers, and removed it. And have never brought it back.
Something interesting here: A study at University of South Florida found that loud fast music led to customers buying unhealthy foods (like fast food, red meat etc). While quiet (or no) music led to healthier food choices. Now we see perhaps why the supermarkets have loud music?
There are no special offers on broccoli. Real food campaigner Michael Pollan writes that supermarkets are there for profit (not your health).
Which is why there are only around two aisles of fresh fruit, and the rest is full of higher-profit processed food. So they need you to buy more of that, and less broccoli!
Supermarkets need to be more than just offer ‘quiet hours’ (often when people don’t have the time to shop), which are free from music and annoying tannoy announcements. Other things done are turning down lighting, reducing movement of trolleys and turning checkout beeps off.
If supermarkets can do this the rest of the time, why can’t they do it all the time? Other shops (like Aldi, Waitrose and John Lewis) manage to, so why can’t the others?
Budget supermarket Aldi never plays piped music, mostly to save on licensing fees, so it can pass the savings of cheaper food onto its customers.
Sometimes, those in charge just need a nudge to see that silence matters. Writing to businesses, hospitals, or your local council can spark action. Don’t worry about the right words—just be clear and polite. Below are letter and email templates you can use or adapt.
Retailer or Shop Letter Template:
Dear Manager,
I am a regular customer and value your shop. However, I find the piped music makes shopping stressful. Could you consider a music-free hour, or turn it off entirely? Many would welcome a quieter environment.
Thank you,
[Your Name]
Hospital or Healthcare Centre Template:
Dear [Hospital Name] Team,
I’d like to ask if your hospital could reduce or remove background music in waiting areas. Many patients and visitors struggle with extra noise when they are already unwell or anxious.
Thank you for helping to create a peaceful space for everyone.
[Your Name]
Local Authority Template:
Dear [Council Name],
I am writing to request support for more music-free zones in public spaces. Cutting down on background music will help residents feel calmer and more included, especially those sensitive to noise. Please consider backing this initiative in community centres, libraries, and other venues.
Yours sincerely,
[Your Name]
