How Music Makes You a Better Human Being

There is a lot going on in the world today that makes me question whether us humans know how to be, well, human anymore. And as I’ve been thinking about the world, I’ve been turning to music to help ease the stress and the anxiety surrounding all of the difficult things we go through. While I don’t have the ability to force everyone to study and love music, I can share with you my thoughts on how music makes us better human beings.

Music forces you to be introspective.

Music has this way of worming itself into the innermost parts of our hearts and filling them with feelings. Sad music reminds us of sad memories. Happy music fills us with joy. Angstful music causes tension, while peaceful music brings relaxation. But music is more than just emotions. The feelings and memories brought on by your favorite song or piece is your brain relating to the music. 

By taking the time to understand the emotions and memories caused by music, you are learning about yourself. You are accepting yourself. This is so important in our process of becoming better human beings! If you can’t understand yourself, how can you understand others?

Which leads me to my next point:

Music teaches empathy.

Music is a direct channel into the mind of the composer. Think about it. Those lyrics that make you cry? The songwriter wants you to feel pain when you hear them. That dissonant chord that makes you flinch? The composer intentionally put that there to create a reaction in you.

As a composer, I make most (if not all) of my creative musical decisions based on how it feels – the reaction it creates in me when I listen to it. And I know that you will experience those feelings when you listen to my music.

With that in mind, whenever we listen to our favorite piece, we essentially feel what the composer felt while writing the music. And those feelings tend to be universal. The more we listen to music, the more emotions we feel, the better we understand ourselves, and the better we can understand others.

Here’s the definition of empathy:

the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

Music creates this in us. Which brings us to my final point:

Music connects us.

Music allows us to better understand both ourselves and others. With this mindset, we are all connected as human beings, living life in all of its (painful) glory. We experience emotions and empathy when listening to music, and that connects us.

Music makes us better.

So allow the music to reach you, change you, and make you better. Then take the initiative to turn outward, reaching a hand to those around you and connecting with others. You don’t have to think like or believe the same things as me. But we can allow introspective empathy to create a strong bond between us.

Let music make us better human beings.