Music Informative Speech Outline

The Benefits of Music
Specific Purpose: My purpose is to inform my audience about the benefits that listening to music has on the body.
Thesis Statement: The impact that music has on life is far and wide for college students, not only benefitting overall health in different ways, but also finding new information to treat different physical and mental conditions.
INTRODUCTION:
I. Attention Getter: You’re sitting in your room, stressed out over your midterm in less than 24 hours. You’ve tried everything to make you focus; you become frustrated. What can you do to help? Easy. Put on some of your favorite music, whether it be something by A Day To Remember, or the latest hit from David Guetta. As you listen, your nerves calm, you find yourself
able to focus, and you hit the exam room the next day ready for the test.
II.
Credibility Statement: As an average college student who has trouble focusing on just about everything, I have not only conducted personal music studies, but further researched the effects of music in the daily grind of students and people alike.
III. Relate Topic To Audience: I randomly polled 20 Purdue students with different majors, and 16 out of 20 said that they use music to help them focus on homework and assignments, while 1 used music during his physical therapy, to take his mind off of the pain he was undergoing.
IV. Thesis Statement: Whether used for mental focus, or physical and mental therapy, music has a place in the lives of millions of people every day.
Transition: In order to give you a further understanding of the benefits of music, first I will talk about the effects music has on mood.
BODY:
1. Music has many effects on the mood of the listener, and moods can change as the type of music does (Lanphier, 2014).
I. According to a May 2014 article by DJ Lanphier, editor of Mic, based on two studies (2008 and 2013), different genres of music can release dopamine into the bloodstream, altering one’s
mood.
a. Daydreams can be prompted by something quiet and lullaby-sounding and upbeat songs might make one want to dance (Lanphier, 2014).
b. On the contrary, “aggressive music may cause aggressive feelings” (Lanphier, 2014).
II. Music may also be used to help people deal with the issue of stress (Ramsay, 2011).
a. According to numbers from the mental health charity Mind (courtesy of Adam Ramsay, Nov. 2011), “One-third of people plugged in their headphones to give them a mood boost.”
b. “One in four listened to music on the way to work in order to de-stress” and reduce anxiety (Ramsay, 2014).
Transition: Research into the effects of music on the brain go deeper than just moods and stress. Now that you know a little about those effects, I’m going to go deeper into the subject of mental injuries and disorders.
2. Over the past several years, doctors and specialists have used music to treat different injuries and disorders in large-scale hospitals and physical therapy clinics (Gupta, 2014).
III. According to CNN’s Dr. Sanjay Gupta (in his 2014 video series “Live to 100”), a patient that has suffered traumatic brain injury can be rehabilitated using music.
a. “Someone who’s asked to sing a song has to remember the words, then carry a tune. That in turn leads to signals traveling from one side of the brain to the other” (Gupta, 2014).
b. Having patients stand up and dance helps to re-establish a sense of rhythm (Gupta, 2014).
IV. Using music as cognitive remediation therapy has produced different positive results, depending on the medical condition.
a. People recovering from comas were found to have increased “sensory perceptions and speech production” (Hegde, 2014).
b. Music therapy helps trigger signals in the brain that enhance “learning, decision-making, emotion, and creativity” (Hegde, 2014).
Transition: Now that you understand music therapy and its benefits, let’s review the benefits that music has on the brain as a whole.
CONCLUSION
I. Restatement of Thesis: Whether used for mental focus or physical and mental therapy, music has a place in the lives of millions of people every day.
II.
Clincher: Every time that you plug in your headphones, and play your favorite songs, take a second and think. Can you feel your mood changing? Can you feel yourself get pumped?

Works Cited
Goleman, D. (2014, May 12). Exercising the Mind to Treat Attention Deficits. Well Exercising the Mind to Treat Attention Deficits Comments. Retrieved October 2, 2014, from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/05/12/exercising-the-mind-to-treat-attention-deficits/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
Gupta, D. S. (2014, August 1). How listening to music helps your brain. CNN. Retrieved October 2, 2014, from http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/health/2014/08/01/cnn-orig-living-to-100-dr-sanjay-gupta-music-therapy.cnn.html
Hegde, S. (2014, March 24). Abstract. National Center for Biotechnology Information. Retrieved October 3, 2014, from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3970008/
Lanphier, D. (2014, May 23). Here 's a Surprising Look at What Music Does to Your Brain. Mic. Retrieved October 2, 2014, from http://mic.com/articles/89655/here-s-a-surprising-look-at-what-music-does-to-your-brain
Ramsay, A. (2011, November 29). Health benefits of music. Netdoctor. Retrieved October 1, 2014, from
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/healthy-living/wellbeing/health-benefits-of-music.htm