'You're not just recalling words, but an emotion': The lifelong benefits of making music

From helping people cope with age-related disorders to altering our perception of physical pain, music's impact on our bodies can ring loud.

Every Friday morning, in a sun-filled classroom in Limerick, Ireland, Cathy McGlynn and Ann Blake, two music therapists, greet a group of singers sitting in a circle. After leading them in scales, stretches, and vocal trills, McGlynn picks up her guitar and begins strumming, You Are My Sunshine. 

But this is no ordinary choir, for the participants all have one thing in common: a Parkinson's diagnosis – either their loved one's or their own. 

"Singers will come to me with lots of different things. One person might have a tremor and shake, one might be struggling with their breathing. For others it's vocal problems," says McGlynn of the choir which is aptly named Parkinsongs.

While music is linked to a wide range of health benefits, the way it changes the brain can be especially beneficial.

"Lifelong engagement with music practice, and music in general, can not only improve neurological function," says Larry Sherman, a professor of neuroscience at Oregon Health and Science University and author of Every Brain Needs Music. "[It] can provide a greater reserve of cells and synapses that, in turn, may delay the onset of age-related neurological disease."

Research supports Sherman's claim; not only does engaging with music seem to reduce the risk of certain age-linked disorders, but it can also be powerful for people currently living with them.

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Among Parkinson's sufferers, studies have found singing interventions can help improve vocal intensity, vocal frequency, and overall voice-related quality of life. Other studies show broader music-based interventions can assist Parkinson's patients with motor symptoms.

McGlynn also leads a choir for people suffering from dementia and the resulting decline of brain function. Here, research suggests that music-based interventions can improve cognitive functioning and episodic memory, like the ability to recall names, faces, and stories. 

Grace Meadows, a music therapist who now leads the London-based charity, Music Minds Matter, has first-hand experience of how profoundly medicinal music can be for people with dementia: 

"It was the first time the carers had ever seen her move, unaided," she recalls of a woman living with dementia who, on attending a musical performance, suddenly got up out of her chair and began to dance. "They started wondering: 'What other music does she like? What else might get her out of her chair?'" 

How music helps the brain

The mechanisms through which music therapy works are not totally clear and may differ depending on a person's diagnosis.

For people living with dementia, research suggests music-based interventions can improve cognitive functioning, and that musical memory is encoded in brain regions that remain preserved even during Alzheimer's progression. But one review of trials assessing the effectiveness of music-based interventions for Parkinson's disease patients found no evidence of improved cognitive outcomes.

One reason for these differing results may come down to the unique pathologies of different age-related diseases, Sherman explains. "Much of the music therapy around Parkinson's disease is to help with motor function, including vocal issues, so if therapies designed to help with cognition are started late in disease when cognitive decline becomes evident, it may be too late."

Even in people without a diagnosis, however, the long-term act of playing or singing music has been shown to promote greater neuroplasticity (in which the brain creates new neural connections) and structural connectivity (its physical wiring) at large. Sherman says these attributes are especially valuable as we age, since age-related changes can reduce our cognitive function.

Engaging with music can lessen the impact of age-related changes, he says, even when the changes are extreme. "Musical experience covers a very wide territory in our brains, so even people who become non-verbal still have the circuitry needed to respond to music," he explains.

Repetition, repetition: How the body can harness music's powers

That's not to say younger populations can't also benefit from music practice. Anna Zamorano, an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Aarhus University's Center for Music in the Brain in Denmark, recently published research exploring how musical training in healthy people could alter their perception of physical pain.

After safely inducing temporary hand-pain in her subjects, Zamorano found that musicians experienced less discomfort than their non-musician counterparts; the more hours a musician had trained, the less pain they felt. As for why, Zamorano offers several theories. One relates to the reward of gaining a new skill. 

"When musicians push through discomfort to master a difficult piece, their brains may naturally downregulate pain signals because of the anticipated reward, such as improving their performance, achieving mastery, or enjoying the music," Zamorano says. 

Zamorano points to studies that show musical practice can increase fine motor skills, language acquisition, speech and memory.

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There isn't a clear "minimum number of hours" that can guarantee pain perception benefits, Zamorano says, but she recommends people start by playing an instrument for 30 to 45 minutes per day on most days of the week, which is comparable to the World Health Organization's recommendations for regular physical activity. 

"What matters most is consistency because brain plasticity is based on repetition and enjoyment, so the reward and motivation systems are also engaged." 

While other activities, such as gardening, similarly involve repetition and engage our reward systems, research on music interventions suggests there's a special power in song.

Simply listening to music can lead to a statistically significant reduction in painpost-surgery. Other forms of music therapy have been shown to reduce depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms, while increasing sleep quality, and subjective wellbeing. One journal article even compared the psychological effects of music to taking a drug – triggering certain neurochemical responses to prompt feelings of pleasure, coping, and reward.

Better together: the power of group experience

Still, as good as music may be on its own, most research points to the double benefit of engaging in music with other people. "There is a remarkable effect in our brains when we sing or perform music in groups," says Sherman. "Two neurochemicals – dopamine, which is a reward signal, and endorphins, which can block pain and stress responses – act together to promote a sense of acceptance within the group."

Hillary Moss, a professor of music therapy at University of Limerick in Ireland, agrees. Having researched the benefits of group singing for older adults, and compiled a first-of-its-kind map documenting choirs across Ireland, she believes group singing can help people socialise more quickly than other leisure activities.

"There's an emotional quality to music that you might not get if you were, say, gardening," Moss explains. "You're not just recalling words, you're recalling a feeling – and you're getting a sense of feeling safe in the music with another person."

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Sarah Alley, a music therapist who leads a community choir in Limerick, shares a story about this emotional power of singing in a group. A young girl whose mum had recently passed away became "really upset" when the choir began singing the hit song Bohemian Rhapsody, with its lyric "Mama". "But all of the other choir members comforted her," Alley recalls, "and have become like a support network".

Still, despite the many anecdotes and scientific results around the healing power of music, McGlynn says she rarely receives referrals to her choirs from doctors. "The research is there and the benefits are there, but there is still a disjunct between medicine and these kinds of therapies."

Some choir members, like Gerry Garvey of Parkinsongs, are thus taking matters into their own hands. After Garvey joined the group in 2022 – nine months after his diagnosis – he became passionate about encouraging others. Now, as chairperson of the Mid-West branch of Parkinson's Ireland, Garvey has helped to secure funding for the group, and seen it nearly double in size, from 15 people to 38.

"People with Parkinson's have a tendency to just recede and quietly disappear in the background, but this group enables people to come along for some fun and games, sing some songs, do some shows," he says. "The music transports you to a different place."

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