Collecting, summarising and sharing evidence of the impact of music education
A new podcast by Anita Holford, co-editor of Music Education Works, features Australian music educator and researcher, Dr Anita Collins. You may know Anita from her TED Ed lesson, How playing an instrument benefits your brain, and her TEDx talk, What if every child had access to music education from birth? And more recently, she’s starred in the Australian version of a British TV show, ‘Don’t Stop the Music’.
Edward R Howe, associate professor at Thompson Rivers University in British Colombia, Canada, asks what can be done to support and encourage music education for all?
With Olly Murs and other stars performing in a major mental health fundraiser a couple of weeks ago, Music 4 Mental Health, music and mental health is in the headlines again. Most of us have used music at some point to improve our mood or add atmosphere to our surroundings. But how does music impact on our emotional wellbeing and how can you use it to improve your own or others’ mental health?
Beatboxing can help young people overcome speech problems, and some neuroscientists think it could help to unlock the brain’s potential.
Urban music is an economic success story, but music education is not serving the young creators of this work, many of whom come from diverse and working-class backgrounds.
Dr Victoria Armstrong from St Mary’s University, Twickenham, recently delivered a keynote presentation on inclusion in music education at Ableton’s the Loop Festival, Berlin.
Michelle James, CEO at SingUp, explores the powerful effect of music on our mood, health and ability to form personal connections.
Courtney Myers looks at five top reasons why music education is essential.
In 2012, Anita Holford wrote the following blog about the creation of music education hubs in England, and how crucial head teacher support for music education is to make England’s National Music Plan work.
‘Show me a great school and I’ll show you a rich pulsing culture of the arts at its core’, says Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders.
A primary school in Yorkshire has gone from being in special measures, to being in the top 10 per cent nationally for progress in reading, writing
According to a former director of music at a south London school, the combination of sustained cuts to school budgets and a burgeoning teacher recruitment crisis threatens to be calamitous for music education.
