Issue 002 of Fireworks, the BBB magazine is now available to all BBB+ members. Packed with BBB success stories and updates, a community interview, pieces written by Dr Anita Collins, and so much more. Fireworks will inspire and motivate you to advocate for music education.

Introducing Fireworks, our brand-new quarterly magazine for BBB+ members. Packed with BBB success stories and updates, a community interview, pieces written by Dr Anita Collins, and so much more. Fireworks will inspire and motivate you to advocate for music education.

“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.

On Jan 3, 2023, Bigger Better Brains and I started a campaign we called “This is a not a…” campaign. At the essence of the campaign is the idea that music learning is not just learning music, but learning how to learn.

This is where the power of the story is. It is not simply that music learning has transformed a school and its students; it is HOW it has done it.

As students worldwide are having educational experiences that are a little or a lot different to their “normal”, teachers are looking for ways to maintain students’ engagement in a similar way to when they are attending “normal” school.

For almost a decade now we have understood that music listening activates the reward network in the brain.

To get control of our inhibitory control, preschoolers might first need to get a hold of the beat!

It may seem strange to think of a childcare centre that does not use music in some way. We know about the many cognitive skills that interaction with music can create for your children, but why do we have music in the first place?

Music programs often grapple with a big question: Should we give our students a variety of experiences learning different instruments, or should we get them to focus on learning and eventually mastering just one instrument?

In this study, they found that 10 weeks of rock drum kit improved dexterity, rhythm, timing and the ability to maintain attention for children with autism.

This summary could be very helpful for understanding the learning challenges faced by ADHD students in your music ensemble or classroom and also give you ideas on specific activities for focus or to help improve their skills.