Here is a question we get from parents all the time – should I let my teenager listen to music while they study?

This study followed the students for two years and measured how the different types of music learning impacted on several executive function skills.

“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.”

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.

“Research suggests music helps parents bond with babies who have had a harrowing start to life and may benefit the babies’ health and brain development.”

“The primary musical features of infant-directed singing are ideal for emotional coordination and sharing between parent and infant without the risk of over-stimulation.”

After 12 weeks of 35 minutes of active music learning every day, randomly chosen preschoolers in the experiment group had higher scores on all of these executive function measures.

Group singing scientifically strengthens a community! “You hear people say all the time, ‘Oh, I can’t sing’ or ‘I’m not good enough to sing,’ and I really think that’s a shame. It goes against our evolutionary history.”

This could be why music festivals seem to be going from strength to strength, we are just finding ways to like each other more.

How efficiently is your brain working today? Music learning trains the brain to use fewer brain resources when compared with non-musically trained people (and in this case those who are also bilingual).