by Yelena Hernandez Bonilla
Yelena Hernandez Bonilla is a public health major from Chelsea, MA. As an undergraduate student, Yelena began reflecting on her school experience and noticed how much music has helped her “whether feeling happy, stressed, overwhelmed, or just needing a moment to unwind.” She decided to write this essay because she sees how important music is for many students. Apart from just listening to music, Yelena has played the piano and guitar for many years. Her music has served as a crucial outlet and has become “a major part of who I am because it is something I love and enjoy doing.” Yelena is passionate about helping her Latinx community, which is “why I have decided to major in public health.” She loves to travel and wants to work abroad in Central America in order to further explore her Salvadorean roots and give back to her community.
Imagine walking into the library on a college campus and seeing almost every single student have their headphones plugged in, listening to music, and really zoned into what they are doing. In college, this is something you’d see on an everyday basis. Whether it be on the bus, in the campus hallways, or even in class, students just can’t resist having their companion of music with them at all times. This unconscious agreement between students has been established; you know, the nonverbal exchange of I have my headphones on so that means I am in my own world type of agreement. But, as a college student myself, I know wearing headphones can also sound like this:
I have too many things on my mind, and I need to distract myself…
Entering the college journey is no easy task. Students are presented with unique challenges, juggling so many things all at once and somehow trying to act like you’ve got it all under control. Suddenly that excitement of, “I’m in college!” has transformed to, “ughhh, i’m in college.” New journeys present new difficulties, new feelings about the future, and in the midst of these changes many college students begin to emotionally feel these impacts. Suddenly, that anxious feeling in the pit of your stomach won’t seem to go away and every time you open your laptop to get work done it just ends up making you panic even more. So, you try to distract yourself to readily ignore all the warning signs your body has been giving you, but slowly it starts to catch up as time passes by.
As a college student, maintaining a healthy mindset and caring for mental health can be a challenging task to do. With so many things going on, students often forget to care about the most important thing, themselves. For some, that rush of academic motivation starts to fall away, and students are left wondering what would happen if they suddenly stopped trying. Last year, the American College Health Association (ACHA) conducted an assessment on college students and results showed that out of the 54,000 college students that were surveyed, “approximately 77% (of students) were experiencing moderate to serious psychological distress” (Bryant and Welding). That is a majority percentage, meaning that out of the 54,000 students that were surveyed, about 41,580 students were experiencing mental health difficulties. So, in the midst of all that frustration, what is something that students run to, in order to feel a place of expression? A place of comfort? A place of rest? Well…you can definitely find music to be one of the top strategies on the list of things that college students use to find that place.
Reflecting on this research, made me wonder: how does music connect to mental health for college students? I want to discover why music is such a popular choice among young people and what makes it so essential. To answer this, I conducted a survey directed to undergraduate college students, asking about their personal experiences with music. For this research, I wanted to focus both on students who play instruments and students who may not play instruments but do listen to music on a daily basis. In the survey, I asked students if listening to music often helps them feel understood. 12 out of the 14 students agreed that this statement was true for them (Hernandez Bonilla). So, one reason students may be choosing to listen to music is because it allows them to express feelings that may be hard to communicate with others. Let’s face it, being vulnerable is something that as a young adult, can be scary. Alexandra Frost, a journalist from the Jed Foundation, a nonprofit organization that aims to help young adults care for their mental health, writes that “if you don’t have the words to explain what you are going through, or if you don’t feel comfortable talking about it, song lyrics can give you another way to express your feelings” (Frost). If we look at music lyrics, many artists share moments of being in the middle of a difficult time in their lives.
Let’s look at one song, called “i’m here” by Abbie Gamboa. In her song she opens up by saying:
Tired, I’ve felt that before
Overwhelmed, I know the one
Acquainted with the deepest grief
Anxious, when your heart skips a beat
When peace becomes fleeting
I know what you’re feeling
Whether it be ending a relationship with someone, feelings of rejection, or just going through the process of discovering who you are, artists can share these moments through their songs. For college students, these types of songs may correlate to what they are experiencing and make them feel seen and heard. But someone out there might be wondering, why would you want to make yourself feel sad by surrounding yourself with more emotional melodies and sad songs? Wouldn’t that just make you feel more miserable?
Well, after doing some research, I encountered some interesting findings. One of them relates to music theory, which if you play instruments, you will get this, but if not, just hold on! Here’s a small introduction to Music 101; there exist notes which are the sounds that our ears perceive when a musical key is played. Generally, there are major notes and minor notes. Major notes usually mean happy notes, and minor notes can be referred to as the emotional mellow notes. So, as musicians we know that to invoke emotions, one of the best ways to do so will be through some type of minor scale or even just using one or two minor chords in your musical composition.
Interestingly enough, a study was done by research scientists Ai Kawakami and colleagues, who specialize in music and emotion to observe this very part of musical interpretation. Participants were observed while listening to music pieces that were played in minor keys to see how they felt after listening to those melodies. The result of the study showed that “although dissonance and melody in a minor key were perceived as unpleasant sounds, listeners actually felt fewer unpleasant and more pleasant emotions when listening to these musical stimuli” (Kawakami et al. 2). Basically, what their research is saying, in a simplified version, is that when participants listened to sad-toned music they experienced fewer negative reactions and more positive, calming feelings. Now, who would ever think that listening to sad music could cause this reaction? We can also look at research done by Devrim Osmanoglu and Hüseyin Yilmaz at Kafkas University who study the effect of classical music on anxiety and well-being of university students. Osmanoglu and Yilmaz echo the same positive experience with music by saying: “It is not our hearing power that makes music compositions pleasing to us, but our ability to comprehend various inspirations from that composition” (Osmanoglu and Yilmaz 19). So, it’s not necessarily just listening to music that helps people, it’s grabbing a meaning and interpretation from what they are listening to. If tuning into that sad song can help students feel understood, then it will cause a more calming and reassuring reaction for them. Taking that simple melody or song, just as the one mentioned above, “i’m here” by Gamboa, and relating it to our experiences and feelings, creates a deeper meaning. In music, people experience a personalized connection to what they are hearing and can find a safe place within a melody or song.
But music choice can vary from person to person which is something great about music because it allows people to create their own unique way of discovering what interests one might have. One pattern I observed in my survey was that many students continuously mentioned that they listen to slow-paced songs, such as R&B and classical music. Now this made me wonder, could genre possibly impact people’s mental health? Continuing on the research done on by Osmanoglu, students were asked to listen to classical music regularly for 60 days and the results showed that listening to this type of music “reduced anxiety levels and increased subjective well-being levels” (Osmanoglu 22). If we think about beats and timings in music, we know that it’s key for the formation of a song.
A song is carried out by the rhythm that it has to follow. Let’s think of a moment that most of us have experienced. When we listen to that really fast-paced song with the intense drums and crazy bass line, almost automatically, it causes that rush of energy to flow through the body. You just can’t seem to resist moving your foot to the beat and tapping your fingers along to it. This type of music is great for helping you feel motivated and ready for the day. Thinking of these moments, we can see how music can create both an emotional and physical reaction to what we hear. Looking at some genres of music most listened to by college students, R&B, Indie, and even classical music are interestingly the most commonly listed (Hernandez Bonilla). For students who may feel engulfed in so many thoughts, deadlines, and responsibilities, it might feel like a moment to unwind would be much needed. One way to find this could be by listening to slower, more relaxing music. These genres of music provide an outlet of relaxation for the person’s mind and without realizing it, students are choosing songs to help their mental health.
Now, if we know that students listen to music daily, this must mean that while doing homework or even studying, music can be essential. I think about my experiences, and how I cannot go into a study session without having some type of music in the background. If many students do this, could this mean that music is an impacting factor of learning in academics? Theresa Schempp, from the University of Maryland, wrote an article that talks about the benefits of using music to study. She describes how “the right choice of music, such as instrumental or ambient music, can help block out distractions, improve concentration, and maintain attention during study sessions” (Schempp). To do well in academics, we know that preparation is key to mastering subjects on difficult concepts. By creating an organized and calm study session, academic performance will be drastically improved. So, music can play an important role in this process by blurring out distractions that could be happening around the student and making them focus on what they need to learn.
Specifically, for students who play instruments, additional skills can also be a benefit in academics. If we look at one of the most popular pathways college students like to take, which is the pre-medical path, many of those classes are rigorously challenging. Looking at healthcare professionals that made their way through college and additional schooling, interestingly enough, many of them have the skill of playing an instrument in common. When COVID-19 was at its peak back in 2020, medical professionals reunited through the online platform Zoom to play a musical composition together. One participant, Dr. Erica Hardy, talks about her personal experience with music and recounts that at just 4 years old she began her music journey. She reflects on this and says: “Many of us have been musicians longer than we’ve been doctors or scientists or nurses” (qtd. in “Meet the Medical Professionals”). If we think about the journey of becoming a doctor, nurse or any other healthcare professional, persistence, focus and adaptability are vital skills. We’re talking sometimes even 10+ years of school for some, which is a lot of school. So, if we see that many of these professionals began playing instruments at a young age, this can correlate to developing crucial skills that have allowed them to learn how to excel in school and in studying habits.
Applying this to any college student that may play instruments, the benefits are really endless. For example, when I first learned how to play guitar, it was one of the most difficult things to do because it was something that I had to learn from scratch. Even though at times frustrations arose and moments of giving up waved over me, I knew it was a personal goal that I had. Consistency was key to learning my instrument, and challenging myself to memorize chords was something that I had to teach myself to do. Applying that persistence to academics, students who have experienced similar moments to mine can take that adeptness of learning new materials and use those skills to improve their performance in academics. In the survey I conducted, 100% of students who play instruments said they have the skill of multitasking and 75% said that they have the skill of being able to concentrate on completing tasks. I believe that through the process of learning an instrument, students have been able to develop vital practices and experiences that they can apply to the academic world.
In both emotional and academic aspects, music for college students is a vital part of their day-to-day lives. Now, the next time you listen to music just remember all of these benefits. Music can create a calming effect for the mind and help in managing stress and mental health difficulties. If you’re a college student yourself, make sure you take time to wind down and give yourself a break by plugging into the world of music and disconnecting for a moment from all the craziness that comes along with navigating the world as a young adult. I think about my personal experiences and how listening to music is one of my favorite ways to pass time and just check in with myself by letting my mind ease away into the rhythms and melodies of what I am listening to. Like other students, music, to me, is therapeutic and alleviating for the heart and mind. No matter the age, location, or language, music can always squeeze itself through and connect to anyone. It goes beyond what we can say in simple words and creates an outlet to release everything we can be feeling.
Works Cited
Bryant, Jessica, and Lyss Welding. “College Student Mental Health Statistics.” BestColleges.com. 15 Feb 2023.
Frost, Alexandra. “How Music Can Improve Your Mental Health.” The Jed Foundation. 12 May 2023.
Gamboa, Abbie. “I’m Here (Audio) – Abbie Gamboa.” YouTube, 19 May 2023.
Hernandez Bonilla, Yelena. “Music and Mental Health” Google Survey. November 2023.
Kawakami, Ai, et al. “Music Evokes Vicarious Emotions in Listeners.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 5, 2014, pp. 431–431, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00431.
“Meet The Medical Professionals Playing Classical Music Together Online.” Weekend Edition Saturday, NPR, 2020.
Osmanoglu, Devrim Erginsoy, and Hüseyin Yilmaz. “The Effect of Classical Music on Anxiety and Well-Being of University Students.” International Education Studies, vol. 12, no. 11, 2019, pp. 18-25. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v12n11p18.
Schempp, Theresa, and Sanders, Mike. “How Music Can Help You Study: UMGC.” University of Maryland Global Campus. 28 Aug 2023.