MUSIC & PERFORMING ARTS
Group music-making: an inclusive way to nurture empathy, communication and resilience
A
musician, composer, educator, and passionate advocate for making music a central thread in our education system, Rachael Diop is the Classroom Curriculum and Teacher Training Lead at SoMi Academy and Musicianship Practitioner for VoicesABRSM. Here, she shares her insights on the powerful impact of group music- making.
Having worked in music education for over 25 years, in over 100 schools with a range of learners and teachers, I have seen the huge impact that music has on everyone involved. The ever fascinating area of neuromusic research now backs up what we instinctively feel and know, that music impacts not only how we feel, but how we function too. Music literally rewires the brain, creating new neuro pathways and helping us to problem-solve more effectively and creatively. Singing and playing music games together creates strong connections and helps us to listen better. Playing a musical instrument develops our fine motor skills and resilience as we repeatedly practise and hone our talents. As teachers, when we work with groups, we
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seek to differentiate in our lessons, meeting the varied needs of our students. Some learn through touch, another through movement, someone else in the group needs to make sound to help them process information. Music is the one thing that includes all learners and impacts our whole brain. Hearing is the only sense which is fully functioning when we are born and we are constantly gathering information through sound. It is also the only sense always on, even when we sleep. With this in mind, we need to ensure that we are providing quality and variety in what we expose our children to. This helps them to focus on different sounds, deciphering how they are made, what they mean and whether they like them or not.
Listening to music lights up the brain as we decode and make sense of the different musical elements: pitch, rhythm, dynamics, timbre, metre, tempo and texture, and then put them all back together in a split second, making sense and soul of the music. Sound is literally brain food. When we expose our children to lots of different songs and games filled with musical elements, they learn these subconsciously, alongside developing their coordination,
November 2025
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