At TMB, our students range from tiny primary school pupils just starting to explore different instruments, to retired people making the most of their newfound time and freedom to learn something new.
We believe music education is vital because it supports people to tap into their emotions, relax, have fun and release feel-good endorphins into their system. Not only that, but it helps with confidence, social skills and improve learning elsewhere too.
Music is a brilliant mood changer. To play one well, you need to get into the feeling of it. As you focus on the rhythm, other sensations will drop away and you’ll find a space outside of all the other stresses and worries of the day.
Musician-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin wrote a book called This is Your Brain on Music. In it, he explores how music is unique in that it combines the physical and the mental. As the body learns something new, like a great riff or fill, the brain incorporates them into different contexts too.
What’s more, in 2013, researchers discovered that listening to music helped patient stress and improved immune system function. They also found that patients on ventilators who were allowed to listen to music showed greater psychological and physiological relaxation that those who weren’t.
It won’t surprise you to hear that we are huge advocates of using the power of music for positivity and not just at times like these. So get practising and pass the word on.
