Not just any music can optimize learning. There are many influences and variables - one variable is different learning styles. You may be a visual, audio, or kinesthetic learner - in other words, you may learn easier and better if you read, hear something explained to you, or if you actually have hands-on experience with using the information.

Different learning styles can also be applied when using healing music for certain illnesses and conditions, such as the memory loss of Alzheimer’s, the stress and sometimes panic of asthma, and the inability to communicate of autism.

You know best how you learn. If you are an observant teacher, you know how your class learns. Music can optimize each learning style, but you need to pay attention to not only the composer and the style of music, but also to the recording artist and the style of the performance.

Music that generally works best in any learning environment is that which slips into the background without diverting the attention of the student, working subliminally to stimulate brainwaves and create an atmosphere optimal to the task and activity at hand.

When you have a specific goal in mind, one thing to remember is the principle of entrainment, in which a piece of music’s rhythm will affect your own heart’s rhythm. If the music is slower than your heart, it will eventually slow your heart’s rhythm, and vice versa. It goes deeper than rhythm also; it has to do with personal association, memories and experiences associated with a piece of music.

I am reminded of reading the personal story of a woman who was in a band while she was pregnant; the band was rehearsing for a performance and practiced the song “Proud Mary” over and over. When her son was born, that song soothed him with its familiarity. Not what I would call a normal lullaby, by any stretch of the imagination, and a very unusual association with that particular song.

But that is how the human brain works. We don’t realize how we have been culturally trained to respond to music, and we don’t always pay attention to how our personal memories and associations affect our responses to music.

For example, we hear music and expect to experience enjoyment and perhaps even associate music with play. The ’state of play’ is considered by some researchers to be the optimal learning environment. Think about the associations. We equate play with relaxation, enjoyment, fun, escape, and rejuvenation. If we are performing a task but find it enjoyable, we exclaim, “this isn’t work!”

This is why music can encourage learning. This is also why, for an optimal music and learning situation, you can start paying attention to how you react to music and how you learn, and then integrate the two into a personally meaningful learning experience .