Can Listening to Strange Music Improve Cognitive Function?

[antagonistmor]

Hey guys, don't know if this is the right place to post this.

I've been into all sorts of music for many years. Wierd music including Meshuggah, Ozric Tentacles, Fred Thordendales Special Defects, Classical music, etc

What I am wondering, is I've heard of something called "holosync" which is a Binuerial beat program used to increase cognitive function. This is all done through sound.

Could perhaps, by being able to recognize and follow strange leads, rythems, offbeat music, etc, possibly increase cognitive function.

ie.

Someone who listens to rap versus someone listening to jazz

It must take more brain functioning to recognize and follow strange music like this.

ANyways, open to all responses. THanks guys!

(PS, i think it has actually helped my math a lot)

 

[Andy Resnick]

Time signatures are (essentially) simple arithmetic. I'm not sure it increases brain function to listen/play odd meters- reading rhythmic figures is a skill that can be learned fairly quickly, though playing them is another issue.

Some people believe that listening to classical music (Mozart, especially) increases memory and cognitive function. Not sure what actual experiments have been done to show this, tho.

 

[Archosaur]

Haha, was the OP secretly racist?

JK.

Seriously though. Music theory is nothing but numbers and patterns. As you listen to music, your develop your musical "ear". Essentially, as you surround yourself with numbers and patterns and you study them, you get better at identifying them.

Trying to understand the music you listen to is the same as practicing thinking.

Granted, just listening to music and not thinking about it probably doesn't do much. Especially music that's really random/unpredictable or otherwise has few patterns and isn't mathematically interesting... like "Holosync"

"Holosync" uses similar sound frequencies to create beat frequencies, which is essentially what you get when you listen to a song that has a few instruments that are out of tune.

"Holosync" sounds like nothing more than pseudoscience.

Sit down and really examine some Bach. He's the most mathematically interesting composer I can think of.

If wanting to become smarter is like wanting to loose weight,
then studying Bach is like exercise,
and listening to Holosync is like taking "Turboslim HYPER 5.0 Super Fat-Burner"

To every problem, there is a difficult but effective solution, and an easy but useless approach that someone will be more than willing to sell you.