We all love a good news story where something, whether it be a spoken word competition, visual art display, or a music program has transformed a school. It makes us believe in the power of music and arts to transform a community. If you are a music or arts educator reading this, it may also […]

Research into music learning has found that, while it is a great activity for physical, cognitive, emotional and social development during childhood, it can be just as impactful to learn a musical instrument when we are adults. But what gets in our way? For anyone who has tried to do it – many, many things. […]

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 […]

“Musical training can improve attention and working memory, which are executive functions that are important for daily life and are correlated with general better outcomes during lifespan. [In our study, we found there were] two different mechanisms [that] seem to underlie the better performance of musically trained children in our task. One that supports more […]

Here is a bright light in 2020. This study is one of the first randomised studies that compares an instrumental music program during class (in this case, a string-based program) with a music appreciation type of classroom program. The study followed the students for two years and measured how the different types of music learning […]

It may seem strange to think of a childcare centre that does not use music in some way. This could be passive background music or a song to sing and move along to on Youtube. We know about the many cognitive skills that interaction with music can create for your children, but why do we […]

Ever wondered what that tingling sensation in your brain or on your scalp is called when you listen to music? We hadn’t wondered, but we feel better now that we know. It is called the Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response (ASMR). We probably won’t remember that long name or the acronym but “head orgasm” is a […]

Pitch pattern recognition is vital for both music comprehension and understanding the prosody of speech, which signals emotion and intent. But what happens when you can’t hear pitch patterns – do you enjoy music less and hear less emotion in speech? It is very hard to assess the enjoyment of music or speech, but 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 […]

One of BBB’s favourite researchers, Dr Patricia Izbicki, has done all the hard work for us and summarised the five great reasons why music learning is the childhood experience that just keeps on giving well into our later life. Here is her five reasons why your brain will thank you for learning music; 1. Music […]

“I succeeded as an entrepreneur not despite the fact that I had a music degree, but precisely because of it.” This statement came from Panos Panay, the founding managing director of the Institute for Creative Entrepreneurship at Berklee College of Music. Prior to his return, in a way, to the world of music, he had […]

To keep a beat, our brains have to get the auditory and motor cortices to first synchronise and then maintain that synchronisation as small things change in the music. To maintain a rhythm, our brains need to do all of that plus constantly monitor how the rhythm is fitting into the beat. It looks easy, […]