In this new documentary film from the LiveLab at McMaster University in Canada, PhD researcher Dana Swarbrick created an experiment to explore how audience participation changes the impact of a concert experience. In education, we sometimes include audience participation in our concerts, but it may not be as significant as in a concert by adult […]

The question “Does singing and listening to music during pregnancy help my baby’s brain?” and the answer are both complex and evolving. We do know that our auditory processing network is active before birth, probably in the final trimester, and that just after birth, babies use their music processing network to understand their mother’s speech […]

When we listen to music, we can experience many levels of engagement – from very intense emotions to no identifiable emotions at all. Researchers have looked very closely at this phenomenon to understand if it is certain characteristics of music that elicit an emotional response, if it is a totally individual experience, or if it […]

Here is a question we get from parents all the time – should I let my teenager listen to music while they study? First of all, what is the greatest concern for parents – that their child will be distracted, will not complete their study tasks or that they are just goofing off during the […]

Researchers have wondered if “listening to comforting music, as a response to a social loss experience, provides a sense of empathic company as indicated by reduced loneliness and heightened empathy.” Is a pandemic, such as the one we are living through at the moment, a form of social loss? If we look at social media, […]

Have you been listening to music as you get your daily exercise in during COVID-19? Have you found yourself changing your music choices during this troubling time, maybe to lighten your mood or help you focus more on your exercise and less on these uncertain times? Here is a bit of a left-field article for […]

Streaming services are getting a great workout during this period of lockdown. We are watching TV and listening to music more than we ever have before, as we deal with the stress and uncertainty of the COVID-19 world. Become a member for access to more resources like this one This article gives us an excellent […]

Why do we prefer different types of music? Why isn’t there just one type of music that everyone likes? The answer may be that we only get connected with our true selves, the part of our brain that is full of our thoughts, through music that we choose for ourselves. “The listeners’ preferences, not the […]

Listening or playing music is often used by teenagers to assist in their study or to celebrate afterwards. But does it help them perform better in the exam itself? This study found that stressful situations can be alleviated by music and other activities in preparation for a stressful event. It also found that listening to […]

Music is medicine and one we can prescribe to ourselves 🧠🎶❤️ This fascinating study proposes that we use music for different reasons at different stages of our lives. With this knowledge therapists and educators could use music in more effective ways. Here is the impact statement, let’s break it down. “The younger participants listened to […]

Quite a number of research studies have been released recently about listening to music and productivity. A lot of the headlines point to the connection between listening to music and lessening of productivity. The important detail to notice is which particular type of activity the participants were less productive in. We translate cutting edge research […]

Listening to music syncs our brain, but then we get bored. There is a theory called the theory of familiarity in music. It is, as described at the end of this article, the idea of an inverted U. As we listen to music over and over again we like it more and more, but then […]