Short answer
Listening to music or playing a musical instrument can help us manage our emotions, letting us experience and express the emotions that we want (e.g., happy instead of sad, excited instead of bored). Music can also help us react better to stressful situations and help us recover faster once these stressful situations have passed. Finally, music acts as ‘glue’ between people in social situations, such as parties, concerts, and therapy sessions, reminding us that we are never truly alone.
Longer answer
Music affects mental health in many ways, but it all starts in the brain – when we listen to music, our brain starts a symphony of reactions that eventually produce its beneficial effects on our mental health.
Positive emotional experiences. Studies show that music activates our brain’s ‘pleasure and reward’ centre, making us feel good when we listen to or play songs that we like. Music can also activate the networks within our brain that are connected to specific memories, bringing up the emotions we associate with the song we are listening to (e.g., listening to ‘Mr. Brightside’ by the Killers makes me feel very happy, because the song reminds me of the times I spent hanging out with my best friend). When we listen to music, we experience positive emotional experiences, which means we successfully manage to feel the things we do want to feel (e.g., happy when we feel like being happy, sad when we feel like being sad). These positive emotional experiences play an important role in how music affects our mental health. By experiencing emotions that make us more alert, music can help us feel more prepared to handle stressful situations. By experiencing emotions that relax us, music can help us recover faster once the stressful situation is over. Studies have shown that successful recovery from stress may prevent the occurrence of anxiety disorders, burnout, and depression.
Music therapy. Music therapy combines all that is good about music into one package to improve mental health. During music therapy sessions, you either play or listen to music that is meant to evoke emotional experiences that are most beneficial to you. More importantly, since you are not alone during the session, these emotional experiences are shared by everyone in the session. Shared emotional experiences between people can help us feel more connected, reminding us that we are not alone even when times are tough.