Music Impact Research Center

WAAM’s Music Impact Research Center (MIRC) funds, researches, aggregates, and disseminates data measuring music’s influence through rigorous, scientific means.

We have formed a community of domain experts to develop and guide priorities. The team is responsible for curating leading third-party research, as well as producing original content to illustrate and substantiate the tangible link between music and key success metrics. Our analysis is publicly available; it is also shared with our grantees and factors into the evaluation of program delivery.

Music Impact Research Center

WAAM’s Music Impact Research Center (MIRC) funds, researches, aggregates, and disseminates data measuring music’s influence through rigorous, scientific means.

We have formed a community of domain experts to develop and guide priorities. The team is responsible for curating leading third-party research, as well as producing original content to illustrate and substantiate the tangible link between music and key success metrics. Our analysis is publicly available; it is also shared with our grantees and factors into the evaluation of program delivery.

Metrics Linking Guitars Over Guns to Broader Social Emotional Learning (SEL)

Improving Capacities and Experiences During Covid

The We Are All Music Foundation, in partnership with Hello Insight, recently undertook a case study of one of our Power of Music Grantees – Guitars Over Guns – to showcase how their music mentoring program has helped bring about some striking improvements across key metrics showing progress towards Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) during Covid.

For CORE SEL, 58% of participants showed improvement in this umbrella category.

Core SEL is further broken down into the follow sub-categories:

Contribution

Measures a young person’s desire to engage with and contribute to family, community, and society

of participants reported improvement

Self-Management

Measures the ability of a young person to regulate their emotions and behavior, take positive risks, and persist through life’s challenges

of participants reported improvement

Positive Identity

Measures a young person's internal sense of who they are and confidence to explore the multiple facets of their identities

of participants reported improvement

Academic Self-Efficacy

Measures a young person's motivation and perceived mastery over their own learning, school performance, and potential to attain academic success

of participants reported improvement

Social Skills

Measures the ability of a young person to take others’ perspectives into account, and to develop a sense of caring and empathy

of participants reported improvement

Music, Rhythm and Trauma: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Research Literature

From the article: Recent theorizing about the connection between the brain and trauma (Perry, 2009; Porges, 2011; van der Kolk, 2015) has led to a burgeoning of interest in the provision of music-based programs with people who have had adverse experiences.

Musical Pride: Music Education in Plural Communities

From the paper: This research explored the provision of music services through hub partnerships in ‘plural’ towns, where no ethnic group is in the majority.

The Study of Music Therapy: Current Issues and Concepts

This book addresses the issues in music therapy that are central to understanding it in its scholarly dimensions, how it is evolving, and how it connects to related academic disciplines. It draws on a multi-disciplinary approach to look at the defining issues of music therapy as a scholarly discipline, rather than as an area of clinical practice.

Perspectives on Queer Music Therapy: A Qualitative Analysis of Music Therapists’ Reactions to Radically Inclusive Practice

From the article: The queer music therapy model was designed by Bain, Grzanka, and Crowe in 2016 as a novel therapeutic approach to affirm and empower LGBTQ+ identity through music. No data have been generated on how this model might actually be implemented, or the strengths and limitations of the model according to music therapy professionals.

Music Therapy: Research and Evidence-Based Practice

The profession of music therapy in the United States has a rich history and has grown considerably over the past few decades. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to achieve individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship with a credentialed music therapist. Music therapists in the United States go through rigorous training to earn the MT-BC (music therapist-board certified) credential.

Promoting an LGBT+ Inclusive Classroom

The website www.smartmusic.com provides music educators with powerful online tools to connect students and teachers within a wider community. Among the resources they make available on their website are various articles, including a very interesting one by Eric Rubsenstein, Pd.D.

Swing It Loud: Duke Ellington’s Early Black-Pride Music

From the article: Long before the rise of the black-pride movement in the 1960s, there was the music of Duke Ellington. Born and raised in Washington, D.C.

What is Music Therapy, and How Does it Work?

Music therapy involves using a person’s responses and connections to music to encourage positive changes in mood and overall well-being. Music therapy can include creating music with instruments of all types, singing, moving to music, or just listening to it. Music has powerful effects on the mind.

The ABC’s of Creating the LGBTQ-Friendly Classroom

In an interesting article on the historical assumptions that music roles are defined by human sexuality – i.e. sopranos versus tenors, Stephen Paparo, Ph.D. lays out several suggestions for creating LGBTQ+ classrooms that apply to music/vocal education, but also go well beyond this.

The Effect of Music on Postoperative Recovery in Older Patients: A Systematic Review

Surgery is an important part of the treatment modalities offered to older patients with cancer. Natural ageing processes lead to deterioration of organ function, making older patients more vulnerable and at risk for experiencing less-favourable outcomes and complications after surgery.

Search Research Topics

Music, Rhythm and Trauma: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Research Literature

Musical Pride: Music Education in Plural Communities

The Study of Music Therapy: Current Issues and Concepts

Music, Rhythm and Trauma: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Research Literature

From the article: Recent theorizing about the connection between the brain and trauma (Perry, 2009; Porges, 2011; van der Kolk, 2015) has led to a burgeoning of interest in the provision of music-based programs with people who have had adverse experiences.

Musical Pride: Music Education in Plural Communities

From the paper: This research explored the provision of music services through hub partnerships in ‘plural’ towns, where no ethnic group is in the majority.

The Study of Music Therapy: Current Issues and Concepts

This book addresses the issues in music therapy that are central to understanding it in its scholarly dimensions, how it is evolving, and how it connects to related academic disciplines. It draws on a multi-disciplinary approach to look at the defining issues of music therapy as a scholarly discipline, rather than as an area of clinical practice.

Perspectives on Queer Music Therapy: A Qualitative Analysis of Music Therapists’ Reactions to Radically Inclusive Practice

From the article: The queer music therapy model was designed by Bain, Grzanka, and Crowe in 2016 as a novel therapeutic approach to affirm and empower LGBTQ+ identity through music. No data have been generated on how this model might actually be implemented, or the strengths and limitations of the model according to music therapy professionals.

Music Therapy: Research and Evidence-Based Practice

The profession of music therapy in the United States has a rich history and has grown considerably over the past few decades. Music therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to achieve individualized goals within a therapeutic relationship with a credentialed music therapist. Music therapists in the United States go through rigorous training to earn the MT-BC (music therapist-board certified) credential.

Promoting an LGBT+ Inclusive Classroom

The website www.smartmusic.com provides music educators with powerful online tools to connect students and teachers within a wider community. Among the resources they make available on their website are various articles, including a very interesting one by Eric Rubsenstein, Pd.D.

Swing It Loud: Duke Ellington’s Early Black-Pride Music

From the article: Long before the rise of the black-pride movement in the 1960s, there was the music of Duke Ellington. Born and raised in Washington, D.C.

What is Music Therapy, and How Does it Work?

Music therapy involves using a person’s responses and connections to music to encourage positive changes in mood and overall well-being. Music therapy can include creating music with instruments of all types, singing, moving to music, or just listening to it. Music has powerful effects on the mind.

The ABC’s of Creating the LGBTQ-Friendly Classroom

In an interesting article on the historical assumptions that music roles are defined by human sexuality – i.e. sopranos versus tenors, Stephen Paparo, Ph.D. lays out several suggestions for creating LGBTQ+ classrooms that apply to music/vocal education, but also go well beyond this.

The Effect of Music on Postoperative Recovery in Older Patients: A Systematic Review

Surgery is an important part of the treatment modalities offered to older patients with cancer. Natural ageing processes lead to deterioration of organ function, making older patients more vulnerable and at risk for experiencing less-favourable outcomes and complications after surgery.

Search Research Topics

Music, Rhythm and Trauma: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis of Research Literature

Musical Pride: Music Education in Plural Communities

The Study of Music Therapy: Current Issues and Concepts