Music in the Classroom

Let’s explore the role of music in your work. Whether you’re a teacher, staff developer or administrator, today’s audience often expects music. Why? A presenter who has orchestrated positive music into a thoughtful tapestry may have spoiled the audience. But is that a good idea?

First, is there any research behind using it? Second, how do you choose the right music?

Music is the perfect stimulus for triggering either raw or complex emotions. First, as you might expect, while novel music can be fun, you’ll get the highest emotional response from playing music which is familiar to your students (Pereira et al., 2011). Typically, the familiar songs evoke strong positive memories. This suggests if you want to play novel music to kids, you might need to a bit of repetition (playing it over and over and associate it with new positives) to turn it into a consistent positive trigger for students.

Another study investigated whether and how individuals employ music to induce specific emotional states. The music was used in everyday situations solely to manage personal emotions. This study shows how emotion-congruent music selections are extra powerful in activating emotional states in everyday situations (Thoma et al., 2011). It validates something very important to me: sometimes the best reason to use music in your own work is that it puts you in a positive emotional state for doing your best work.

The third study was designed to investigate whether listening to music in a social group influenced the emotion felt by the listeners. Surprisingly, the study found that the participants (all were musicians) did not experience greater “group emotionality” or collective emotional response when listening to music in a group than when listening alone (Sutherland et al., 2009). With non-musicians, the effect was the opposite. We all felt the “collective kum-bah-yah!”

Another study goes at this social question from a different angle.

We all know music is a powerful means to induce emotions. This study investigates whether these emotional effects can be manipulated by online social feedback. After each song excerpt they heard, participants rated their emotions according to arousal (intensity) and valence (positive or negative) scale. But one of the two groups was also given feedback on how pervious listeners rated the music. Study results show that the online feedback significantly influenced participants’ ratings of music (Egermann, et al., 2009).

In short, when others say they liked a song, we listen with a more favorable ear. This may be why iTunes and Amazon always shows you ratings of the product by previous buyers when you are shopping for a song.

We’ve known for some time that music emphasis and rhythmic phrases activate physiological variables. Our autonomic responses can become synchronized with music, which trigger new emotions through autonomic arousal during crescendos or rhythmic phrases (Bernardi et al., 2009). We’ve also known for some time, that stronger emotions correlate with stronger memories. This association led a prominent researcher to propose a theory.

In an influential paper, neuroscientist Antonio Damasio and his colleagues, proposed the “somatic marker” hypothesis and it has slowly gained credibility. Essentially, this says that the feelings we have will create a decision-making bias. In the context of the classroom, it does not mean every moment must be positive. In fact, psychologist Barbara Frederickson says the ratio should be about 3-1 (positives to negatives) to have a healthy balance (Werner et al., 2009). As you go through your week, keep the ratio in mind. Remember, it’s not an hourly or daily ratio. That level of scorekeeping would drive you crazy.

Now, how might this play out in a classroom with music?

Practical Applications

Many times, educators come up to me during my presentations and ask for my playlists of music. Most of my song lists are changing monthly, so there’s nothing sacred about them. One of many ways I use songs is for the role of emotional punctuation. That process is a “somatic marker” in the sense that it strengthens the emotions of the learned content. I play a particular song directly after a fresh learning experience as a tool for memory-making.

Here are ten affirming, fabulous songs for emotional punctuation
that I use.

Click here to open iTunes and purchase the songs listed below.

TO STRENGTHEN A GOOD MOOD
Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah… from: Splash Mountain on The Official Disney Album

TO REINFORCE THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIPS
You’ve Got a Friend in Me… Artist: Randy Newman on Toy Story Soundtrack

TO AFFIRM SELF-CONFIDENCE
Unbelievable… Artist: EMF

TO AFFIRM STRENGTH AND CAPACITY
You Got What It Takes… Artist: Marv Johnson

TO AFFIRM VALUE OF PARTNERSHIPS
It Takes Two… Artist: Marvin Gaye & Kim Weston

TO AFFIRM SUCCESS
When You’re Hot, You’re Hot… Artist: Jerry Reed

REINFORCE OPTIMISM
Stay Positive… artist Cali P.

TO AFFIRM A GOOD FEELING
I Second That Emotion… Artist: Smokey Robinson & The Miracles

TO AFFIRM STRENGTH AND CAPACITY
Feelin’ Stronger Every Day… Artist: Chicago

TO AFFIRM OPTIMISM
Always Look On the Bright Side of Life… Artist: Costa Crew

photo credit: boston_camera