Music Education & Mental Well-Being: Making Better Humans with Music Workshop's Dr. Giuliana Conti

Unlock the powerful role of music in transforming education with insights from Dr. Lisa Hassler and guest, Dr. Giuliana Conti, Director of Education and Equity at Music Workshop. Prepare to discover how music education can boost adolescents' mental well-being, with research backing its impact on neural connectivity and emotional health. Giuliana shares her personal journey from classical viola performance to advocating for accessible music programs, highlighting the influence of music in her life and career.

Explore their groundbreaking Soundwaves program from Music Workshop, bringing concert-like experiences right into the classroom and breaking down barriers for students without access to live music. Collaborations with top musicians and educators ensure the curriculum is culturally responsive and ever-evolving. This episode also delves into the professional development opportunities available to educators, equipping them with innovative tools to integrate music into teaching and enhance student well-being.

Join us as we champion the creation of inclusive learning environments where students can thrive emotionally, socially, and academically through music. Free Music Workshop K-8 Curriculum

To show my full support for music education, I've shameless added pictures of my son, Brandon Picciolini, from The Lonesome Family Band to this episode's chapters. Podcast music created by The Lonesome Family Band, original here. *One picture is a family oldie 

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Transcript

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Dr. Lisa Hassler 0:28

Welcome to The Brighter Side of Education: Research , Innovation and Resources . I'm your host , Dr . Lisa Hassler , here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education . In each episode , I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it . What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes ?

Music Education Supports Mental Well-Being of Adolescents

Dr. Lisa Hassler 0:54

Today's focus is on the role of music education in supporting student mental well-being , particularly in adolescence ,

Dr. Lisa Hassler 1:10

Beyond music's artistic value and cognitive development benefits , recent research has evidenced that music education plays a significant role in supporting the mental well-being of adolescents . Research in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry revealed that music education enhances neural connectivity in areas of the brain associated with emotion regulation and stress management , contributing to better emotional health . A 2023 study titled School-Based Music Education Longitudinal Relationships with Adolescence Well-Being supported these findings with data that students who participated in music programs reported higher levels of emotional well-being and an enhanced ability to manage their emotions . Additionally , participants involved in group music activities experienced a heightened sense of belonging and improved peer relationships , both especially important during adolescence , a time when young people are forming their identities and seeking acceptance among their peers

Dr. Giuliana Conti Introduction

Dr. Lisa Hassler 2:04

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Dr. Lisa Hassler 2:04

To explore this further , I'm thrilled to welcome our guest today , Dr . Giuliana Conti . Giuliana is the Director of Education and Equity at Music Workshop , a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing culturally responsive music programs for classrooms and professional development for educators With degrees in both music education and philosophy , and a rich background as a musician , educator and researcher . Giuliana work truly exemplifies the transformative power of music in education . Welcome , Giuliana , it's such a pleasure to talk with you today .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 2:37

Thank you so much for having me .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 2:39

Your work has had a positive impact on students and educators alike . To start , could you share the key experiences of your journey that fueled your passion for music education and what brought you to a music workshop ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 2:52

Absolutely so . Growing up I lived two sort of dichotomous lives . I had my school music experience , where I started learning viola in fourth grade . My mom chose it for me so that I would have more job opportunities when I was older . She was very entrepreneurial . And then I went through elementary , middle , high school and college focusing on classical viola .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 3:19

But at the same time , growing up , I also experienced some challenges with my parents' health . That resulted in some childhood traumatic experiences where music listening really became my support system . I was fortunate that both of my parents had a really broad taste in music so I could access almost anything I wanted whenever I wanted . So I was carrying my Walkman around , then Discman . I had a boom box and car radio . I lived and surrounded myself in music listening .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 3:54

But those two lives never really met because the classical world was very do , as I say , read the music , perform the music , and then let's move on to the next level where you get to be a little bit more challenged , whereas music listening there was just so much agency .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 4:14

I got to choose whatever I wanted and eventually I learned how to use music listening to meet my emotional needs and when I graduated from college I realized that viola performance just wasn't where my heart was , but trying to give that connection that I had to music still felt very important .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 4:35

So I became a teacher and what I was able to do in the classroom is very similar to what Music Workshop offers now . And it's serendipitous that we met , because I really wish that I had Music Workshop when I was teaching . I left teaching around the time that it started as an organization , but a lot of my instruction was based on students' interests and where their families came from . I worked at a very international school and parents loved coming in to present about what they listened to growing up and I found that I was so interested in what these students' responses were to the music that I brought in and this was elementary general music , so there was a lot of flexibility that I went to graduate school and , long story short , I researched music , listening and culture and identity , and Music Workshop found me and it's just been a phenomenal experience being able to now channel a lot of my passions through my work at Music Workshop

Benefits of Music Education

Dr. Giuliana Conti 5:45

my passions through my work at Music Workshop .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 5:47

Yeah , Music Workshop . So it started in 2012 and it began with 10 schools and now it's in over 13,500 schools in 102 countries . It's in every state in the United States , so it has exploded , and I love what you have on your website . It says music empowered . Education makes better humans . I love that . How has Music Workshop evolved over this last decade and what benefits have you seen through its implementation ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 6:14

Great question . Yeah , music-empowered , I think , is really what has opened the door for us , because we have a significant amount of music teachers . We're almost at 15,000 teachers , which is so exciting .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 6:28

Yes , it's phenomenal .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 6:30

I know and we are growing rapidly it's hard to keep up , honestly , and what I think we have a lot to thank for are the teachers who have trusted us and our content and tells us what it is that they need for their classroom . And on the inside of the organization we say , okay , what can we manage ? And then we try to produce it as quickly as we can . And so we really have a strong relationship with our membership and when I use the word membership it's kind of a misnomer because we are free , so you can , as a parent , as a teacher , as an administrator , create a free account and access our materials . And in this past decade we have seen that teachers really appreciate how closely we respond to their feedback we read every piece of feedback that comes in and that we really are here to serve teachers . So when they ask for certain topics , that's what we've delivered and I think that level of responsiveness has helped us grow so immensely .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 7:31

Absolutely . I love the fact that it's free , and a lot of schools when you're thinking about music programs and when they start to cut costs , that's one of those things that goes . So having something that's so comprehensive and research-based , that is free and so any school can use it , and it also goes from your littles all the way up

How Music Workshop's Program Works

Dr. Lisa Hassler 7:52

, so can you talk about your program and how it works ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 7:58

way up . So can you talk about your program and how it works ? Absolutely so . Our free program is a collection of topics that include a video that you can press play for the classroom . You can stop throughout the video . We've got question and answer sections . We've got music and life experiences for students to sit with their thoughts and think and feel as they listen to a piece of music . We have worksheets , coloring pages for students for each topic , sub-plan directions and teacher instructions , as well as pamphlets that you can send home for students so that the family can continue to learn and engage on these topics . We have around 35 now different topics that span careers in music that are not just instrumental .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 8:44

There are so many people that make the musical world come to life and it's really important that students envision themselves in many different opportunities . We've got cultures of music that incorporate popular and traditional styles . We really work hard to make sure that representation is a core tenant of our materials . So you're going to see gender representation . You're going to see different demographic representations in the music , and then we've got a genre series .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 9:16

One example our most popular course is the Birth of Rock series . So we go through the birth of rock , the evolution of rock and then the expansion of rock into today , and it covers all the decades . It shows real video clips of real musicians . Then we've got the instruments , and when you're able to , as a teacher , combine different elements .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 9:37

For example , even just for rock and roll , being able to show a video on the voice or the piano or the guitar helps students see what their own potential is as a musician , so that when they do end up pursuing their own musical interests , they already have some idea of what it takes to be in a band . And when you become part of a band where you can go from there , what kind of people you're going to be working with , what kind of music you might be interested in playing , and so for a teacher , they can incorporate extension activities and work with it however they'd like , and for substitutes , it's even better because it's turnkey , and so you can leave a really good quality musical instruction . For substitutes , it's even better because it's turnkey , and so you can leave a really good quality musical instruction with substitutes that don't require them to have any musical knowledge and yet , in the absence of the teacher , students can continue to learn .

Music in All Subjects: Holistic Student Support

Dr. Lisa Hassler 10:28

And I love the way music can be incorporated into and enrich any subject and you can bring in those cultural ties or social studies , science , math and have the general education teachers use this program to support subjects other than music . How can they access that ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 10:45

Yes . So one of the principles that we operate on is this idea that music can support students in a well-rounded and holistic way , and there's a lot of research out there on how music can support math learning and language learning . We do want to make it clear that music is not subservient to other subjects . It is valuable in and of itself and with that value comes many outcomes , because when you're able to expose students to music for example , let's talk about English language learners through the classroom either as a single song where you can listen to it and have discussions about the music itself , you can look at the lyrics and you can analyze them .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 11:36

About the music itself , you can look at the lyrics and you can analyze them .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 11:38

You can look at them through a poetic lens , a cultural or current event lens .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 11:42

You can look at the artist's life and background , learn how they evolved and who their inspirations were .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 11:50

You can use our materials and unpack almost anything that you need from them to be able to cater to your curriculum and your students , and we really encourage teachers to allow students the opportunity to ask questions and to say what they're interested in after the course material , so that maybe the teacher can find areas of interest , where it does help connect to other subjects and maybe students can bring in their own personal stories or their own musical histories and cultures .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 12:23

And now you're creating conversations , you're creating extensions on that learning material and you're able to encompass an entire breadth of learning material just from one video , entire breadth of learning material just from one video . It does require the teacher to be asking open-ended questions , which we also facilitate . We do think it's important for students to have a voice in the class and we've seen that general educators in their feedback have mentioned how many other topics come up in their discussions and how much they learn about their students . And , if anything , for us that is meaningful because when students feel seen and heard and validated , they feel safe and they're able to learn at a heightened level in the class and ultimately that's what we want from them is to learn about music and learn about themselves .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 13:12

Absolutely . I've had a social studies unit and we would discuss cultures and I had a student from Ethiopia . She brought in music and talked about how , in the car , they would all , as a family , sing these traditional songs , and so she taught us her music . We got to sing with her , and so that music tie was a really important part of her talking

Soundwaves Concert Series: Free Live Concerts for Youth

Dr. Lisa Hassler 13:36

about her culture . You also have a youth concert series where musicians are making connections between their music and their life , called Sound Waves . Do you want to talk to us a little bit about that and how has it been received ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 13:47

Absolutely Sound Waves is a live performance event series in Portland , where our offices are located , where we hire world-class musicians to come perform for free for local families and community members . It's received tremendously . I've had the privilege of being at these events and watching families enter sort of in disbelief that it's free , asking us like what's the catch ? Is this a donation thing ? We say no , just go enjoy the show . We have an amazing host who has worked with us since she's in fourth grade , I think , and so she asked the musicians questions about their connection with the music either specific songs or life events , how they became musicians . We hire really talented videographers to capture all of it and then , after the event , we put it together as an online course that's also free , with our other materials , the idea being that , yes , for the community members on that day , this is a really special event for them and their families to share together .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 14:58

We have seen monumental changes in children that go into the experience and come out of it having learned something about themselves and others .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 15:09

We've had grandparents and parents follow up with us after the event and talk about major epiphanies that these kids have had connections to deceased relatives .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 15:19

Just incredible experiences have been shared with us and what we want is that kind of concert-like experience and learning opportunity to come into classrooms . So if you're going to be talking about , for example , the birth of rock , no-transcript , and they go on stage and they answer personal questions and they perform songs that they've written and now students are being able to see and hear about what it's like to be a rock musician from musicians that are performing live . But now it feels more like a personal , intimate concert experience for students in the classroom because it's with their peers and you're hearing these musicians respond from their soul and from their hearts and their minds in the moment and there's just something so special and unique about that , especially for schools where maybe they don't have the budget for a field trip to go out and watch local musicians . So they're getting somewhat of that experience in the classroom and connecting it to what they've learned about music so far .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 16:43

I think about how many children are not afforded the opportunity to be able to go with their family to a concert . You know whether it's because of distance or conflicts of schedule or cost of distance or conflicts of schedule or cost . So being able to have something like this SoundWaves go into the classroom free for Dr . is bringing down some of those barriers and it is allowing them access to this cultural experience that they otherwise might not have .

Music Education for Cultural Responsiveness

Dr. Lisa Hassler 17:11

So how do you ensure that the content is relevant and meaningful to students from diverse backgrounds ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 17:17

Well , to start , we work with incredible advisors who are often traveling , professional , world-renowned musicians or ethnomusicologists with a PhD , music educators with a PhD faculty at universities . We work with them to build the script for the videos . We work with them to find the best representative videos for that genre or culture or topic , and then , as we build our content , we have multiple rounds of editing and review with those advisors who really lead the topics . So we become more like messengers of the information to create content that really is representative of the community of musicians and artists , because that's who we work with to build the information . And then , on top of that , we rely on our feedback from our teachers to know how it's going in the classroom , and so the one requirement that we have to make sure that our content is free is that anyone who signs up for our program , after three courses we ask for feedback and that's basically it , and we read every piece of feedback .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 18:31

We do bi-monthly reports internally and we look at patterns of feedback for certain courses to either see whether anything needs updating , because , as you can imagine , a course on pop music changes Often .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 18:44

Yes , musicians that were popular five years ago , kids now might roll their eyes at us . So we're having to constantly look at our material and make sure is it still relevant ? Does it adequately and accurately represent the populations we're talking about ? Is the way that we've constructed it meaningful and helpful for teachers , who have to facilitate it ? And then is there anything that they're telling us about the really unique experiences that they have with the students in their classroom , and that's where we do learn a lot about . Even one sentence in a video might not go over well with a certain population of students , and when we read that feedback , we have a meeting and we talk about okay , how would we change that so that every student feels comfortable , safe , excited , involved , seen , validated . And that's how we maintain our cultural responsiveness , because we are responding to the student population who communicate through the teachers . We respond to the advisors who give us feedback , and then we are always making sure that whatever feedback we do get from anyone , that it's read , processed and

How Music-Empowered Courses Better Support Student Mental Health

Dr. Giuliana Conti 19:58

Dr . .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 19:59

You play a big part in the professional development right . Yes , and so you've recently introduced professional development courses focused on music and well-being , and the courses are designed not only for music teachers but also general education and pre-service teachers , which I love . Could you explain how music-empowered courses better equip teachers to support their students' mental health and overall well-being ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 20:29

Absolutely . If I was to speak to the general educator population first , I would say it's important to remember that , whatever personal experiences or feelings we have about music and any barriers that we may have been messaged about music , especially the idea that in order to teach music or incorporate music , you have to know music theory , you have to know how to play an instrument , you have to know how to sing , those can be helpful , but they're not the end-all , be-all of music integration . When music becomes a part of the learning process for students , not only are we representing music in a positive messaging space by saying that it's valuable throughout your life , throughout your day , because we already hear it at the grocery store , it's in our car , it's probably on their phone as soon as they get out of class and start walking off school campus . We know how in touch students are with their music and so they come into school full musical beings . And for teachers , even being interested in students' musical interests can help foster a safe learning environment where students feel like they're able to be themselves . And that can be done either through music that's on in the background , where students help put a playlist together of calming music that they all enjoy when their own song request comes on , they also get that dopamine rush of oh , I chose this . Oh , now everybody's listening to it . Oh , I wonder what they think . Oh , it makes me feel so good , oh , I'm so relaxed now . Now I'm really engaged in my assignment . Even if it's group activities and you have active music on in the background to help foster a fun and engaging environment , you might find that students are more engaged in the topic and less likely to talk about things with their friends on the side . So that's some of the more passive opportunities that music can present in the classroom .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 22:23

And then actively think about what it might be like to have an assessment of learning of some kind , where normally it would be an essay , or for younger kids , maybe it's a packet of worksheets and you want to know that they're learning the material . And maybe you have a student who's never really excelled in this area . But what would happen if you assigned , instead , multiple options for demonstrating knowledge and understanding , if they had being able to rewrite song lyrics , for example ? You might find that the student excels beyond what you thought , not only in the topic but creatively as well . And now you're developing a more positive relationship with that student who maybe feels like they're able to demonstrate their knowledge without the barriers , and music integration can really support student confidence . It can make the difference between students getting lower grades and higher grades , because what we want is to see that students are learning .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 23:25

I can speak from personal experience , having grown up with a learning disability . Sometimes students like me just do not memorize well . But if you were to write the lyrics to a song about a specific topic in school and then perform that to your class , that somehow is a completely different learning experience . That's one where I would feel excited to show that I could do this , not only that I rewrote the lyrics , but that I can also go up in front of my class and do that performance , as opposed to , maybe times tables , where the pressure's on me . It's spur of the moment and I'm freaking out , and now the rest of the week is me in my head about feeling like a failure or feeling like , well , I'm really bad at memorizing , so I guess I'll just scratch that off my future list of successes .

Music and Well-Being PD: Music, General Ed, and Pre-Service Teachers

Dr. Lisa Hassler 24:15

Yeah , you have to offer those alternative assessments . So how can educators enroll in these courses ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 24:21

So we do have a version for music educators and we have a version for general educators . If you go to musicworkshoporg you can find them . They are each around eight hours long , self-paced online . We have videos , we have smaller amounts of text we try not to make it reading heavy and then we have a ton of activities in the courses as well , and they go towards continuing education credits for most schools and districts so that you can also work towards your recredentialing process .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 24:53

And we are in the process of designing pre-service options for faculty and university instructors . Our current options are the online self-paced course at musicworkshoporg and the price right now is $129 . And the funds that we receive from this PD goes into building new free curriculum , because what we learned as a largely Dr . organization is that we want to be able to meet teachers' needs in their requests for new topics , but financially we had to find another avenue for us to meet that even sooner , and so now we are able to provide both . And we also heard from teachers that after COVID , they are recognizing a lot of emotional distress and dysregulation in their students . So how could we find a revenue source that also supports teachers as well in the meantime , and that's really what this opportunity is about .

Accessing Music Workshop's Free K-8 Program and Curriculum

Dr. Lisa Hassler 25:53

Yeah , how can schools and teachers access the Music Workshop's free program and curriculum ? That would be the org that you just said , right , yes , musicworkshoporg .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 26:03

The only thing that we really ask for is information about your school . This is how we track where we are and how many teachers use our materials and how many students get access to our materials . So if you go to musicworkshoporg , you can sign up for free , get an account and then , once you sign in , all those free materials are right there for you in our dashboard .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 26:23

Can parents who homeschool their children ? Are they able to access it as well ?

Dr. Giuliana Conti 26:27

Absolutely yes . We have a lot of homeschooling parents that use our resources with great success .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 26:34

That's wonderful .

Wrap Up and Call to Action

Dr. Lisa Hassler 26:35

Thank you so much , Giuliana , for sharing your journey and the incredible work you're doing with Music Workshop .

Dr. Giuliana Conti 26:40

Thank you so much , Lisa .

Dr. Lisa Hassler 26:42

As this episode draws to a close , I encourage teachers to music , empower your classrooms to enhance student well-being and create a more inclusive , supportive learning environment , helping students thrive emotionally , socially and academically . If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share , you can email me at lisa@drlisarhassler . com , or visit my website ww w . drlisarhassler . com and send me a message . If you like this podcast , subscribe and tell a friend . The more people that know , the bigger impact it will have . And if you find value to the content in this podcast , consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes . It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads , affecting positive change . So let's keep working together to find solutions that focus on our student's success .