Background: Learning strategies are indispensable in nursing education aimed at producing professional nurses. Innovative methods as one of them is music in classroom learning is rarely used in nursing education in Indonesia. Aim: Research aims to comparison the cognitive ability of twelve cranial nerves with conventional method and music method in stikes buleleng bali. Method: This research quantitative type with quasi experiment design and Control Group Time Series approach pretest-posttest with a total sample of 65 students divided into 34 experimental groups and 31 control groups using the Purposive Sampling technique. The Multiple Choice Question (MCQ) instrument as a measurement and intervention uses music as a learning method. Data analysiusing T-test. Result: The findings about the memory of a teaching material is very limited in brain memory, learning strategies with music proved to be more effective in improving the cognitive abilities of learning twelve cranial nerves. Comparison of music methods with conventional methods in the T-test conducted obtained p = 0.0005 <0.05. Conclusion: The innovations in music methods provided were able to significantly enhance the cognitive abilities of the learning of the twelve cranial nerves of nursing students.