The research
Making music — on our own or with other people — keeps turning up as something measurably good for us. Here’s a growing shelf of research and reporting on what happens when we play, sing, and drum: together most of all, but alone too.
Last updated 2026-08-19.
Frequently listening to music or playing an instrument may help lower the risk of developing dementia, suggests a study published in the October 2025 issue of the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Based on 30 studies involving 1,720 people, music-based therapy probably improves depressive symptoms.
Across 12 studies, joint music-making and interpersonal synchrony were generally associated with more prosocial behaviour, but the authors conclude the evidence base is small and more robust studies are needed.
Across 10 studies music-based interventions improved subjective wellbeing, but the analysis pools listening, training and therapy without separating them, so it cannot tell us which format did the work.
Across 46 studies of children aged 3 to 12, musical training produced modest gains in executive function, with larger effects for longer sessions.
In preschoolers aged 3 to 6, group music training improved inhibitory control, working memory and cognitive flexibility.
Those receiving an active music intervention scored significantly higher than controls on the Mini-Mental State Exam and reported fewer neuropsychiatric symptoms as denoted by the Neuropsychiatric Inventory, post-intervention.
Music engagement should be considered in tandem with other well-established cognitive reserve proxies as a contributor to differential clinical outcomes in older populations at risk of age-related and neuropathological cognitive decline.
Research backs the brain benefits of learning to read and play music later in life.
Following 107 choir singers and 62 non-singers over two years, the singers kept an advantage in phonemic fluency while effects on other measures were less clear; the study is observational, not randomised.
Playing a musical instrument, in the meta-analysis, was significantly associated with a decreased risk of dementia (HR = 0.64; 95% CI: 0.41, 0.98) among older adults.
Piano training significantly increased verbal fluency skills in category switching, as compared to computer-assisted cognitive training and no-treatment controls.
Across 47 studies music therapy reduced stress; group formats showed a larger effect (d = .927) than individual formats (d = .679), but the difference between the two was not statistically significant.
Pooling 84 neuroimaging studies, musical expertise was linked to consistent structural and functional brain differences; the underlying studies are cross-sectional, so direction of causation is not established.
Across 5 randomised trials with 333 COPD patients, singing improved physical quality of life and expiratory muscle strength but did not improve lung function, exercise capacity or anxiety.
Across 19 randomised trials with 1,024 participants who had mild cognitive impairment or dementia, music-based interventions improved general cognition, executive function and episodic memory; active playing and music listening are pooled together, so the two cannot be separated.
A null result: pairs of kindergarteners who sang and tapped together showed no more helping or cooperation than controls, failing to replicate Kirschner and Tomasello under field conditions.
In a randomised trial with 94 six- and seven-year-olds, group instrumental lessons improved specific executive functions rather than executive function across the board.
A narrative review setting out the proposed mechanisms by which musical training might support empathy and prosocial behaviour.
Pooling trials of active music-making with older adults who have mild cognitive impairment or dementia, the review found a modest positive effect on cognition.
Group music-making such as choral singing increases connectedness, heightens empathy, reduces depression and improves mood, is arousing and stimulates cognition, and has systemic health benefits.
In a cluster-randomised trial with 390 older adults, community choir singing improved loneliness and interest in life but produced no significant effects on cognitive or physical outcomes.
Across 55 randomised trials music therapy reduced depressive symptoms; the largest effect came from listening to prerecorded music, and group versus individual delivery did not differ significantly.
Across 254 effect sizes from 6,984 children, apparent transfer from music training to cognitive and academic skills shrank to near zero once study quality was controlled for.
Trumpet players had no lung-function advantage over controls, and more years of playing was associated with lower forced vital capacity.
The results of the meta-analysis showed cognitive and cerebral benefits of musical practice, both in domain-specific functions (auditory perception) and in other rather domain-general functions.
When isolating mothers with moderate–severe symptoms of PND, this result became significant, with a faster improvement in symptoms in the singing group.
Across 13 studies and 667 participants, group singing was associated with improved mental health and wellbeing for adults with a mental health condition; individual singing was excluded by design, so the review speaks only to the group format.
Across 9 studies and 421 participants, music therapy added to usual care reduced depressive symptoms and anxiety; a planned subgroup comparison of group versus individual delivery was never reported.
Across 29 studies musicians outperformed non-musicians on short-term and working memory tasks; this is a cross-sectional comparison of existing groups, not evidence that training caused the difference.
A randomised trial of El Sistema with 2,914 children found no effect on prosocial connections or empathy; small gains in self-control and reduced behavioural difficulties were concentrated among at-risk boys.
Group drumming leads to enhanced psychological states, specifically less depression and greater social resilience.
According to new research, music helps synchronize our bodies and our brains.
Children who sang together were more cooperative in a prisoner's dilemma than children who made art together or played competitive games.
Studies find that singing in a choir helps forge social bonds—and it might even make you healthier.
A feasibility study with a four-member jazz ensemble found oxytocin changes around group singing, but the difference between conditions was not statistically significant and the sample is far too small to generalise.
After 10 months of group music lessons, gains in prosocial behaviour and sympathy appeared only among children who started below the median on prosocial skills.
Across 13 randomised trials, all of them group-delivered, music training had a small positive effect on phonological awareness.
Cortisol fell during a low-stress choir rehearsal and rose during a high-stress public performance, so the hormonal effect of singing depends on the context.
A year-long musical group interaction programme raised children's emotional empathy scores relative to control groups.
Infants assigned to active parent-child music classes showed better social and communicative development at 12 months than infants in passive listening classes.
By showing an overlap in activated areas during synchronized drumming and monetary reward, our findings suggest that interpersonal synchrony is related to the brain's reward system.
In a randomised trial, 20 days of classroom music training raised verbal intelligence and executive function scores relative to a visual-art control, though the gains did not extend to spatial reasoning.
Respiration and heart-rate variability synchronised between choir singers, most strongly when they sang in unison.
A review arguing that music training reshapes the auditory system, with knock-on effects for speech processing and attention.
In a randomised trial with 144 six-year-olds taught in groups of six, a year of keyboard or voice lessons produced small IQ gains compared with drama lessons and no lessons.
A group drumming session raised the DHEA-to-cortisol ratio and natural killer cell activity in healthy participants.