What kind of music boosts creativity

Beeman has spent two decades studying the brain and its creative processes, which he explores in his book The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain. He explains that the process of creative problem solving tends to unfold in predictable stages. The first stage, he says, involves studying a problem or dilemma, assessing the obvious solutions, and realizing that none of them works. He likens it to a dim star that disappears when you stare straight at it.

This is where music comes into play. But not all activities foster incubation, Beeman says. Creativity is important in nearly all aspects of life, from business to relationships, so we're constantly looking for tricks to increase this skill, but most of these tricks aren't backed by science.

Listening to music likely to make someone happy, known as positive valence, and also high in arousal, helped volunteers come up with more creative solutions than listening to silence, according to the study, published online in PLOS ONE.

Classical music may be key to heightening creativity. Photo Courtesy of Pixabay. While the exact reason for this creativity boost isn't clear, the team suggest that happy music may help to enhance flexibility in thinking.

It doesn't cause people to invent new ideas, rather, it helps them to consider ideas that may not have occurred to them if they were performing a task in silence. For the study, participants completed a questionnaire before being split into experimental groups. Of course, happy music is in the eye or ear of the beholder, and there is research to suggest that listening to any type of music may be enough.

This genre of music has been found to help students perform 12 percent better on their exams. Listening to the sounds of nature, like waves crashing or a babbling brook, has been shown to enhance cognitive function and concentration. Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have discovered that natural sounds boost moods and focus. The study found employees were more productive and had more positive feelings when nature sounds were playing in the background while they worked.

This may be because nature sounds helped mask harsher, more distracting noises, such as people talking or typing. Researchers found that workers not only performed better on tasks, but calming nature sounds also had a restorative effect on cognitive abilities. Cinematic music scores can be empowering, lifting your spirits and brightening your mood. It might seem strange, but listening to music composed for video games can be a great tool to help you focus.

Every element of a video game is designed to create an enhanced gaming experience for all your senses, and the music has been composed specifically to help you focus on your task without being distracted by a cacophony of sounds.

This music generally has no lyrics or human voices and is fairly fast-paced to keep you moving forward. Video games have invested a lot of resources in figuring out the perfect balance to the music they use. Video game music is composed in a way that keeps you engaged as you evaluate, navigate and often fight your way through these make-believe worlds. Next up, further research could look at how different ambient sounds affect creativity.

We could soon be listening to a laugh track backed by uplifting classical music to solve all our problems. Top Stories. Top Videos.