THE MEN who raided Joseph Haydn’s grave hoped that his genius would be written on his skull. A scan of the Austrian composer’s decomposing brain may have been more enlightening. Musical talent does not, as those 19th-century phrenologists believed, leave bumps on the cranium. It does, however, seem to make a healthy impression on the brain.
Making music is a mental workout. The brain must simultaneously co-ordinate sound and vision, as well as fine motor control, focus and imagination. Over time this stretches the brain like a muscle. Several studies have found that professional musicians have more grey matter (the neural tissue involved in thinking, movement and memory) in some regions than non-musicians.
Conclusive evidence is hard to come by, but existing research hints that other benefits may accrue. One study from 2020 suggests that musicians may also have better executive function—the part of the brain that helps with planning and problem-solving. A meta-analysis from 2017 concluded that musicians also have a sharper memory. And a study from last year suggested they may even be less sensitive to pain. The experiment, in which 40 participants were injected in the hand with a compound which mimics muscle soreness, found that subjects with musical experience reported less pain. A life spent stretching for high notes creates more than good melodies. Music as medicine indeed.
Might musically precocious children have a head start? A paper from 2010 found that musicians who begin training before the age of seven have a larger corpus callosum, the neural bridge between the brain’s two hemispheres, than later starters. Research from 2014 suggests that learning an instrument also improves children’s second-language acquisition and non-verbal reasoning.
Musical training later in life has been linked to slower age-related decline. A small study on older adults showed that continuing to learn an instrument was associated with less deterioration in verbal working memory and grey-matter volume. A meta-analysis from 2021 also found an association between music practice and reduced risk of developing dementia. Whether these findings arise because musical brains are more resilient or because those without dementia keep playing for longer is a knotty question that future studies will need to unpick.
The instrument you play could make a difference. A study from 2024 of 1,100 older Britons found that pianists and brass players tended, on average, to have better working memory. Woodwind players had superior executive function. Singers excelled in verbal reasoning. Show-offs who played several instruments enjoyed no extra neural benefit.
In addition, the brain’s limbic system, which processes pleasure and reward, lights up when you play an instrument. Endorphins, feel-good hormones which relieve pain, flow when you are in the zone. Performing in a band, orchestra or choir eases stress and encourages social bonding. Simply listening may also be worth a try. In 2025 an observational study of 10,000 cognitively sound over-70s found that regular listeners to music had a 39% lower relative risk of cognitive decline. Proof of a causal relationship, however, remains elusive.
The good news is that you don’t have to be a musical genius to feel the benefits of deliberate and regular practice. Studies have found that consistent training correlated with brain reorganisation in amateurs as well as professionals. But if you are a second Haydn, consider hiring a guard at your tombstone.
