The Neuroscience of Singing: What Happens to Your Brain When You Sing?
By Lara de Paiva Santos
I started having music lessons when I was five; first the piano, then the guitar, and singing techniques. That always came easily to me. You know what didn’t? Physics. For most of my life, because of my ease with creative projects and my difficulty in “math” tasks, I thought I was right-brained. You’ve probably heard somewhere that the left side is the logical half of the brain, and the right side the creative one. I completely believed in that, before I started studying psychology and music in college. Along with the myth that we only use 10% of our brains (Lassonde, 2023), comes the myth that music only engages with the right side of our brains. By singing a song, either to an audience, in the shower, or at karaoke, you use all areas of your brain.
First, let’s talk about the brain. Besides its right and left hemispheres, the brain is divided into 4 lobes: frontal, parietal, temporal, and occipital. They each have different functions that can contribute to singing.
Imagine yourself singing on a stage, or if you have stage fright, imagine yourself singing in the shower. You can sing alone or with a band. Regardless, you can walk and move through the stage with or without an instrument. If the song is more upbeat you might dance along to it, if it’s a sadder song, you might just move slowly to its rhythm. Your ability to multitask (like sing and play an instrument or sing and dance) and move are all because of the frontal lobe of the brain - it deals with thinking, problem solving and motor skills (Sugaya & Yonetani, 2019). Also in the frontal lobe, is Broca’s area, that is responsible for speech production and allows you to sing your favorite lyrics.
Back to the stage (or the shower); maybe you’re feeling a little nervous, the room feels cold and dark, you may get the chills, and your hands might shake. The parietal lobe of your brain is responsible for sensation and perception (Sugaya & Yonetani, 2019). It processes information from different parts of the body, responding to your senses. When singing, it’s important to be aware of your body and its position, to control airflow and breathing.
One of singers’ biggest fears is to blank and forget the lyrics of the song. The temporal lobe is the auditory center of mind and helps you to hear melody and remember the lyrics and rhythm of the song (Sugaya & Yonetani, 2019). That’s where the auditory cortex is, and where all your hearing is handled. Also located in the temporal lobe, is the amygdala: where your emotions come from and are processed. That’s why you scream to some songs and cry to others, depending on your feelings.
And finally, working backwards a little bit, for you to sing a song you must learn it first. The learning process can vary, but most performers use sheet music to guide themselves. The occipital lobe regulates vision, helping you to see and identify music chords in sheet music for example (Sugaya & Yonetani, 2019). It also helps you to connect to the band and the audience; a simple look can make a big difference in a performance.
All the cited lobes (frontal, parietal, temporal and occipital) are located in both hemispheres of the brain, left and right. So, by singing you activate all parts of your brain. While one may argue that the right side is mainly responsible for creativity and intuition and the left side for logic and language, music requires all of those. Our brains have enough capacity to use all resources (lobes) to be able to process something so complex such as music. In fact, our brains are so powerful that even just by reading this blog and thinking of singing, you’re activating the same areas and creating the same connections as if you were actually doing it.
Suggested Resource:
Hodges, D. A., & Wilkins, R. W. (2015). How and Why Does Music Move Us? Music Educators Journal, 101(4), 41–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/0027432115575755
References
Baxter, D. (2018, April 17). Music to their brains — Daniel Baxter Art. Daniel Baxter Art. http://www.danielbaxter.com/blog/2018/3/18/music-to-their-brains
Lassonde, K. (2023, September 19). Misconceptions Research Project: The Myth that We Only Use 10% of Our Brains — Communicating Psychological Science. Communicating Psychological Science. https://www.communicatingpsychologicalscience.com/blog/misconceptions-research-project-the-myth-that-we-only-use-10-of-our-brains?rq=%2010%20brain
The Brain. (n.d.). https://images.app.goo.gl/PPDtSBNXVsCGSGiP9
Sugaya, K., & Yonetani, A. (2019, October 30). Your brain on music. Pegasus Magazine. https://www.ucf.edu/pegasus/your-brain-on-music/#:~:text=“Professional%20musicians%20use%20the%20occipital,to%20music%2C”%20Sugaya%20says