Research Updates
Here at Bigger Better Brains we believe that through educating yourself, you can then educate and affect positive change in your community.
With all of the research in the field of neuromusical science, our BBB Research section serves as a content hub for you. We regularly share findings and break down the latest research to educate and inspire discussion. We hope you enjoy this page on our website and share BBB news with your colleagues, parents and students.
Singing is fundamental to our biological makeup
This is a brilliant article worth a full read, but here are some highlights for you from one of BBBs favourite researchers Professor Sarah Wilson from the University of Melbourne.
Can music help people with Parkinson’s?
Music therapy and music learning are having a profound impact on the life and rehabilitation of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. It is important to understand the difference between music therapy and music learning because sometimes they either look very similar, or one leads seamlessly into the other.
$20 million is a serious investment in music as medicine
It has been widely publicised that the National Institute of Health (NIH) in the U.S. has just awarded the Sound Health Initiative $20 million over the next 5 years to look into the health and learning benefits of music and music learning.
Singing at work = better job performance
Imagine having a singing group at your work. Imagine starting the day with a song with your colleagues. What would your work culture feel like and how would you feel about going to work?
Why does music bring us pleasure?
This study shows for the first time a causal role of dopamine in musical pleasure and motivation: enjoying a piece of music, deriving pleasure from it, wanting to listen to it again, being willing to spend money for it, strongly depend on the dopamine released in our synapses.
Listening to music we prefer gets us more connected to ourselves
Why do we prefer different types of music? Why isn’t there just one type of music that everyone likes? The answer may be that we only get connected with our true selves, the part of our brain that is full of our thoughts, through music that we choose for ourselves.
How listening to music can have psychological benefits during lockdown
This article gives us an excellent summary of the ways that music listening can have physiological benefits, and it is a great reminder of the ways we can use music to improve our wellbeing.
Listening to music while exercising activates specific brain region
Have you been listening to music as you get your daily exercise in during COVID-19? Have you found yourself changing your music choices during this troubling time, maybe to lighten your mood or help you focus more on your exercise and less on these uncertain times?
Listening to self-selected happy music can provide mood-repair and a sense of connection
Researchers have wondered if “listening to comforting music, as a response to a social loss experience, provides a sense of empathic company as indicated by reduced loneliness and heightened empathy.”
Hospitals are prescribing music therapy for babies
“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.”
Singing – the [new] pain management for premature babies
“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.”
Can singing in a choir benefit you or your community?
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.”
Make the skills your students build through music visible
A simple, low-stakes app and teacher toolkit that helps students notice, record and celebrate six learning habits that grow through music, from focus to self-management.
Music builds far more than musicians. Every time students practise, they develop focus, persistence, adaptability, collaboration, confidence and self-management, skills that serve them well beyond the music room. The Music Learning Passport helps students notice, record and celebrate that growth, and gives you a simple way to capture it. Students work through six passport stamps in the app, reflect on the habits they are building, and email their finished learner profile to you and their parents.
WHAT YOU GET
Access to the Music Learning Passport app: a link and password to share with your students, who track their progress on any device
A teacher how-to guide with everything you need to set it up and run it with your class
Six printable habit pages, one for each habit, each with a clear explanation, how music develops it, what it looks like in practice, and a reflection prompt
A shareable learner profile: once students collect all six stamps, they choose their strongest skills and email a finished profile to you and their parents
Six Habits of Music Learning posters to display in your classroom, reinforcing each learning habit throughout the year
WHAT IT HELPS YOU DO
Make the skills students build through music visible to them, to you and to parents
Support reflection, goal-setting and student-teacher check-ins
Provide a light-touch piece of evidence for assessment
Help students who are struggling to see their own progress
Strengthen the case for music by showing the wider skills it develops
HOW TO USE IT
Share the app link and password with your students, then use the passport as a quick end-of-term reflection, a goal-setting activity for a new term, a student-teacher check-in, or a support tool for students who need it. Students can complete it independently, in class or through guided discussion, and email their finished profile to you when they are done. Use the printable habit pages to introduce each stamp or spark class discussion.
WHY IT WORKS
When students can see the habits they are building, music learning becomes about more than performance. It becomes visible proof of the focus, persistence and self-management they are developing, skills they carry into every part of their lives. As one student profile puts it, music is not only about what you can perform, it is shaping the learner you are becoming.
"This app was a lifesaver on a day I couldn’t be in class and I didn’t want to set just another worksheet to complete. This experience was deeply beneficial for the students and has sparked many many conversations.” Holly, Middle School Music Teacher
COMMON QUESTIONS
What is the passport? A student app plus a teacher toolkit for tracking six learning habits that grow through music.
How do students access it? You share a link and password. Students can complete it on any device.
Will their progress save? Yes, progress saves on the device they use, so students should return to the same device and browser each time.
Do I need to mark anything? No. Students reflect and email their finished profile to you. It is designed to be low stakes and low effort.
How can I use it? End-of-term reflection, goal-setting, check-ins, assessment evidence or support for students who need it.
Add to cart NOW. Help your students see how far their music learning has taken them.
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