Can listening to music… or even playing it… make you a better writer? Maybe yes, according to two new studies.

I mentioned above how strange it was that so many copywriters play instruments. Turns out, according to Georgetown University researchers, that might not be a coincidence.

Not only does their research say that music and language — word use — use the same areas of memory, but that we also unconsciously learn the “rules” of what sounds good in both music and language, in the same way.

So if you have a good ear for melodies, you might also have a good ear for what sounds good in the printed or spoken word.

Research from the New York Academy of Sciences takes it even further: playing music, they say, can make you smarter. It can also beef up your immune system, improve your memory, and keep you sane, for lack of a better way to put it.

How they explain why so many musicians seem to go nuts or die young, I don't know.

But what their research shows is actual increased grey matter in the part of the brain that manages hearing, which gets more pronounced in people who play music often.

Even listening to music –- and not just Mozart –- can give you some of the same benefits. But actually playing it seems to be even better.

The recitation involved just seems to help your brain's neural network get “organized” so it can run more efficiently. Go figure, eh?

This article is published with permission from John Forde – A top copywriter who releases a free newsletter on copywriting every week you can get for free. I'm a subscriber and it's is superb. It's why I've chosen to reprint his article here. Go sign up!