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. 

 

Interested in the minds behind this effort? Meet our research team!

FEATURED CASE STUDY

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

Improving Capacities and Experiences

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).

Photo credit: Isaac Rodriguez

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

WELCOME TO THE MUSIC IMPACT RESEARCH CENTER

FEATURED ARTICLES

Music Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress in Adults: A Theoretical Review

From the article: Music therapy has been employed as a therapeutic intervention to facilitate healing across a variety of clinical populations. There is theoretical and empirical evidence to suggest that individuals with trauma exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition characterized by enduring symptoms of distressing memory intrusions, avoidance, emotional disturbance, and hyperarousal, may derive benefits from music therapy.
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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.
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Parkinson’s Research Studies Show The Healing Power Of Music

In a fascinating example that shows just how potent playing a musical instrument – in this case guitar – can be for combatting progressive neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s, which effects more than 10 million people worldwide, a study done by the Parkinson’s Disease Journal showed how even beginners can experience improvement in mood and overall quality of life, and, for some, motor functions, including

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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.
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