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Effects of the Educational Use of Music on 3- to 12-Year-Old Children’s Emotional Development: A Systematic Review

José salvador blasco-magraner.

1 Department of Teaching of Musical, Visual and Corporal Expression, Faculty of Teacher Training, Universitat de València, 46010 Valencia, Spain; [email protected] (J.S.B.-M.); [email protected] (P.M.-L.)

Gloria Bernabe-Valero

2 Faculty of Psychology, Universidad Católica de Valencia “San Vicente Mártir”, 46001 Valencia, Spain; [email protected]

Pablo Marín-Liébana

Carmen moret-tatay.

Interest in the study of emotions in education has grown in recent years. Some of our modern challenges, such as constantly adapting to new scenarios or the need for team work have justified the introduction of emotional competence into educational systems, while diverse studies confirm the relationship between music and emotional intelligence, so that the former could be used as a tool to develop the latter. The aim of this work was to examine the evidence for positive effects of music on the emotions of 3- to 12-year-old children, to which end a systematic review was carried out. Two reviewers independently evaluated 424 studies that were identified in MEDLINE, Psycinfo, and CINAHL databases, in order to determine whether they met the stated inclusion criteria. A total of 26 articles were selected for review. The results suggest several beneficial effects of music on children’s development, such as greater emotional intelligence, academic performance, and prosocial skills. It can therefore be concluded that music should be used in school settings, not only as an important subject in itself, but also as an educational tool within other subjects.

1. Introduction

The study of emotions is a subject that has raised researchers’ interest, being extended to fields ranging from philosophy, education, or psychology to health sciences. Regarding the field of education, a century ago John Dewey pointed out the importance of the social and emotional nature of the classroom and the relationship between social processes and learning [ 1 ]. However, the increase in the study of emotions in the area of education during the last two decades has given rise to a more humanistic, holistic, and socio-emotional approach to educational activity [ 2 ]. Salovey & Mayer [ 3 ] were the first to define emotional intelligence as “the ability to monitor one’s own or others’ feelings and emotions, to discriminate among them and to use this information and to guide one’s thinking and actions”. Since then, a large number of programs have emerged aiming to help educators prevent problem behaviours and to promote children’s health and character development [ 4 ]. In 1994, the Collaborative to Advance Social and Emotional Learning (CASEL) was created, an organisation whose aim was to promote and implement social and emotional learning as an integral part of teaching in schools. [ 5 ].

UNESCO´s well-known Report of the International Commission on Education for the 21st Century, entitled Learning: The Treasure Within [ 6 ], established four pillars on which the new education of the 21st century was based: learning to know, learning to do, learning to live together, and learning to be. The last two are closely related to emotional intelligence. Since then, research on the importance of emotional education in the field of education has not stopped growing in different scientific disciplines, especially in Psychology, Neurosciences and Behavioral Sciences [ 7 ]. Thus, for example, in the field of psychology there is a wide variety of works that address the study of emotions in the educational context from different topics, such as the importance of emotional competence in the classroom [ 8 , 9 ]; emotions and emotional regulation in the classroom [ 10 , 11 ]; or the importance of goals in the emotional experience of academic failure [ 12 ]. The field of neuroscience has produced numerous studies on the development of emotional regulation and the possible implications for education [ 13 ]; as well as the implications of affective and social neuroscience for educational theory [ 14 , 15 , 16 ]. Lastly, in the Behavioral Sciences, one can find studies as diverse as the essential characteristics of educational programs for students with emotional and behavioral disorders [ 17 ] or the professional preparation for teachers to effectively implement evidence-based practices for students with Emotional Disabilities [ 18 ].

The reasons for the significant increase in research on the relevance of emotional education in the specific educational contexts have been, in part, the fast and relentless global technological and economic and social changes which have created previously unimaginable pressures and challenges on the younger population, especially on children [ 19 ]. Moreover, the new challenges posed by today’s society demand future professionals who are able to learn constantly by working in a team [ 20 ], which is a challenge in interpersonal emotional management. It is therefore necessary to have eminently social individuals with a high capacity to adapt to the constant changes that today’s society demands [ 21 ]. For this reason, the educational systems of the most developed countries include in their educational programs the development of individual’s emotional competencies [ 22 ]. Social and emotional education is defined as “the educational process by which an individual develops intrapersonal and interpersonal competence and resilience skills in social, emotional and academic domains through curricular, embedded, relational and contextual approaches” [ 1 ] and all children should develop it in order to achieve full and integral personal formation.

What role does music education play in emotional development? In recent years, music education has gained special relevance as part of the curricula of compulsory education in most Western countries [ 23 ], both for its learning benefits in itself [ 24 , 25 , 26 ], as well as for its ability to promote the learning of other disciplines [ 27 , 28 ]. Music has a remarkable capacity to express, transmit, and evoke various emotions and affections in human beings [ 29 , 30 ], regardless of their nationality or culture [ 31 ].

In the last two decades the research on music and its ability to generate emotions in humans has been systematized [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 ]. Numerous studies affirm the ability of music to trigger physiological responses, such as changes in the heart rate, skin temperature, and conductance, respiration and hormone secretion [ 39 , 40 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. Other studies claim that music aids emotional regulation [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ] and some have shown that music stimulates the cognitive aspect [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ]. Ultimately, music is described as multidimensional and researchers have categorised it by its arousal properties, emotional quality, and structural characteristics [ 52 ].

The link between music and emotion has contributed to the value of music as a discipline that can be implemented in formal education to develop students’ emotional competence [ 2 , 53 ]. One of the advantages of musical activities is that they mostly require collective participation, which requires cooperation and coordination on the part of the members of a society [ 54 ], making them useful tools for the advancement of socioemotional development. In addition, the social interactions required for music-making offer many opportunities for students to develop their abilities to evaluate their own feelings and at the same time try to relate constructively to the feelings of others [ 55 ]. According to Pellitteri [ 56 ] there are five ways in which music education and social-emotional learning are complementary: music can be used as an emotional stimulus; it can be an aesthetic experience; it can be used for relaxation and imagery; music-making is a form of self-expression; and music-making can be a form of group experience [ 57 ].

Music education thus has a strong impact on children and young people´s intellectual, social, and personal development and therefore on pupils´ psychological well-being [ 58 , 59 ]. To our knowledge, no systematic review has been carried out on how the educational use of music affects the emotional development of children between 3 and 12 years of age. In order to answer this question, a systematic review was carried out to obtain as many studies as possible that explore this developmental stage. The information obtained from all of the studies on this specific subject was thus synthesized and partial or biased conclusions were avoided by referring to the available documents or the authors’ subjective inclusion criteria.

2. Materials and Methods

To find out the effects of the educational use of music on 1–3-year-old children’s emotional development, a systematic review was carried out following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) statement guidelines. The question under study was: How does the use of music in the educational field affect the emotional development of children aged between 3 and 12 years old?

The articles were selected in different stages by two independent reviewers, who independently extracted data from articles that had been deemed eligible in the selection stage. Discrepancies at further stages were resolved by consensus with a third researcher, so that the process can be described in two main stages. First, the researchers read the titles and abstracts individually, and secondly, the full text to finally compare agreement. The inclusion and exclusion criteria were the same in both stages. In the case of a disagreement, a third reviewer was consulted. The articles rejected in the first or second stage for not meeting the inclusion criteria had the reason for their exclusion described in the results section. Data extraction was based on the recommendations of the “Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews”, including the following information: (i) general information about the study (e.g., author’s citation, and country of origin); (ii) methodology (e.g., duration/follow-up of the study and design and type of music intervention); (iii) information related to the sample (e.g., selection method, sample size, age and sex distribution); (iv) information related to the outcome (e.g., effects in the emotion variable); and (v) additional information (e.g., statistical methods involved or size effects).

Studies were identified in the MEDLINE, Psycinfo, and CINAHL Web of Science and EBSCO databases through EBSCO and WOS (ISI Web of Knowledge) to determine whether they met the stated inclusion criteria. General search terms with the controlled descriptors for each database were used, employing the Medical Subject Heading (MeSH) from MEDLINE terms, and the descriptors and terms published in the literature. As this is a relatively recent field of study there is not yet a general consensus on the definitions of several analysis variables and categories on the relations between music and emotional development, we opted to use generic key words, which opened up a large number of papers. The two main words were music and school , with the addition of school to reduce the search to the educational field.

To connect these terms, we used the Boolean terms “AND” and “OR” to expand and restrict the search spectrum. In addition, a manual search was also performed. The total electronic search of all databases was performed between August and December 2020. The final syntax is defined as follows: “Music” AND “Emotion” AND “School”. In this way, we tried to restrict the sample to studies that focused on the relationship between music and emotions in educational contexts.

2.1. Inclusion Criteria

To be included in the review, articles had to meet the following requirements: (i) the sample of a study had to be children between 3 and 12 years of age, i.e., who were in pre-primary or primary school, to adjust the research question to the selected age range; (ii) it had to be an empirical study (i.e., cross-sectional, cohort, or case-control studies) to guarantee any conclusions drawn from our observations of reality; (iii) it had to measure the role of music in emotion so as to draw conclusions on the effect of music in primary education on the children’s emotional development; and (iv) it must have been published since 2000, in order to analyze studies from the last 20 years, when this new field of knowledge was developed.

2.2. Exclusion Criteria

Articles that met one of the following exclusion criteria were not added to the analyzed sample: (i) those not expressly measuring emotions, dealing with the subject matter in an indirect or secondary way, i.e., those that did not directly deal with the relation between music and emotional development in spite of containing the key words; (ii) those that were non-empirical theoretical or bibliographical studies; (iii) those that were single case studies, due to the difficulty of generalizing any results obtained; (iii) those that included sample ages outside the selected range, i.e., studies on children less than 3 years old, adolescents and adults; and (iv) those that were grey literature or non-peer reviewed journal articles, to guarantee the quality of the reviewed papers.

The results obtained in the systematic review are presented below. After a selective process using the PRISMA protocol flowchart as a reference [ 60 ], the results of the systematic review are depicted in Figure 1 . The sample analyzed reached a total of 26 scientific articles. The number of articles excluded according to the different criteria is shown in Table 1 and a summary of the content developed from the analyzed articles can be consulted in Table 2 . Below is a description of the sample used and a narrative summary of the different papers, grouped according to subject matter.

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart to show study selection process [ 60 ].

Table showing reasons items were excluded.

Summary of findings.

3.1. Sample Description

Evolution of publications.

Distribution of identified topics.

3.2. Combined Results

After analyzing the selected studies the results were organised into two lines: (1) dependent variables, a description of the socio-emotional effects/benefits of music; and (2) independent variables, different types of musical experience and their different effects. It should be noted that many authors did not make this distinction, while other co-relational studies did not follow a specific direction in the associations found. However, we attempted to structure these by assigning dependent and independent variables according to the interpretation of the aim of the studies.

3.3. Organization of the Information on Dependent Variables: What Emotional Effects Are Provided by Music?

This section was structured on the groups included in Table 3 , in which the results are given according to: emotional intelligence, and the educational, training and socio-emotional benefits.

3.3.1. Emotional Intelligence

After analyzing the selected articles we found 11 papers divided into two sub-topics: (1) emotional perception, appraisal, and expression, (2) and emotional regulation.

Perception, Assessment and Expression

Six studies addressed the role of music in relation to emotional perception and assessment. For example, Nieminen [ 65 ] observed that students in the first two years of primary school have the ability to identify greater happiness in pieces composed in the major mode than in the minor mode. This relationship was stronger in those with musical training, especially among the younger ones. In a similar vein, Schellenberg and Mankarious [ 68 ] measured perceptual differences between a group of students with and without musical training, finding that the former scored higher in identifying emotions in images and/or texts. However, the authors point out that this relationship appears to be mediated by IQ, which may be biased both in terms of participating in formal music education activities and identifying emotions on the basis of a measurement instrument based on visual and linguistic processes.

In relation to specific interventions, Kim and Kim [ 73 ] found that the use of a music education program based on group instrumental performance improved students’ ability to recognise emotions. Katagiri [ 79 ] found in a study conducted with a group of children with autism spectrum disorder that teaching them to recognise emotion is more effective with music than when only verbal instructions are used. In addition, it was found that the use of background music associated with the emotions being worked on obtained better results than nursery rhymes, especially for the emotion of anger, as opposed to happiness, sadness, and fear. Of these above four studies it was deduced that musical entertainment and/or music education can help to recognise emotions in pieces of music, texts, and images, unlike other types of non-musical activities, and that this result can also be applied to specific populations such as children with autism spectrum disorder.

However, another study did not find any effect of music training on Emotional Comprehension in children who began the program with high levels of social skills [ 74 ], although it did provide a significant improvement in the children who had poor social skills at the beginning of the study. Along the same lines, Habibi et al. [ 64 ] compared the differences between children who participated in after-school activities in music, sports, or who had not enrolled in any specific activity. The study found no significant differences between the three groups in recognising emotional states by viewing pictures of eyes and empathising with the emotions of others, supporting the idea that the differences found in other studies are due to musical experiences.

However, the results in which no difference was found between the musically trained group and the other two groups could have been due to the short training time (5 days per week for two/three weeks). As the authors themselves propose, the differences associated with musical training were found in another longitudinal study with a 14-month training period with 5–7 year old children [ 88 ]. However, Habibi et al. [ 64 ] considered that their results also give some indirect support for the idea that the kinds of social and emotional skills reported in children who have studied music may be a by-product of music training and designed their study controlling the base line of previous skills in all of the groups, which provided a good base for a complete longitudinal study for the subsequent identification of whether the development of different skills in musical and non-musical adults is specifically due to musical training or to previous skills.

Three papers that deal with emotional expression agree that music can favor emotional expression. For example, Boone and Cunningham [ 62 ] found that, between the ages of 4 and 5 years, children are able to physically express some emotions that they perceive through music, such as happiness, sadness, anger, and fear (especially the first two). A study conducted with students from low socio-economic backgrounds concluded that using an Orff-based approach improved their ability to express emotions [ 78 ]. Improvement was also observed in a study in which a music therapy program was implemented [ 61 ].

Emotional Regulation

Two of the articles analyzed dealt with emotional regulation in relation to educational programs including music therapy and concluded that they favored emotional regulation. On the one hand, Brown and Sax [ 63 ] compared the emotional state and regulatory capacity of a group of students after attending a traditional education program or a program with a greater emphasis on arts education, including music education. It was found that individuals who participated in the latter showed a greater capacity to regulate emotions, both positive and negative. Moore and Hanson-Abromeit [ 61 ] observed that a music therapy program improved a range of behaviors associated with emotional regulation such as aggression, attention and both internal and external attitudes.

3.3.2. Educational and Training Benefits

Eleven of the articles analyzed studied the effect of the use of music on the performance of school tasks. For example, Tricard et al. [ 77 ] found that video clips and background music to induce joy and sadness caused students who experienced a positive mood to score higher on deductive reasoning activities. Teske et al. [ 75 ] also found that students’ creativity was enhanced. On the other hand, Venegas et al. [ 76 ] found that the use of an interdisciplinary application that used music to support the learning of graphical representation in mathematics generated positive emotional levels in students. Similarly, another study found that greater use of music education increased motivation levels among students [ 63 ]. Rauduvaite [ 70 ] found that the introduction of urban popular music into the classroom can promote meaningful values in education, partly due to the emotional bond that students have with this type of repertoire.

However, music does not always have only beneficial effects. Su et al. [ 86 ] concluded that listening to background music while reading reduces students´ anxiety and improves some aspects of their reading comprehension, such as extracting explicit information and making direct inferences. However, other aspects with a higher level of interpretation, such as the integration of ideas or the evaluation of content, language, and textual elements, scored lower. Similarly, Rauduvaite [ 70 ] found that the introduction of urban popular music into the classroom can promote meaningful values in education, partly due to the emotional bond that students have with this type of repertoire. Soulier et al. [ 72 ] investigated the relationship between a music-induced mood and performance on spelling tasks, concluding that inducing negative emotions through sad music resulted in poorer performance.

Other studies propose indirect methods to promote an emotional state that can improve the performance of school tasks. In the context of a remedial class, Pimenta and Trevisan [ 69 ] concluded that the introduction of music, especially choral singing, led to an improvement in the feelings experienced when attending these sessions and a new way of relating to the class, as well as a greater interest and involvement in the class. In a similar way, Ramdane et al. [ 66 ] studied the beliefs of a group of Islamic education teachers about the effect of using singing in their classes, and found that the vast majority believed that singing gave them greater emotional awareness and motivation, which could lead to better learning. Similarly, another study found that the use of music with a strong religious-emotional component led students to improve their concentration and creativity [ 82 ].

Improving emotional skills can improve the results of music practice. A research study addressed the relationship between emotional skills and instrumental piano practice [ 80 ], obtained several results. Firstly, they found that identifying emotions helped students to integrate emotional expression into their piano playing and to play more fluently. Secondly, the type of activities most effective in addressing emotional competence were improvisation and associating the pieces with personal experiences. Thirdly, emotional control allowed for greater organisation of the study, minimising moments of impatience, of playing fast and skipping steps, of not being aware of the music, and of not facing difficulties. Finally, bearing in mind that a public performance is conditioned by concerns about others’ judgements, as well as one’s own level of self-esteem, it was claimed that the variable under study could be enhanced by sharing feelings, collaborating, and helping peers, or achieving a goal through effort.

To sum up, the diverse papers analyzed provide empirical evidence of the effect of music in different areas of education, including the negative effects to be avoided (such as its interference with reading tasks that require a high degree of interpretation) and the positive ones that need reinforcement (e.g., a positive mood to promote learning).

3.3.3. Socio-Emotional Benefits

Nine studies found that the use of music enhanced some socio-emotional benefits in diverse areas such as social skills, empathy, and reducing emotional problems. For example, Schellenberg et al. [ 74 ] found that students with a musical background scored higher in sympathy and prosocial skills, although only those with lower levels of musical performance. Another study concluded that singing music with a strong emotional component led students to improve in attitude and social skills such as teamwork [ 82 ]. Similarly, an intervention based on music education resulted in students developing pro-social emotions in relation to their peers with autism spectrum disorder, especially in cases where the latter were bullied [ 81 ]. Kawakami and Katahira [ 71 ] studied the relationship between empathic traits and liking sad music, concluding that those individuals with a higher level of concern for the negative experiences of others, greater capacity to adopt the perspective of the other, and greater development of fantastic imagination, experienced more positive emotions when listening to sad music. Porta [ 81 ] showed that film music makes sense of the audiovisual narrative and helps to hold children’s interest even when they lose the visual part.

Regarding the approach to music education, Jeremić et al. [ 67 ] measured differences in the social-emotional competencies of children who were taught singing by a specialist teacher who used an active methodology in which she performed the songs, or by a non-specialist teacher who played the recordings on audio devices. Significant improvements in social-emotional competencies were found in the experimental group that had used an active method. For example, they were more empathetic towards those who had difficulty with intonation and felt more positive about singing individually. These results suggest that not all of the ways of using music obtain the same effects.

Other studies found a decrease in negative social-emotional attitudes when participating in certain intervention programs that included music. Thus, Ho et al. [ 83 ] studied the effect of an experience combining participation in a drumming group with educational counselling on students with low socio-economic backgrounds. The group made significant improvements in behaviors such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, inattention, and some defiant attitudes. In the same direction, Kang [ 71 ] investigated the effect of a therapy based on the use of music (singing, listening, and performing) and sand play in children who had witnessed domestic violence. The author observed that individuals showed improvements related to emotional behavioral problems such as depression, anxiety, aggression, oppositional behavior, and post-traumatic stress. Finally, it was observed that the use of a music education program based on group instrumental performance reduced physical and verbal aggression [ 73 ].

Although there have not been a great number of studies performed that show the socio-emotional benefits, they all provide diverse methods for using music to improve these skills.

3.4. Organizing Information by the Independent Variables: What Types of Musical Experience Have What Types of Socio-Emotional Effects?

Ten studies used listening to music as the independent variable to compare its effects in different emotional areas and in general found them to be beneficial. Nieminen et al. [ 65 ] showed that children better identified their emotions according to major or minor chords. Su et al. [ 86 ] concluded that background music improved students’ moods, and thus indirectly other skills such as reading comprtehension. Porta [ 84 ] found sound held children’s interest even in the absence of images and that music had a significance for children in aspects related to emotions. Tricard et al. [ 77 ] found that videoclips and background music promote positive emotions in children and a significant improvement in deductive reasoning. Teske et al. [ 75 ] found that happy music promotes a positive mood and creativity. Katagiri [ 79 ] found that background music increases emotional comprehension in autistic children. Rauduvaite [ 70 ] found that popular music helped children’s education due to their emotional tie with this repertory. Finally, Boone & Cunningham [ 62 ] found that children could represent the emotional significance of music by expressive movements, especially the sad and happy moments. One of the controversial aspects was the effect of sad music on children: while Kawakami & Katahira [ 85 ] found that empathic children enjoy sad music, Soulier [ 72 ] found that inducing negative emotions through sad music reduced their concentration on spelling tasks.

Fourteen studies used musical training as the independent variable and obtained evidence that it improved diverse socio-emotional competencies, including: identifying emotions in images and/or texts [ 68 ]; a greater capacity to regulate emotions [ 63 ]; concentration and creativity [ 82 ]; students’ ability to recognise emotions [ 73 ]; improved learning and mathematics [ 76 ]; a positive effect on children’s self-expression, self-efficacy, and social skills [ 78 ]; improved the feelings experienced when attending class [ 69 ]; greater emotional awareness and motivation from singing [ 66 ]; increased empathy and positive feelings for learning [ 67 ]; influenced the effects of emotional understanding [ 64 ]; influenced emotional awareness, regulation and autonomy [ 80 ]; increased pro-social behavior in neurotypical children in relation to the social exclusion of autistic children [ 74 ]; promoted the development of pro-social skills [ 81 ]; improved behaviors such as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, inattention and some defiant attitudes [ 83 ]; and increased children’s motivation and thus their learning capacity [ 66 ].

Finally, two studies used a musical therapy program as the independent variable and found improved emotional behavioral problems, including depression [ 71 ] and children’s emotional comprehension and emotional regulation [ 61 ].

4. Discussion

This systematic review seeks to understand the role that music plays in the emotional education of children in infant and primary education. The scientific literature indicates, on the one hand, that in all educational processes there is an emotional component that conditions the teaching-learning process [ 1 ]. On the other hand, today’s society demands individuals who are increasingly able to adapt to change [ 21 ], and with the skills to work collaboratively [ 20 ]. This has led to the implementation of various educational programs that seek to introduce the development of emotional competence in the classroom [ 4 , 5 , 22 ]. At the same time, some studies belonging to the fields of Psychology [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ], Neuroscience [ 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ], and Behavioral Sciences [ 17 , 18 ] have investigated the importance of emotional education in the education system. In addition, the central role of music has been demonstrated in aspects such as emotional expression, emotional induction, and emotional regulation [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ].

Starting from this conceptual framework, this review aims to systematise the knowledge accumulated through the research works of the last two decades with samples made up of individuals from 3 to 12 years of age. The 26 articles analyzed indicate that publications on this topic have experienced a linear growth since 2008, that most of the research is carried out in the context of primary education, and that the topics most frequently dealt with are the development of emotional intelligence [ 87 ], educational and training benefits, and socio-emotional benefits.

With regard to the first aims, two studies have observed that students with musical training have a greater facility for recognising emotions [ 65 , 68 ]. The attribution of this effect to musical experiences is reinforced by a study that found no differences prior to such training [ 64 , 74 ]. Other studies have shown how certain educational interventions using music led to improvements in the emotional recognition of students [ 73 , 79 ]. However, caution should be exercised with these results, as Schellenberg et al. [ 74 ] found no differences between children with and without musical training, whereas Schellenberg and Mankarious [ 68 ] point out that the relationship could be mediated by IQ, which would act as a bias. In this regard, it would be interesting for future research to experiment with measurement instruments that do not depend on the cognitive abilities of the participants.

In relation to the two studies [ 64 , 74 ] that found no differences between the groups with and without musical training in emotional recognition skills, we consider that the results, in spite of being the opposite of those expected, do not invalidate the general statement that music favors emotional perception and assessment. This is because firstly it provides evidence that music is an especially efficient instrument for children who had poor social skills at the beginning of the study, and secondly it emphasises the need to control the participants’ basic levels and carry out longitudinal studies long enough to capture the improvements produced while establishing relationships that specifically assolciate these benefits with musical training.

Similarly, it has been found that the use of proposals that include music improves children’s capacity for emotional expression [ 61 , 78 ], who are able to express perceived emotions through music from the age of 4–5 years old [ 62 ]. Emotional regulation also benefits when methodologies in which music plays a central role are used [ 61 , 63 ]. Therefore, the results obtained suggest that the use of music, whether in the form of specific ongoing training or one-off interventions, improves some aspects of emotional intelligence [ 87 ], especially emotional perception, expression, and regulation.

This is consistent with some studies that argue that music has a remarkable capacity to express, transmit, and evoke diverse emotions and affections in human beings. Thus, for example, Flores-Gutierrez & Diaz [ 29 ] claim that there are musical sequences that stimulate a specific group of emotions and others that evoke a more general response to a type of emotion that has a certain polarity, such as being pleasant and vigorous. Thus, in their study they find music that globally stimulates one of the four major axes defined in their circular affective model, such as pleasant (Mozart), unpleasant (Mussorgski), exciting (Metallica), or relaxing (Japanese music) emotions. For their part, Thompson & Quinto [ 30 ] claim that the power of music to elicit emotion lies in its ability to engage participants in tightly controlled synchronisation at multiple levels of abstraction. Music optimally recruits synchronisation processes that are ubiquitous in human behavior and that greatly influence our emotional lives.

This ability to express, transmit, and evoke diverse emotions and affects is, moreover, independent of the culture to which one belongs. Balkwill & Thompson [ 31 ] demonstrated that naïve listeners from different cultures obtained as high a level of agreement in their emotional responses to music as expert listeners, who were deeply familiar with the culture-specific cues embedded in the music samples.

On the other hand, music helps emotional regulation. In this regard, Randall et al. [ 45 ] conducted research in which they found that using music to regulate a recently experienced emotion achieved the greatest hedonic success. For these authors, personal music listening is used as an independent regulatory resource, allowing listeners to achieve specific emotional goals. Saarikallio & Erkkilä, [ 47 ] conducted a study to recognise music´s role in mood regulation in adolescents. The study showed that listening or performing music has an impressive capacity to promote emotional self-regulation. In this regard, music offered adolescents resources to enhance and restore well-being, making their emotional lives more varied and colorful. In addition, Saarikallio [ 46 ] asserts that the general nature of music-related emotional self-regulation remains relatively similar throughout adulthood.

It therefore seems reasonable to think that the educational use of music may contribute to students’ development of some dimensions of emotional intelligence. However, none of the work addresses the levels of emotional facilitation and understanding reported by Mayer and Salovey [ 87 ] in their model. This could be due to the fact that these are higher level skills with a higher level of complexity and abstraction that are beyond the developmental possibilities of infant and primary school students. Future work should explore the possibilities of developing these levels of emotional competence in school-age children.

In relation to the educational and formative benefits, the results indicate that music can play a role in triggering positive emotional states [ 75 , 76 , 77 ] and higher levels of motivation, concentration, and interest [ 63 , 66 , 69 , 70 , 82 ], which promotes learning in the classroom. It can also reduce the occurrence of negative emotional states such as anxiety and depression [ 86 ]. These benefits have been observed in relation to different school contents, such as improving deductive reasoning [ 77 ], creativity [ 75 ], graphic representation [ 76 ], reading [ 86 ], education in values [ 70 ], orthography [ 72 ], or instrumental practice [ 80 ].

These results are consistent with other research that has found music activities such as instrumental performance or improvisation stimulate cognitive processes [ 48 , 49 , 50 , 51 ], and that they are able to support learning in other disciplines. Johnson & Memmott [ 27 ], in a study of 4739 children, demonstrated the relationship between the quality of music instruction and academic performance on standardised tests in English and mathematics. For these authors, music is a very useful tool to support academic performance. On the other hand, Rickard et al. [ 28 ] conducted a study with 151 schoolchildren on the impact of school music programs on verbal and visual memory processes over a two-year period. The results revealed that schools with high-quality music programs performed better on standardized tests than students in schools with lower-quality music offerings.

Finally, in terms of socio-emotional benefits, the articles reviewed agree that both music training and music education can be beneficial for students’ social and emotional development [ 74 ], such as the fact that the use of music in educational and therapeutic processes [ 81 , 82 ] can have a positive impact on the development of social skills in which some kind of emotion comes into play, such as empathy, teamwork, the development of a pro-social attitude or self-esteem. Similarly, they can contribute to the reduction of negative socio-emotional attitudes such as depression, anxiety, aggression, inattention, defiant and oppositional behavior, or post-traumatic stress [ 71 , 73 , 83 ]. These benefits coincide with some of the challenges posed by today’s society, which requires social subjects with high intrapersonal and interpersonal skills that allow them to work in teams and adapt to change [ 1 , 20 , 21 ].

Specific educational programs that encourage the development of pro-social skills include participation in a drumming group [ 83 ], group musical performance [ 73 ], or training in singing through a specialist teacher who used her voice in the classroom [ 67 ]. These results seem to indicate that the use of music has the capacity to bring social-emotional benefits insofar as it is experiential and fosters personal relationships. This is consistent with some authors who point out that music often involves a series of social interactions that favor socio-emotional learning [ 55 , 56 , 57 ]. Moreover, it coincides with the ethnomusicological perspective that conceives of music as a socio-cultural phenomenon that requires cooperation and coordination [ 54 ]. This perspective would also contribute to broadening the theoretical basis that justifies the use of active methodologies in the classroom as opposed to more traditional models focused on theory, technique, and individual learning [ 89 , 90 , 91 , 92 ]. In further research, it would be useful to study not only the greater or lesser use of music, but also the methodology implemented. In this regard, the comparison between the effects produced by traditional, active, and critical pedagogical models would be a valuable contribution to the field of emotional education, as they could be used to guide teachers in their educational practices and to design both initial and ongoing professional training programs.

Regarding the different musical experiences, it was found that both exposure to music, musical entertainment, and musical therapy programs provide improvements in the emotional sphere.

5. Conclusions

This systematic review found that using music in the education of 3–12 year olds can have a positive effect on their emotional development. We first found that it can contribute to the development of emotional intelligence, especially with regard to emotional perception, expression, and regulation. The students that took part in activities using music were more capable of recognising and expressing their emotions and regulating their emotional states, such as aggression or anger. Secondly we found that music is capable of providing educational, formative, and socio-emotional benefits. In this regard its emotional impact can improve aspects such as deductive reasoning, creativity, graphic representation, reading, spelling, education in values, or practical instrumental skills. It can also boost attitudes such as sympathy, empathy, and other prosocial skills, and reduce anxiety, depression, and defiant attitudes. It is therefore recommended that music be incorporated into the different curricular levels, educational contexts, and areas of knowledge. Likewise, the establishment of educational policies aimed at guaranteeing universal access to musical training is suggested, as well as an increase in the presence and recognition of this discipline in formal educational contexts.

Most of the limitations encountered in this study were due to the considerable heterogeneity in the different studies selected, which made it difficult to integrate them into a single framework. All the studies used different independent variables, such as musical listening, entertainment, or music therapy, and different dependent variables such as different emotional effects or in the development of socio-emotional skills. We therefore had to integrate and synthesize the information into a scheme to make sense of the results. However, our double approach to structuring the results (first by the socio-emotional effects and then by the musical variables) allowed us to better structure them, although it was a difficult and complex task.

We should first of all point out that the studies came from different disciplines such as musical education, music psychology, music teaching, music therapy, etc., and thus different researchers used their own theories, methods, nomenclatures, and instruments, which made it difficult to combine the results in a common language. The second difficulty was the lack of a classification with a wide consensus of positive emotions or emotional skills. Psychology is known to classically study psychopathology and has classified the universally accepted diverse psychological disorders (e.g., Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V) [ 93 ] and the International Classification of Diseases (CIE10) [ 94 ]). These serve as a guide to researchers who can compare their results using these classifications. However, until the emergence of Positive Psychology in the first decade of the 21st century this discipline had not focused on the positive aspects of human existence, so that there were still no official classifications of the positive emotional sphere that were generally accepted by all researchers

The present work aimed to find positive emotional aspects, and although we used studies from the year 2000 these were not based on a common taxonomy regarding the measurement and classification of these effects. However, we had serious difficulty in integrating the results into a common scheme, although we got some support from Mayer & Salovey’s Theory of Emotional Intelligence [ 87 ], which includes different emotional facets and skills and is widely recognized in scientific fields. Thirdly, we should point out that there are overlaps and covariances among the dependent variables (e.g., if we improve emotional recognition the socio-emotional skills will probably also improve) and in the independent variables (e.g., musical entertainment programs include listening and music therapy). This makes it difficult to ascertain the relations between the variables and alerts us to the need for a more experimental approach in this field that uses common categories to construct more solid knowledge.

Fourthly, we were not able to extract solid syntheses and conclusions from homogenous groups in diverse variables of interest (e.g., specific ages, music styles, different levels of empirical evidence) due to the lack of appropriate studies. We opted for a generic search in order to deal with the wide range of papers. A narrower search would have provided greater precision with more homogeneous results but less information, counting on a small number of papers for the systematic review. We therefore consider that our approach achieved a balance between information and precision, since it allowed us to draw a map of the present situation and integrate this information into a joint scheme.

The wide fragmentation of the papers is an indication of the relatively recent emergence of this field of study, which associates music education with its emotional effects. However, we consider that studies such as this will allow us to detect the obstacles and deficiencies in order to go on constructing the basis of a common language to improve the comparison of the results and the advances in clarifying the empirical evidence in relation to the effects of musical education in the socio-emotional area.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, J.S.B.-M., G.B.-V., and P.M.-L.; methodology, J.S.B.-M., P.M.-L., and C.M.-T.; investigation, J.S.B.-M., G.B.-V. and P.M.-L.; data curation, J.S.B.-M., C.M.-T. and P.M.-L.; writing—original draft preparation, J.S.B.-M., G.B.-V. and P.M.-L.; writing—review and editing, J.S.B.-M.; P.M.-L., and G.B.-V.; supervision, G.B.-V., and C.M.-T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

This work was funded by the Faculty of Psychology of the Catholic University of Valencia San Vicente Mártir under Grant (number 2021-198-001).

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Conflicts of interest.

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Does Listening to Music Stimulate Creative Thinking, or Stifle It?

L istening to music while you work “significantly impairs” creativity. That was the conclusion of a study published earlier this year in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology that examined the effect of different types of background music on creative problem solving.

For the study, UK researchers presented people with a series of word puzzles designed to measure creativity and “insight-based” processes. The study participants completed the puzzles either in a quiet space or in one with music playing in the background. Whether that music was familiar or unfamiliar, vocal or strictly instrumental, people’s scores on average fell on the creativity test compared to their scores in the quiet condition. “The findings challenge the view that background music enhances creativity,” the study authors wrote.

But don’t pitch your headphones or desk speaker just yet. More research on music and creativity has found that, depending on the kind of creative task a person is grappling with, certain types of music may be helpful.

A 2017 study in the journal PLOS ONE found that listening to “happy” music—defined as classical tunes that were upbeat and stimulating—helped people perform better on tasks that involved “divergent” thinking, which is a core component of creativity. Divergent thinking involves “making unexpected combinations, recognizing links among remote associates, or transforming information into unexpected forms,” the authors of that study wrote. Basically, divergent thinking is coming up with new, outside-the-box ideas or strategies.

“We can only speculate why happy music stimulates divergent thinking,” says Simone Ritter, coauthor of the PLOS ONE study and an assistant professor at Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. One theory put forward in her study is that the stimulating nature of lively music somehow energizes the brain in ways that promote a “flexible thinking style,” which leads to unconventional or innovative ideas.

There are other theories. Research has shown that listening to music can lower anxiety and improve mood , and these shifts could facilitate creative insights. “For breakthrough moments of creativity, positive mood is generally helpful,” says Mark Beeman, chair of psychology at Northwestern University and principal investigator at NU’s Creative Brain Lab. Meanwhile, if someone is anxious, “this [anxiety] tends to cause them to focus more, which is not helpful,” he says.

How could focusing on a creative problem be a bad thing? Beeman has spent two decades studying the brain and its creative processes, which he explores in his 2015 book The Eureka Factor: Aha Moments, Creative Insight, and the Brain . He explains that the process of creative problem solving tends to unfold in predictable stages.

The first stage, he says, involves studying a problem or dilemma, assessing the obvious solutions, and realizing that none of them works. “At this point, if you keep focusing too hard on a problem, that tends to make it more difficult for the brain to come up with different or novel ideas,” he says. He likens it to a dim star that disappears when you stare straight at it. “To see the star, you have to look at it out of the corner of your eye, and creative ideas may be like that too,” he says. “You need to take your focus off the strong, obvious ideas to avoid squashing the others.”

This is where music comes into play. Once a person has closely examined a problem and hit a roadblock, the next creative stage is one Beeman calls “incubation.” During this stage, “there’s some kind of continuing process in the mind where you’re still mulling the problem at an unconscious level,” he says. This incubation period often produces “aha!” insights or realizations—like when you can’t recall a word, but then it pops into your head later in the day, after you’ve thought you’d stopped thinking about it.

But not all activities foster incubation, Beeman says. “If you’re reading email or doing other demanding tasks, there aren’t enough background resources to do any work on the problem.”

Listening to music, on the other hand, may be just the kind of mild diversion that relaxes the brain’s focus while still allowing it to do its fruitful new-idea incubating, he says. And indeed, there’s evidence that listening to music can stimulate the brain’s default mode network, which is a collection of connected brain regions that research has linked to creative insight.

Beeman doesn’t dispute the results of the new study that found music impairs creative problem solving. He says music might not help people solve the type of verbal puzzle the study employed—which he himself helped design and validate years ago in an effort to better measure some aspects of creative thinking. This specific type of puzzle requires “multiple cognitive processes,” he says, some of which require “focused attention.” And all types of distraction—music included—may impair focused attention.

So if a person is in the midst of the first stage of creativity, the one that involves analyzing a problem and eliminating the obvious choices or solutions, background music probably isn’t helpful. “It’s either a distraction or you just block it out,” he says.

But if you’re stuck on a problem and you’re looking for creative inspiration, taking a break to listen to music or engage in idle “mind wandering” may allow the brain the freedom it needs to “dredge up” new ideas or insights, he says. He also cites research linking mind-wandering to creative inspiration.

In those cases, what type of music should you turn on? “I think that will vary a lot depending on the individual,” Beeman says. “For most, I think something that’s pleasant and familiar—not so novel that it’s distracting—would be helpful.”

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Greater Good Science Center • Magazine • In Action • In Education

How Music Helps Us Be More Creative

In today’s world, creative thinking is needed more than ever. Not only do many businesses seek creative minds to fill their ranks, but the kinds of complex social problems we face could also use a good dose of creativity.

Luckily, creativity is not reserved for artists and geniuses alone. Modern science suggests that we all have the cognitive capacity to come up with original ideas—something researchers call “divergent thinking.” And we can all select from a series of ideas the one most likely to be successful, which researchers call “convergent thinking.”

Though we may not all be equally accomplished at these kinds of thinking, we can all become more skillful in creative problem-solving—whether the problems we face involve figuring out technological challenges at work or the next steps to take in creating a new painting. The question is how.

One new study explores music as a source of creativity. Since music has been shown to improve cognition and enhance learning and memory in other studies, it makes sense that perhaps it has an impact on creative thinking, too. 

In the experiment, participants tried creativity exercises that measured divergent or convergent thinking while being exposed to either silence (the control scenario) or classical music that evoked four distinct emotional states: happy, calm, sad, or anxious.

After comparing participant performance on divergent and convergent thinking in the five scenarios, the researchers found that participants who’d listened to happy music had significantly higher scores on divergent thinking than those who’d performed in silence. In other words, they came up with more total ideas, and more creative and innovative ideas (as rated by people who were unfamiliar with the study’s aim). The other types of music did not have this impact.

“The results suggest that listening to happy music increases performance on overall divergent thinking,” write the authors, suggesting that it enhances the cognitive flexibility needed to come up with innovative solutions—the ability to switch between different concepts and perspectives, rather than seeing the problem from a rigid point of view.

Interestingly, whether or not the participants “liked” the music had no impact on their performance, suggesting that the benefits don’t come from simply enjoying music. And none of the types of music had an impact on convergent thinking, which requires coming up with a right answer rather than opening your mind to many potential ideas.

“The increase in divergent but not convergent thinking after listening to happy music may be explained by the fact that the convergent tasks rely less on fluency and flexibility, but on finding one correct answer,” write the authors.

It may also have to do with the mood created by the happy music. After all, happiness is considered to be a positive emotion that, according to researcher Barbara Fredrickson, broadens our mindset and enhances our desire to explore and play. Though the researchers didn’t actually analyze mood changes, research suggests a link between positive mood and creativity , suggesting that this may be the underlying mechanism behind the benefits of happy music.

Whatever the case, the results suggest that people may want to listen to happy music while they work—particularly if they need to come up with new ways of looking at a particular problem. As the authors conclude, “music listening may be useful to promote creative thinking in inexpensive and efficient ways in various scientific, educational, and organizational settings when creative thinking is needed.”

About the Author

Jill Suttie

Jill Suttie, Psy.D. , is Greater Good ’s former book review editor and now serves as a staff writer and contributing editor for the magazine. She received her doctorate of psychology from the University of San Francisco in 1998 and was a psychologist in private practice before coming to Greater Good .

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Nine Teaching Ideas for Using Music to Inspire Student Writing

By Natalie Proulx

• May 10, 2018

Some of the greatest written works of our time have been inspired by music. Walt Whitman conceived of and wrote “Leaves of Grass” while listening to opera . Alice Walker, Langston Hughes, Ntozake Shange and Ralph Ellison were all moved by spirituals, jazz and blues . And Lin-Manuel Miranda’s rap musical “Hamilton” was born of his love of hip-hop . These writers understood what many educational researchers know — that music opens up pathways to creative thinking, sharpens our ability to listen and helps us weave together disparate ideas .

In this teaching resource, we suggest nine exercises to use music to inspire student writing — from creating annotated playlists and critical reviews to music-inspired poetry and personal narratives. Each idea pulls from Times reporting, Opinion pieces and multimedia on music to give students a place to start. The activities are categorized according to three genres: creative and narrative writing; informative and explanatory writing; and persuasive and argumentative writing.

How do you use music in your classroom? Let us know in the comments.

Creative and Narrative Writing

Exercise #1: Write a story or poem inspired by music.

One way you might let your students be inspired by music is to have them describe in words what they hear, a method Jean-Michel Basquiat employed in his poetry and paintings.

In “ Bowie, Bach and Bebop: How Music Powered Basquiat ,” Ekow Eshun writes:

In 1979, at 19, the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat moved into an abandoned apartment on East 12th Street in Manhattan with his girlfriend at the time, Alexis Adler. The home, a sixth-floor walk-up, was run-down and sparsely furnished. Basquiat, broke and unable to afford canvases, painted with abandon on the walls and floor, even on Ms. Adler’s clothes. The one item that remained undisturbed was Ms. Adler’s stereo, which had pride of place on a shelf scavenged from the street. “The main thing for us was having big speakers and a blasting stereo. That was the only furniture I purchased myself,” said Ms. Adler, who still lives in the apartment. When Basquiat was around, she recalled, “music was playing all the time.” On Thursday, the exhibition “Basquiat: Boom for Real” opened at the Barbican Center in London. The show focuses on the artist’s relationship to music, text, film and television. But it is jazz — the musical style that made up the bulk of Basquiat’s huge record collection — that looms largest as a source of personal inspiration to him and as a subject matter.

Invite your students to read the article and then listen to the Times-curated Spotify playlist “ The eclectic taste of Jean-Michel Basquiat ” as they view his art and read his poetry . Discuss what they notice about the musical influence in Basquiat’s work. How do the content, colors, textures and shapes in his paintings resemble the sounds they hear? How are these reflected in the words, phrases, mood and rhythm of his poems?

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Unlocking the Connection: How Music Enhances Writing Skills

Uncover the link between music and writing skills. Explore how melodies enhance creativity, cognition, and emotional intelligence. Find out more about how to capitalize on music to improve writing in this article.

Have you ever wondered if there's a connection between learning music and enhancing your writing skills This popular notion that music can make you smarter traces back to a study by Dr. Gordon Shaw in 1993. The study, the Mozart Effect , suggested that listening to Mozart can boost students' IQ.While the theory has not been conclusively proven, it captivates people's imaginations. This article will explore the relationship between music and cognitive skills, focusing specifically on how music can impact your writing abilities. Get ready to dive into some fascinating insights!

How does music enhance writing

It may sound surprising, but music and literacy skills can go hand-in-hand, offering a transformative learning experience for children. Learning to read and write doesn't have to be limited to the mechanics of language; it can be enriched through the power of music.Songs, for instance, can be fantastic tools for teaching grammar rules and the structure of various literary forms like sonnets. The melodies and rhymes found in music also aid in memorization, just like learning the ABCs. Additionally, music can empower children to express themselves creatively, giving them the confidence to compose poems or speeches set to music.By incorporating music into literacy education, children develop their language skills and boost their self-belief and creativity.

Research conducted by Ransdell and Gilroy in 2001 revealed that individuals with a musical background tend to demonstrate better writing quality than those without musical training.

Another study by Gibson , Folley, and Park found that musicians generally exhibit higher levels of creativity. Moreover, recent research by Kelley Pugh unveiled that music can evoke deep emotions, stimulate imagination, and significantly influence creative writing.Also, studies have indicated a link between music and the writing process. It has been discovered that faster-paced melodies can cause students to lose focus, resulting in unclear writing and numerous errors.On the other hand, slower genres like pop and rap may slow down the writing process, while classical and old-school music can help speed it up. Interestingly, listening to "older genres" has been associated with fewer mistakes than other types of music. Hence, choosing the right music genre can positively impact efficiency and the development of writing skills.

Examples of famous people who have used music to enhance their writing

Numerous prominent personalities throughout history have recognized the influence of music on their writing endeavors. Here are a few notable examples:

Ludwig van Beethoven

This legendary composer often expressed how music influenced his creative writing process. Beethoven's profound understanding of music helped him create powerful symphonies and sonatas that continue to inspire generations.

The iconic singer-songwriter and Nobel laureate Bob Dylan has masterfully blended music and poetry throughout his career. His lyrical prowess and poetic storytelling have impacted the world of music and literature, evoking great emotion.

Maya Angelou

The acclaimed poet and civil rights activist Maya Angelou often emphasized the connection between music and her writing. She used the rhythmic patterns and cadences of music to infuse her poetry with a powerful and melodic quality.

Haruki Murakami

The celebrated Japanese author Haruki Murakami is an avid music enthusiast. In interviews, he mentioned how music, particularly jazz, influenced his writing style, helping him find a unique rhythm and atmosphere for his novels.

Benefits of learning music for writing

Students who studied quietly tended to perform better in their learning tasks. Additionally, there were variations in performance depending on whether the music had lyrics, whether it was preferred by the student, and even the specific melodies involved. Let's see the benefits in detail:

Listening to music improves the mood

Music can evoke a wide range of emotions and imagery within you. Music can uplift your spirits and improve your mood, whether listening to an upbeat, energetic tune or a melancholic melody.Even when you find solace in sad songs, they can provide a cathartic experience and help you process the emotions, ultimately leading to a better overall mood.When you are in a positive state of mind, you are more likely to perform tasks, such as studying or engaging in creative endeavors. The positive effects of music on mood can create an environment conducive to productivity and enhance our overall performance.

Higher grade point average for students

The link between writing, music, and academic performance is not fully understood. However, research has indicated that students who engage in musical composition tend to have higher grade point averages.This suggests that writing music may enhance cognitive abilities, creativity, and discipline, positively impacting academic achievement.

Altered social and linguistic behavior

The effects of writing music on social and linguistic behavior are less extensively studied. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that individuals who write music may experience changes in how they interact with others.Engaging in musical composition can foster self-expression and communication, enhancing social skills and a greater capacity for adequate expression.

Boosts emotional intelligence

Learning music hones your technical skills and profoundly impacts your emotional intelligence. It cultivates empathy, understanding, and sensitivity towards others, fostering a deeper connection with the world around you.For instance, imagine learning to play a musical piece that evokes many emotions, such as Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata." As you delve into the intricate melodies and harmonies, you appreciate the depth of human emotions conveyed through the music.

How to learn music to enhance your writing

Discover music genres.

Start by exploring different music genres that resonate with you. Whether it's classical, jazz, rock, or folk, each genre offers unique rhythms, melodies, and emotions that can ignite your creativity.For example, if you're writing a suspenseful scene in your novel, listening to dark and mysterious music like Erik Satie's "Gymnopédie No.1" can set the mood and inspire your descriptive language.

Utilize background music

Experiment with using background music while writing to establish a conducive atmosphere. Instrumental pieces or ambient tracks often work best, providing a soothing backdrop without distracting you from your writing. Websites and apps like Focus@Will offer curated playlists to enhance focus and productivity.

Draw inspiration from lyrics

Pay attention to the lyrics of songs that resonate with you. Many songwriters are master storytellers, and their lyrics can be a source of inspiration for your writing.Analyze how they use language, metaphors, and emotions to convey their messages. For instance, Bob Dylan's poetic lyrics in "Blowin' in the Wind" can inspire you to explore thought-provoking themes in your writing.

Use music as a warm-up

Before diving into your writing session:

• Engage in a short music-based warm-up exercise.
• Listen to an uplifting or energizing song that inspires positive emotions.
• Close your eyes, immerse yourself in the music, and allow it to awaken your senses. This practice can help you transition into a creative mindset and overcome any initial resistance or writer's block.

The big picture

The connection between learning music and enhancing writing skills is a fascinating and well-supported phenomenon. Throughout history, numerous famous individuals have demonstrated the positive impact of music on their writing abilities.Renowned authors like William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe were known to be music enthusiasts, and their literary masterpieces were infused with rhythmic patterns and melodic influences.If you need help enhancing your writing skills further, platforms like Lessonpal offer affordable and accessible online tutoring services. Look at our pool of music and writing tutors to get started today!Mastering music and writing requires dedication, practice, and an open mind. So, embrace the harmonious connection between music and writing, and let your creativity soar to new heights.

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Image by storyset on Freepik[/caption]

Frequently asked questions

Are there any musical genres that have a more vital link to improved writing skills.

While no specific genre guarantees improved writing skills, different genres can evoke unique emotions and stimulate creativity. It ultimately depends on personal preference and what resonates with you. Exploring genres like classical, jazz, or even contemporary music can help discover what inspires and enhances your writing process.

How can I incorporate music into my writing journey

Incorporating music into your writing journey can be done in several ways. You can create playlists that match the mood or theme of your writing project, use instrumental music as background ambiance, or draw inspiration from song lyrics.

How does learning music enhance your writing

Learning music can enhance your writing in multiple ways. It helps develop your sense of rhythm, flow, and pacing, which can be translated into your writing style. Moreover, music fosters creativity, evokes emotions, and expands your perspective.

Are there any psychological links between the two

Yes, there are psychological links between the two. Music has the power to influence emotions, mood, and cognitive processes. Listening to music allows you to tap into different emotional states that can inspire and enhance your writing.

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1 What is Action Research for Classroom Teachers?

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

• What is the nature of action research?
• How does action research develop in the classroom?
• What models of action research work best for your classroom?
• What are the epistemological, ontological, theoretical underpinnings of action research?

Educational research provides a vast landscape of knowledge on topics related to teaching and learning, curriculum and assessment, students’ cognitive and affective needs, cultural and socio-economic factors of schools, and many other factors considered viable to improving schools. Educational stakeholders rely on research to make informed decisions that ultimately affect the quality of schooling for their students. Accordingly, the purpose of educational research is to engage in disciplined inquiry to generate knowledge on topics significant to the students, teachers, administrators, schools, and other educational stakeholders. Just as the topics of educational research vary, so do the approaches to conducting educational research in the classroom. Your approach to research will be shaped by your context, your professional identity, and paradigm (set of beliefs and assumptions that guide your inquiry). These will all be key factors in how you generate knowledge related to your work as an educator.

Action research is an approach to educational research that is commonly used by educational practitioners and professionals to examine, and ultimately improve, their pedagogy and practice. In this way, action research represents an extension of the reflection and critical self-reflection that an educator employs on a daily basis in their classroom. When students are actively engaged in learning, the classroom can be dynamic and uncertain, demanding the constant attention of the educator. Considering these demands, educators are often only able to engage in reflection that is fleeting, and for the purpose of accommodation, modification, or formative assessment. Action research offers one path to more deliberate, substantial, and critical reflection that can be documented and analyzed to improve an educator’s practice.

Purpose of Action Research

As one of many approaches to educational research, it is important to distinguish the potential purposes of action research in the classroom. This book focuses on action research as a method to enable and support educators in pursuing effective pedagogical practices by transforming the quality of teaching decisions and actions, to subsequently enhance student engagement and learning. Being mindful of this purpose, the following aspects of action research are important to consider as you contemplate and engage with action research methodology in your classroom:

• Action research is a process for improving educational practice. Its methods involve action, evaluation, and reflection. It is a process to gather evidence to implement change in practices.
• Action research is participative and collaborative. It is undertaken by individuals with a common purpose.
• Action research is situation and context-based.
• Action research develops reflection practices based on the interpretations made by participants.
• Knowledge is created through action and application.
• Action research can be based in problem-solving, if the solution to the problem results in the improvement of practice.
• Action research is iterative; plans are created, implemented, revised, then implemented, lending itself to an ongoing process of reflection and revision.
• In action research, findings emerge as action develops and takes place; however, they are not conclusive or absolute, but ongoing (Koshy, 2010, pgs. 1-2).

In thinking about the purpose of action research, it is helpful to situate action research as a distinct paradigm of educational research. I like to think about action research as part of the larger concept of living knowledge. Living knowledge has been characterized as “a quest for life, to understand life and to create… knowledge which is valid for the people with whom I work and for myself” (Swantz, in Reason & Bradbury, 2001, pg. 1). Why should educators care about living knowledge as part of educational research? As mentioned above, action research is meant “to produce practical knowledge that is useful to people in the everyday conduct of their lives and to see that action research is about working towards practical outcomes” (Koshy, 2010, pg. 2). However, it is also about:

creating new forms of understanding, since action without reflection and understanding is blind, just as theory without action is meaningless. The participatory nature of action research makes it only possible with, for and by persons and communities, ideally involving all stakeholders both in the questioning and sense making that informs the research, and in the action, which is its focus. (Reason & Bradbury, 2001, pg. 2)

In an effort to further situate action research as living knowledge, Jean McNiff reminds us that “there is no such ‘thing’ as ‘action research’” (2013, pg. 24). In other words, action research is not static or finished, it defines itself as it proceeds. McNiff’s reminder characterizes action research as action-oriented, and a process that individuals go through to make their learning public to explain how it informs their practice. Action research does not derive its meaning from an abstract idea, or a self-contained discovery – action research’s meaning stems from the way educators negotiate the problems and successes of living and working in the classroom, school, and community.

While we can debate the idea of action research, there are people who are action researchers, and they use the idea of action research to develop principles and theories to guide their practice. Action research, then, refers to an organization of principles that guide action researchers as they act on shared beliefs, commitments, and expectations in their inquiry.

Reflection and the Process of Action Research

When an individual engages in reflection on their actions or experiences, it is typically for the purpose of better understanding those experiences, or the consequences of those actions to improve related action and experiences in the future. Reflection in this way develops knowledge around these actions and experiences to help us better regulate those actions in the future. The reflective process generates new knowledge regularly for classroom teachers and informs their classroom actions.

Unfortunately, the knowledge generated by educators through the reflective process is not always prioritized among the other sources of knowledge educators are expected to utilize in the classroom. Educators are expected to draw upon formal types of knowledge, such as textbooks, content standards, teaching standards, district curriculum and behavioral programs, etc., to gain new knowledge and make decisions in the classroom. While these forms of knowledge are important, the reflective knowledge that educators generate through their pedagogy is the amalgamation of these types of knowledge enacted in the classroom. Therefore, reflective knowledge is uniquely developed based on the action and implementation of an educator’s pedagogy in the classroom. Action research offers a way to formalize the knowledge generated by educators so that it can be utilized and disseminated throughout the teaching profession.

Research is concerned with the generation of knowledge, and typically creating knowledge related to a concept, idea, phenomenon, or topic. Action research generates knowledge around inquiry in practical educational contexts. Action research allows educators to learn through their actions with the purpose of developing personally or professionally. Due to its participatory nature, the process of action research is also distinct in educational research. There are many models for how the action research process takes shape. I will share a few of those here. Each model utilizes the following processes to some extent:

• Plan a change;
• Take action to enact the change;
• Observe the process and consequences of the change;
• Reflect on the process and consequences;
• Act, observe, & reflect again and so on.

Figure 1.1 Basic action research cycle

There are many other models that supplement the basic process of action research with other aspects of the research process to consider. For example, figure 1.2 illustrates a spiral model of action research proposed by Kemmis and McTaggart (2004). The spiral model emphasizes the cyclical process that moves beyond the initial plan for change. The spiral model also emphasizes revisiting the initial plan and revising based on the initial cycle of research:

Figure 1.2 Interpretation of action research spiral, Kemmis and McTaggart (2004, p. 595)

Other models of action research reorganize the process to emphasize the distinct ways knowledge takes shape in the reflection process. O’Leary’s (2004, p. 141) model, for example, recognizes that the research may take shape in the classroom as knowledge emerges from the teacher’s observations. O’Leary highlights the need for action research to be focused on situational understanding and implementation of action, initiated organically from real-time issues:

Figure 1.3 Interpretation of O’Leary’s cycles of research, O’Leary (2000, p. 141)

Lastly, Macintyre’s (2000, p. 1) model, offers a different characterization of the action research process. Macintyre emphasizes a messier process of research with the initial reflections and conclusions as the benchmarks for guiding the research process. Macintyre emphasizes the flexibility in planning, acting, and observing stages to allow the process to be naturalistic. Our interpretation of Macintyre process is below:

Figure 1.4 Interpretation of the action research cycle, Macintyre (2000, p. 1)

We believe it is important to prioritize the flexibility of the process, and encourage you to only use these models as basic guides for your process. Your process may look similar, or you may diverge from these models as you better understand your students, context, and data.

Definitions of Action Research and Examples

At this point, it may be helpful for readers to have a working definition of action research and some examples to illustrate the methodology in the classroom. Bassey (1998, p. 93) offers a very practical definition and describes “action research as an inquiry which is carried out in order to understand, to evaluate and then to change, in order to improve educational practice.” Cohen and Manion (1994, p. 192) situate action research differently, and describe action research as emergent, writing:

essentially an on-the-spot procedure designed to deal with a concrete problem located in an immediate situation. This means that ideally, the step-by-step process is constantly monitored over varying periods of time and by a variety of mechanisms (questionnaires, diaries, interviews and case studies, for example) so that the ensuing feedback may be translated into modifications, adjustment, directional changes, redefinitions, as necessary, so as to bring about lasting benefit to the ongoing process itself rather than to some future occasion.

Lastly, Koshy (2010, p. 9) describes action research as:

a constructive inquiry, during which the researcher constructs his or her knowledge of specific issues through planning, acting, evaluating, refining and learning from the experience. It is a continuous learning process in which the researcher learns and also shares the newly generated knowledge with those who may benefit from it.

These definitions highlight the distinct features of action research and emphasize the purposeful intent of action researchers to improve, refine, reform, and problem-solve issues in their educational context. To better understand the distinctness of action research, these are some examples of action research topics:

Examples of Action Research Topics

• Flexible seating in 4th grade classroom to increase effective collaborative learning.
• Structured homework protocols for increasing student achievement.
• Developing a system of formative feedback for 8th grade writing.
• Using music to stimulate creative writing.
• Weekly brown bag lunch sessions to improve responses to PD from staff.
• Using exercise balls as chairs for better classroom management.

Action Research in Theory

Action research-based inquiry in educational contexts and classrooms involves distinct participants – students, teachers, and other educational stakeholders within the system. All of these participants are engaged in activities to benefit the students, and subsequently society as a whole. Action research contributes to these activities and potentially enhances the participants’ roles in the education system. Participants’ roles are enhanced based on two underlying principles:

• communities, schools, and classrooms are sites of socially mediated actions, and action research provides a greater understanding of self and new knowledge of how to negotiate these socially mediated environments;
• communities, schools, and classrooms are part of social systems in which humans interact with many cultural tools, and action research provides a basis to construct and analyze these interactions.

In our quest for knowledge and understanding, we have consistently analyzed human experience over time and have distinguished between types of reality. Humans have constantly sought “facts” and “truth” about reality that can be empirically demonstrated or observed.

Social systems are based on beliefs, and generally, beliefs about what will benefit the greatest amount of people in that society. Beliefs, and more specifically the rationale or support for beliefs, are not always easy to demonstrate or observe as part of our reality. Take the example of an English Language Arts teacher who prioritizes argumentative writing in her class. She believes that argumentative writing demonstrates the mechanics of writing best among types of writing, while also providing students a skill they will need as citizens and professionals. While we can observe the students writing, and we can assess their ability to develop a written argument, it is difficult to observe the students’ understanding of argumentative writing and its purpose in their future. This relates to the teacher’s beliefs about argumentative writing; we cannot observe the real value of the teaching of argumentative writing. The teacher’s rationale and beliefs about teaching argumentative writing are bound to the social system and the skills their students will need to be active parts of that system. Therefore, our goal through action research is to demonstrate the best ways to teach argumentative writing to help all participants understand its value as part of a social system.

The knowledge that is conveyed in a classroom is bound to, and justified by, a social system. A postmodernist approach to understanding our world seeks knowledge within a social system, which is directly opposed to the empirical or positivist approach which demands evidence based on logic or science as rationale for beliefs. Action research does not rely on a positivist viewpoint to develop evidence and conclusions as part of the research process. Action research offers a postmodernist stance to epistemology (theory of knowledge) and supports developing questions and new inquiries during the research process. In this way action research is an emergent process that allows beliefs and decisions to be negotiated as reality and meaning are being constructed in the socially mediated space of the classroom.

Theorizing Action Research for the Classroom

All research, at its core, is for the purpose of generating new knowledge and contributing to the knowledge base of educational research. Action researchers in the classroom want to explore methods of improving their pedagogy and practice. The starting place of their inquiry stems from their pedagogy and practice, so by nature the knowledge created from their inquiry is often contextually specific to their classroom, school, or community. Therefore, we should examine the theoretical underpinnings of action research for the classroom. It is important to connect action research conceptually to experience; for example, Levin and Greenwood (2001, p. 105) make these connections:

• Action research is context bound and addresses real life problems.
• Action research is inquiry where participants and researchers cogenerate knowledge through collaborative communicative processes in which all participants’ contributions are taken seriously.
• The meanings constructed in the inquiry process lead to social action or these reflections and action lead to the construction of new meanings.
• The credibility/validity of action research knowledge is measured according to whether the actions that arise from it solve problems (workability) and increase participants’ control over their own situation.

Educators who engage in action research will generate new knowledge and beliefs based on their experiences in the classroom. Let us emphasize that these are all important to you and your work, as both an educator and researcher. It is these experiences, beliefs, and theories that are often discounted when more official forms of knowledge (e.g., textbooks, curriculum standards, districts standards) are prioritized. These beliefs and theories based on experiences should be valued and explored further, and this is one of the primary purposes of action research in the classroom. These beliefs and theories should be valued because they were meaningful aspects of knowledge constructed from teachers’ experiences. Developing meaning and knowledge in this way forms the basis of constructivist ideology, just as teachers often try to get their students to construct their own meanings and understandings when experiencing new ideas.  

Classroom Teachers Constructing their Own Knowledge

Most of you are probably at least minimally familiar with constructivism, or the process of constructing knowledge. However, what is constructivism precisely, for the purposes of action research? Many scholars have theorized constructivism and have identified two key attributes (Koshy, 2010; von Glasersfeld, 1987):

• Knowledge is not passively received, but actively developed through an individual’s cognition;
• Human cognition is adaptive and finds purpose in organizing the new experiences of the world, instead of settling for absolute or objective truth.

Considering these two attributes, constructivism is distinct from conventional knowledge formation because people can develop a theory of knowledge that orders and organizes the world based on their experiences, instead of an objective or neutral reality. When individuals construct knowledge, there are interactions between an individual and their environment where communication, negotiation and meaning-making are collectively developing knowledge. For most educators, constructivism may be a natural inclination of their pedagogy. Action researchers have a similar relationship to constructivism because they are actively engaged in a process of constructing knowledge. However, their constructions may be more formal and based on the data they collect in the research process. Action researchers also are engaged in the meaning making process, making interpretations from their data. These aspects of the action research process situate them in the constructivist ideology. Just like constructivist educators, action researchers’ constructions of knowledge will be affected by their individual and professional ideas and values, as well as the ecological context in which they work (Biesta & Tedder, 2006). The relations between constructivist inquiry and action research is important, as Lincoln (2001, p. 130) states:

much of the epistemological, ontological, and axiological belief systems are the same or similar, and methodologically, constructivists and action researchers work in similar ways, relying on qualitative methods in face-to-face work, while buttressing information, data and background with quantitative method work when necessary or useful.

While there are many links between action research and educators in the classroom, constructivism offers the most familiar and practical threads to bind the beliefs of educators and action researchers.  

Epistemology, Ontology, and Action Research

It is also important for educators to consider the philosophical stances related to action research to better situate it with their beliefs and reality. When researchers make decisions about the methodology they intend to use, they will consider their ontological and epistemological stances. It is vital that researchers clearly distinguish their philosophical stances and understand the implications of their stance in the research process, especially when collecting and analyzing their data. In what follows, we will discuss ontological and epistemological stances in relation to action research methodology.

Ontology, or the theory of being, is concerned with the claims or assumptions we make about ourselves within our social reality – what do we think exists, what does it look like, what entities are involved and how do these entities interact with each other (Blaikie, 2007). In relation to the discussion of constructivism, generally action researchers would consider their educational reality as socially constructed. Social construction of reality happens when individuals interact in a social system. Meaningful construction of concepts and representations of reality develop through an individual’s interpretations of others’ actions. These interpretations become agreed upon by members of a social system and become part of social fabric, reproduced as knowledge and beliefs to develop assumptions about reality. Researchers develop meaningful constructions based on their experiences and through communication. Educators as action researchers will be examining the socially constructed reality of schools. In the United States, many of our concepts, knowledge, and beliefs about schooling have been socially constructed over the last hundred years. For example, a group of teachers may look at why fewer female students enroll in upper-level science courses at their school. This question deals directly with the social construction of gender and specifically what careers females have been conditioned to pursue. We know this is a social construction in some school social systems because in other parts of the world, or even the United States, there are schools that have more females enrolled in upper level science courses than male students. Therefore, the educators conducting the research have to recognize the socially constructed reality of their school and consider this reality throughout the research process. Action researchers will use methods of data collection that support their ontological stance and clarify their theoretical stance throughout the research process.

Koshy (2010, p. 23-24) offers another example of addressing the ontological challenges in the classroom:

A teacher who was concerned with increasing her pupils’ motivation and enthusiasm for learning decided to introduce learning diaries which the children could take home. They were invited to record their reactions to the day’s lessons and what they had learnt. The teacher reported in her field diary that the learning diaries stimulated the children’s interest in her lessons, increased their capacity to learn, and generally improved their level of participation in lessons. The challenge for the teacher here is in the analysis and interpretation of the multiplicity of factors accompanying the use of diaries. The diaries were taken home so the entries may have been influenced by discussions with parents. Another possibility is that children felt the need to please their teacher. Another possible influence was that their increased motivation was as a result of the difference in style of teaching which included more discussions in the classroom based on the entries in the dairies.

Here you can see the challenge for the action researcher is working in a social context with multiple factors, values, and experiences that were outside of the teacher’s control. The teacher was only responsible for introducing the diaries as a new style of learning. The students’ engagement and interactions with this new style of learning were all based upon their socially constructed notions of learning inside and outside of the classroom. A researcher with a positivist ontological stance would not consider these factors, and instead might simply conclude that the dairies increased motivation and interest in the topic, as a result of introducing the diaries as a learning strategy.

Epistemology, or the theory of knowledge, signifies a philosophical view of what counts as knowledge – it justifies what is possible to be known and what criteria distinguishes knowledge from beliefs (Blaikie, 1993). Positivist researchers, for example, consider knowledge to be certain and discovered through scientific processes. Action researchers collect data that is more subjective and examine personal experience, insights, and beliefs.

Action researchers utilize interpretation as a means for knowledge creation. Action researchers have many epistemologies to choose from as means of situating the types of knowledge they will generate by interpreting the data from their research. For example, Koro-Ljungberg et al., (2009) identified several common epistemologies in their article that examined epistemological awareness in qualitative educational research, such as: objectivism, subjectivism, constructionism, contextualism, social epistemology, feminist epistemology, idealism, naturalized epistemology, externalism, relativism, skepticism, and pluralism. All of these epistemological stances have implications for the research process, especially data collection and analysis. Please see the table on pages 689-90, linked below for a sketch of these potential implications:

Again, Koshy (2010, p. 24) provides an excellent example to illustrate the epistemological challenges within action research:

A teacher of 11-year-old children decided to carry out an action research project which involved a change in style in teaching mathematics. Instead of giving children mathematical tasks displaying the subject as abstract principles, she made links with other subjects which she believed would encourage children to see mathematics as a discipline that could improve their understanding of the environment and historic events. At the conclusion of the project, the teacher reported that applicable mathematics generated greater enthusiasm and understanding of the subject.

The educator/researcher engaged in action research-based inquiry to improve an aspect of her pedagogy. She generated knowledge that indicated she had improved her students’ understanding of mathematics by integrating it with other subjects – specifically in the social and ecological context of her classroom, school, and community. She valued constructivism and students generating their own understanding of mathematics based on related topics in other subjects. Action researchers working in a social context do not generate certain knowledge, but knowledge that emerges and can be observed and researched again, building upon their knowledge each time.

Researcher Positionality in Action Research

In this first chapter, we have discussed a lot about the role of experiences in sparking the research process in the classroom. Your experiences as an educator will shape how you approach action research in your classroom. Your experiences as a person in general will also shape how you create knowledge from your research process. In particular, your experiences will shape how you make meaning from your findings. It is important to be clear about your experiences when developing your methodology too. This is referred to as researcher positionality. Maher and Tetreault (1993, p. 118) define positionality as:

Gender, race, class, and other aspects of our identities are markers of relational positions rather than essential qualities. Knowledge is valid when it includes an acknowledgment of the knower’s specific position in any context, because changing contextual and relational factors are crucial for defining identities and our knowledge in any given situation.

By presenting your positionality in the research process, you are signifying the type of socially constructed, and other types of, knowledge you will be using to make sense of the data. As Maher and Tetreault explain, this increases the trustworthiness of your conclusions about the data. This would not be possible with a positivist ontology. We will discuss positionality more in chapter 6, but we wanted to connect it to the overall theoretical underpinnings of action research.

Advantages of Engaging in Action Research in the Classroom

In the following chapters, we will discuss how action research takes shape in your classroom, and we wanted to briefly summarize the key advantages to action research methodology over other types of research methodology. As Koshy (2010, p. 25) notes, action research provides useful methodology for school and classroom research because:

Advantages of Action Research for the Classroom

• research can be set within a specific context or situation;
• researchers can be participants – they don’t have to be distant and detached from the situation;
• it involves continuous evaluation and modifications can be made easily as the project progresses;
• there are opportunities for theory to emerge from the research rather than always follow a previously formulated theory;
• the study can lead to open-ended outcomes;
• through action research, a researcher can bring a story to life.

Action Research Copyright © by J. Spencer Clark; Suzanne Porath; Julie Thiele; and Morgan Jobe is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Using “Music Writing” to Trigger Creativity, Awareness, Motivation, and Poetry

The Contemplation Music Writing Project develops communication skills, creative self-expression, character education, and values clarification in young people through reflection, writing, discussion, and self-assessments.

In our test-obsessed and bullying culture, it is imperative that children learn to know themselves better. We can help them develop an inner compass to discover their own creativity, self-motivation, and emotional intelligence needed for learning and living.

When I was a teacher in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York in the '70s, I found a way to use music as tool for self-discovery and self-expression. I used to play a lot of music in my classroom. It started as a way to help calm students when they returned to class after lunch. I played Billy Joel songs -- not the favorites of Latino and African-American kids. It relaxed me, and eventually the class.

Music to soothe the soul was great, but eventually school administrators started wondering what the aim of the lesson was. So I asked the children to put their heads down on the desks, close their eyes and write about whatever they experienced inside themselves while the music played. After the tune stopped, I asked them to take a few seconds of "think time" before writing about their experiences. Many things can spin around the mind and imagination in an instant. I wanted them to pause, recall, and reflect on these creative, surreal, absurd, wild, and sometimes sane inner worlds.

The Contemplation Music Writing Project, as I came to call it, uses an innovative form of writing called Music Writing to develop intra- and interpersonal communication skills (EI), creative self-expression (journal/therapeutic and poetry writing), thinking, character education, identity, and values clarification in young people through music, contemplation, writing, discussion, and self-assessments.

The project is easy to implement from grades 2-12 in public, charter, private, parochial, and alternative schools, as well as in correctional facilities, and before- and after-school programs. Here are a couple of Contemplation Music Writing Project exercises that eventually led to poetry writing. Please share any ideas or similar projects that you've done in the comments section of this post.

Sample Exercises

1. counting technique.

Start by introducing inner experience:

My instructions about what to write were vague because I wanted students to discover and describe experience without my help. If they asked about the length of the writing, I said, "Just write whatever you can remember." The average length varied from one to a few paragraphs.

Note: Before trying the technique in class, I practiced it myself to appreciate what the students were experiencing, describing, and writing.

In a typical lesson, kids counted backward and wrote about their inner experiences, and I discussed them with the class the next day. Here are some fourth-grade students' first responses:

Be prepared for (and open to) anything when introducing inner experience through counting. You will find a plethora of responses, including memories/flashbacks, present-moment events, fantasies, dreams, daydreams, feelings, thoughts, mind-pictures/images, physical/bodily reactions and stream of consciousness or "movie experiences." Read the responses out loud (anonymously) and open up discussions by asking basic questions:

• Describe the student's counting experience.
• What feelings and thoughts did the writer experience? Why?
• What mind-pictures did you visualize after listening to the response?
• What does the experience make you think about? Why?
• Did the writing trigger anything that happened inside you while counting?

2. Music Technique

Children listened to music (top ten, rock'n'roll, rap, soul, blues, jazz, classical, and flute) for ten minutes and, again, wrote about whatever they experienced inside. A discussion followed either the same day or next day. Student contemplations were read orally and anonymously, and probed for the triggered images, feelings, thoughts, meanings, and experiences. These first contemplations are from the same fourth grade students:

Discussion Questions

These basic questions will work for most contemplations:

• Describe this writer's contemplation experience.
• Describe the mind-pictures you visualized as the contemplation was read orally.
• Name the feelings you got from the mind-pictures in the contemplation.
• What thoughts and ideas came to mind after you heard the contemplation?
• What is the writer trying to communicate (main idea or message)?
• Name this type of contemplation experience (e.g., memory, fantasy, dream).

Music Writing Leads to Poetry Writing

Through the counting and music techniques, kids dug up real or created imaginary experiences. Along the way, they discovered the fundamental prerequisite skills for learning (and learning how to learn): recall, visualization, reflection, concentration, contemplation, critical and creative thinking, creativity, feeling, and experiencing.

These academic and EI/SEL lessons prepared children for poetry. First, we analyzed poems via a Poetry Reading Sheet, which included separate boxes for mind-pictures visualized, feelings and thoughts triggered by the imagery, main idea/message, favorite words/phrases/lines, and student-created titles. To introduce poetry reading, we read Chinese, Japanese, Native American, Latino, African American, and children's/adult poetry, followed by my discussion questions. Free-verse poetry created a poetic awareness that set the stage for poetry writing.

Using my Trigger Method of Creativity, I presented magazine and newspaper pictures, photos, artwork (posters/museum slides), and original slides as visual prompts for the class to observe, describe, brainstorm potential poetry titles, and lastly, to write poetry.

Slide Show Lesson Triggers Poetry Writing

"The Big Cloud Show" presentation inspired students to express what they saw, imagined, and experienced while focusing on the slide images. Following our talk, students brainstormed titles and wrote poems.

Potential titles included "Deep Cloud," "Sound," "Sky Night," "Black Cloud," "Those Stupid Clouds," "Sky Panther," "Human Cloud," "Beyond the Clouds," "Snowy Clouds," "A Dream of Clouds," "a door in the clouds," and "Cloud Faces."

Student Cloud Poetry

Deep Cloud Deep cloud, how deep do you go? Show me. I would, but it's all inside me. I can't. . . But I can tell you that clouds are very deep inside.

Sound The sound of the wind blowing past the pond makes little waves appear. I put a paper in the pond. I hear the sound of birds flying. I face the blue sky. I dream of a cloud, a big blue cloud, and these are the sounds I hear. . .

Sky Panther sky panther gracefully glancing off the moon protecting the gentle clouds drifting into peaceful sleep

Journey to an Inner World

The Contemplation Music Writing Project helped preteens and teens to deal with their own lives (in and out of school), as well as with other people's lives. Music became a vehicle to soothe them into peaceful journeys of self-discovery, self-motivation, and the art of poetry writing.

Indeed, it is just as important for adolescents to learn about their inner world and how it influences daily life, as it is to learn about the world in social studies.

The Contemplation Music Writing Project can work as a one- or multi-year project starting in second grade and going through high school. These projects can increase students' focus, boost awareness, grow study habits, jumpstart inner-motivation, instill enthusiasm, improve productive flow, stimulate artistic expression, inspire imagination, elevate mood/tone, expand the work ethic, develop higher-level thinking, and energize, revitalize, and create a safe, caring learning environment.

This healing, relaxing, empowering form of writing, triggered by music of all kinds, lets kids get into self, others, and the outside world via peace, compassion, empathy, friendship, and poetry. These are keys to inspiring emotional intelligence, and to developing character and values that will serve them well into adulthood.

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Using Music to Stimulate Learners in L2 Writing

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Journal of Applied Linguistics

Touran Ahour

The aim of this study was to find out whether listening to English songs can improve pre-intermediate EFL learners’ listening comprehension. To this end, a non-randomized pretest-posttest control group design as one of the quasi-experimental research designs was employed. The sample of the study consisted of 40 male and female English learners from two classes in an Institute in Marand, Iran. The two classes were randomly assigned into the experimental and control groups. Then, a PET test was used to check the homogeneity of both groups. The listening section of PET was also considered as the pretest of the study. Then, fifteen English songs were used in the experimental group during the treatment period. Each session, within 45 minutes, one song was played for and practiced with the learners. Meanwhile, the control group had their usual teacher -fronted class without listening to songs. At the end, both groups were post tested on their listening comprehension using the listening s...

ljiljana jankovic

This paper explores the attitudes of Serbian tertiary-level EFL students towards doing a particular type of language exercise, a cloze test, and their attitudes towards musicbased cloze tests in particular, as well as their general attitudes towards the inclusion of music into EFL classes at university level of study. It is comprised of two parts. The theoretical part reviews reference materials related to significant effects of music on FL learning in general and EFL learning in particular. The empirical part presents the results of the empirical research conducted with fourth-year students of the English Department, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Niš. The method used was descriptive together with the scaling technique and the five-level Likert scale consisting of 5 items. The first two items tested the students‟ attitudes towards conventional cloze tests, the third item examined their attitude towards music-based cloze tests, and the remaining two items tested the students‟ ...

English Language Teaching

Dwayne Engh

Berta Torras Vila

The present paper aims at promoting pedagogical reflection by providing the theoretical foundations on the connections between foreign language learningand music, which shapes a CLIL Music program named MOVIC (Movement & Music in English). It alsoencourages the implementation of CLIL Music approaches in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom.The paper focuses on the benefits that music brings toEFL classrooms, as well as it contextualizes the current situation in the Spanish education system and the pedagogical possibilities that the use of music encompasses. Finally, it presents the EFL approach to MOVIC, together with a sample activity, and it providesa series of pedagogical implications for foreign language teachers and policymakers.

Ajiboye Sola

ABSTRACT In recent years, teaching vocabulary through songs is considerate beneficial. The use of songs is believed to provide a broader opportunity for learners to interact with authentic materials rather than practicing artificial face-to-face conversations from the textbooks in class. Moreover, it is also helping the learners experience numerous different countries’ cultures through songs. Therefore, these benefits prompt the use of music as an important language aid in English teaching. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of teaching vocabulary through music: implication for curriculum development. This paper begins by looking at the effect of music on learning. In particular, it will discuss how songs can be useful in the teaching of vocabulary. The researcher will also discuss how songs can reflect culture and increase students’ overall enjoyment of learning a second language. The researcher will then attempt to show, through practical examples, how songs can be used as language tasks. Lastly, summary of findings, conclusions and recommendations are addressed.

TRANSSTELLAR JOURNALS

TJPRC Publication

Music and songs are a part of our lives. They are played over the radio, on television and in shopping complexes. The effects of music upon learning English as a second language seem positive but are not entirely understood. The aim of this paper is to investigate the perceptions of 70 English Language Learners on using songs to learn English. Data is collected using a questionnaire. Findings revealed that learners view using music as a motivating and interesting way of learning English. In conclusion, the songs are powerful tools to help learners acquire a second language.

English Teaching Forum

Nico Lorenzutti

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How music can inspire and enhance academic writing

• Posted By: Music Crowns
• April 12, 2024

Music has an incredible ability to influence our moods, emotions, and even cognitive abilities. It can pump us up, calm us down, or transport us to another world entirely. But did you know that music can also enhance your academic writing? That’s right – listening to the right kind of music while studying or writing can actually boost your focus, creativity, and productivity. Music has the power to ignite creativity, boost concentration, and evoke emotions, making it a valuable tool for enhancing academic writing, and with the support of professionals ready to write my paper for me , you can effectively harness its influence to elevate your scholarly work to new heights.

The Science Behind It

There is a growing body of scientific research that supports the idea that music can have a positive impact on our cognitive abilities, including those related to writing. According to a study published in the journal “Learning and Individual Differences,” students who listened to classical music while writing scored higher on measures of writing quality than those who worked in silence or with background noise.

Another study by researchers at the University of Groningen found that listening to music with a steady beat and no lyrics can improve focus and concentration, making it easier to stay on task and avoid distractions. This is likely because the music engages the part of the brain responsible for processing sound, while leaving the language centers free to focus on the task at hand.

Choosing the Right Music

Of course, not just any music will do – the key is to choose the right kind of music for your personal preferences and the task at hand. Here are some tips for selecting the perfect writing soundtrack:

Instrumental Music

Music has the remarkable ability to stimulate creativity and focus, enriching the academic writing process, and with the help of the best paper writing service , you can effectively integrate its influence into your scholarly endeavors to achieve exceptional results. For many people, instrumental music without lyrics is the best choice for writing. Classical, ambient, or movie soundtrack music can provide a calming, focused atmosphere without the distraction of lyrics. Some popular options include:

– Piano solo or piano/violin pieces

– Nature sounds or ambient noise (rain, ocean waves, etc.)

– Film scores from your favourite movies

Music in a Foreign Language

If you prefer music with vocals, consider listening to songs in a language you don’t understand. The lack of comprehensible lyrics can provide a similar effect to instrumental music, allowing you to enjoy the melody and rhythm without getting distracted by the words.

Familiar and Enjoyable Music

While some people find that unfamiliar music works best, others prefer to listen to songs or artists they already know and enjoy. The key is to choose music that you find pleasant and calming, rather than overly energetic or distracting.

Personalising Your Playlist

The best writing playlist is a highly personal one, tailored to your individual preferences and needs. Experiment with different genres, artists, and styles to find what works best for you. You may even want to create separate playlists for different stages of the writing process, such as brainstorming, drafting, or editing.

The Benefits of Music for Academic Writing

Enhanced focus and concentration.

As mentioned earlier, the right kind of music can help you stay focused and on task, making it easier to avoid distractions and maintain a steady writing flow. This is particularly useful for tasks that require sustained attention and concentration, such as researching, outlining, or revising a lengthy paper.

Improved Mood and Motivation

In addition to its cognitive benefits, music can also have a positive impact on our emotional state. Listening to uplifting or motivating music can boost our mood, increase our energy levels, and provide the inspiration we need to power through a challenging writing assignment.

Reduced Stress and Anxiety

For many students, academic writing can be a stressful and anxiety-inducing experience. However, research has shown that listening to relaxing music can help lower stress levels and promote a sense of calm and well-being. This, in turn, can make it easier to approach your writing tasks with a clear and focused mindset.

Increased Creativity and Inspiration

Sometimes, the hardest part of academic writing is getting started. If you’re struggling with writer’s block or feeling uninspired, the right music can help spark your creativity and get those ideas flowing. Certain genres, like classical or jazz, have been shown to stimulate creative thinking and problem-solving abilities.

Strategies for Incorporating Music into Your Writing Process

Create a dedicated writing playlist.

One of the most effective ways to incorporate music into your academic writing routine is to create a dedicated playlist specifically for this purpose. As mentioned earlier, this playlist should be tailored to your personal preferences and the type of writing you’ll be doing.

Set a Writing Routine with Music

Many writers find it helpful to establish a consistent writing routine, and incorporating music can be a key part of this ritual. For example, you might start each writing session by putting on your designated playlist, signaling to your brain that it’s time to focus and get to work.

Take Music Breaks

Alternatively, you can use music as a way to take periodic breaks from your writing. After a certain amount of time (say, 45 minutes to an hour), step away from your work and listen to some of your favourite tunes for 10-15 minutes. This can help you recharge and come back to your writing feeling refreshed and reenergised.

Experiment and Find What Works for You

Ultimately, the key to successfully using music to enhance your academic writing is to experiment and find what works best for you. Pay attention to how different types of music affect your focus, mood, and productivity, and adjust your playlists and routines accordingly.

Academic writing can be a challenging and sometimes daunting task, but incorporating music into your process can provide a powerful boost to your focus, creativity, and overall productivity. By selecting the right kind of music and finding the strategies that work best for you, you can harness the power of sound to inspire and enhance your writing abilities. So go ahead – turn on your favorite tunes and let the words flow!

Music Crowns

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