The Music Remembers – How Music Affects the Brain

It doesn’t matter where I am when I hear it. If Carol King’s “I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet” comes on, I am 15 years old. My girlfriend Robin and I are at Santa Monica Beach. (Of course my mom is there too because I wasn’t old enough to drive.)

It’s been 118 years since HG Wells wrote The Time Machine. Yet with all of our technological advances we still don’t have a physical device one can climb into to visit yesteryear – and I doubt Wells had a song in mind. But the fact is that a song can instantaneously transport us back in time.

Last week I had the opportunity to visit with Tyler Hayes-Rueff, Director of Music Services at On Site Workshops in Cumberland Furnace, TN. She does amazing work helping clients to create original songs that tell the story of their own lives. During our conversation she said, “The music remembers.” That comment has stayed with me all week.

When we were living in Los Angeles I was invited to be the piano player for a church ministry that visited a nursing hone facility each week. There was one woman in the group who would never open her eyes or speak – until the music started. No sooner would I begin to play than she would begin singing at the top of her lungs, remembering every word of whatever hymn I would happen to be playing.

The music remembers. As soon as the music ended she would retreat into her silent world.

Recently I saw something that represented this phenomenon visually. I was at a presentation by Carla Guthrie, a woman who works with assisted living facilities to help families understand and cope with loved ones who are experiencing Alzheimers and/or dementia related symptoms.

She showed us a diagram of the brain. In it were images showing which parts of the brain are responsible for storing which memories. As she moved through the presentation sections of the brain were gradually erased to show the progression of memory loss. The last thing to be erased was the music note. Not only does the music remember. It remembers the longest.

I believe science is finally beginning to validate what most of us have known instinctively for years. Music impacts our brain in a way that nothing else quite does. It elicits an emotional response from us. And since melody and rhythm are memory devices it stays with us. The music remembers.

And when that music takes the form of a song the remembering is taken to another level. Why? Language is processed primarily in the left hemisphere of the brain, while melody is processed primarily in the right. So when you add words to a melody you have the full engagement of the brain. Not only do the melody and rhythm of a song help the listener remember the words – but the melody adds an extra layer of meaning to the words. This makes a song especially powerful in generating a response from the listener. In effect, a song is doubling down – not only using the power of words to communicate, but also using the power of melody to communicate those emotions and feelings that are beyond words.

Additionally, music bypasses the frontal lobe and goes straight to the limbic system at the speed of light, fast tracking emotions. That’s why you can be in a downer mood and suddenly you hear that song that reminds you of your favorite summer and boom – there you are! Riding down the highway with the top down and the wind in your hair.

So the next time you want to take a stroll down memory lane you just might want to put on some old Motown – or Hank Williams – or British invasion rock.

Wherever you’re going, you’ll get there faster.

Because the music remembers.

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Steve Siler – Music for the Soul

Originally posted  7/26/16