Whether you consider yourself a reader or not, there are things that you can do to help improve your reading, and many of them include using music as a tool to help you read.
These ideas can be great for students who really need to read and understand their coursework material or for people who just want to have better reading comprehension or an easier time being able to focus on whatever book you’ve just pulled off of your bookshelf.
To help you see how this can be done in your own life, here are three ways that listening to music can help improve your reading.
Music Can Help You Focus
For many people who feel like they have a hard time with focusing when they read, the reason could be that in addition to trying to take in information with their eyes, they’re also trying to keep information from coming in from their other senses. One way to keep these other stimuli at bay is to listen to music that will at least help to keep your sense of hearing dulled to other sounds.
When you use music with no words or that is able to drown out other sounds that might be around you, your ability to focus on what you’re reading can be improved. Just make sure that you choose music that allows you to focus your mind rather than music that you find too catchy and makes you want to pay too much attention to it as opposed to what you’re reading.
Music Can Help With Memory
Another way that music can help when you’re reading something is to assist you with your memory.
Oftentimes, if you associate something that you’re reading to music that you know and love, your ability to recall that information can be greatly improved. Additionally, if you listen to certain music when you’re reading something and you want to be able to remember that information later on, playing that same music can help you tap back into the memory of what you’ve read and the text you’re trying to recall. This happens by creating additional neural pathways between that information for your brain to use to access what you’re attempting to remember.
Music Can Help Create A Calm Atmosphere
Sometimes, if you’re trying to study for something or you’re really needing to focus on understanding a text that you’re reading, the stress that you put on yourself can make it hard to really concentrate and get what you’re wanting out of this experience. But if you play calming music while you’re reading, the sounds can help you to relax and not be so stressed out about the situation.
Generally, using relaxing sounds or soft music can do the trick for helping to keep you calm while you’re reading and create a more laid back environment for you to read.
If you want to be able to improve the way that you read and how you attain and retain information in this way, consider how using music when you’re reading can help with this.