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

Why is Music Good for the Brain?

This blog posting summarizes an AARP study looking at the impact of music on emotional well-being and cognition. Some results certainly suggest that music can affect many different areas, inlcding one’s overall happiness in life: Music listeners had higher scores for mental well-being and slightly reduced levels of anxiety and depression compared to people overall.
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It Turns Out We Were Born to Groove

This article is a synopsis by one of the researchers of the study (and similar study) listed above about newborns discerning rhythm AUTHOR SUMMARY: Henkjan Honing READ MORE: https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/it-turns-out-we-were-born-to-groove/ Related posts: A Review of the Literature on the Relationship of Music Education to the Development of Socio-Emotional Learning Anti-Oppressive Music Therapy: Updates and Future Considerations Art and Music Therapy Seem to Help with Brain Disorders.

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Why researchers are Turning to Music as a Possible Treatment for Stroke, Brain Injuries and even Parkinsons

This article focuses on neurologic music therapy, citing research suggesting that music can physically increase brain matter, which could help the brain repair itself. it looks at how patients with different types of brain injuries or diseases are able to sing or play music when they are unable to speak – music activities centers in the brain enabling actions that otherwsie are not feasible.
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Music Training Alters the Course of Adolescent Auditory Development

We investigated the effects of in-school music training, previously shown to enhance auditory skills, versus another in- school training program that did not focus on development of auditory skills (active control). We tested adolescents on neural responses to sound and language skills before they entered high school (pretraining) and again 3 y later.
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Study Protocol for the Alzheimer and Music Therapy Study: An RCT to Compare the Efficacy of Music Therapy and Physical Activity on Brain Plasticity, Depressive Symptoms, and Cognitive Decline, in a Population with and at Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease

There is anecdotal evidence for beneficial effects of music therapy in patients with Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). However, there is a lack of rigorous research investigating this issue. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of music therapy and physical activity on brain plasticity, mood, and cognition in a population with AD and at risk for AD.
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