With Music in Mind by Amber Trust  

Stephanie Boon
School of Music

With Music in Mind by Amber Trust
Professor Adam Ockelford, Founder at The Amber Trust, and Professor of Music, Director, Applied Music Research Centre, University of Roehampton
16 November 2020   

As someone who has a passion for music and a student of Music Psychology, I strongly believe in the functions that music can serve. Music is embedded in all of us, and it is not just a form of entertainment. As said by Professor Adam Ockelford, music becomes a universe to access ourselves and the world. I am sure that many of us listen to music to help manage our mood and emotions— whether it is listening to a happy tune to boost our mood or blasting a sad ballad to get in touch with our emotions, music can be used for our emotional wellbeing. However, music has the ability to do more than just emotional functions. As presented in this webinar, research has shown how music is able to help with language and communication skills, cognitive processes such as memory, social interaction skills, self-expression, promoting a sense of wellbeing through identity and sense of belonging, and also to aid awareness and understanding of ourselves and our environment.  

It was insightful to see how these findings in research were used to develop a musical intervention. With Music in Mind is a new UK-wide service that was launched to provide a new music service for families who have a visually impaired child with neurodegenerative disease, such as Batten disease. The various resources included in this service serve specific functions to aid the challenges commonly faced by those with neurodegenerative diseases. They were able to translate what they found in the literature into tangible resources and interventions. Central to this service are the musical elements of listening, playing and singing, and making music with others, and how they are used have the potential to help the various areas that are negatively impacted for those who are visually impaired or who have neurodegenerative diseases. During his sharing, what caught my attention the most was how the use of micro-songs, which are simple tunes put into common everyday phrases, was able to help these individuals communicate their needs, wants and feelings with those around them. Without the song, they were not able to form such sentences, but once the tune was introduced, they were able to express themselves, and it was definitely a heart-warming moment to witness.  

Through this webinar, it was inspiring to be able to learn about the work and research that goes into the creation of such musical interventions. As someone who is currently active in the field of music psychology, I appreciated how each component of this intervention was targeted at specific skills that these individuals have challenges with, and that each was grounded in research. It reminded me of how important it is to be able to take what we find in our research out of the laboratory and into the “real-world”, or what we call generalisability and applications in the literature.  But I think greater than that was hearing from the children and young people, and their families themselves about how music changed their lives for the better. Personally, I strongly resonated with how Professor Adam placed an importance on not only the individuals with the impairment, but also those around them, such as their families and caregivers. We often forget that such impairments and the challenges that come with it impact more than just the individual, but also their support network. Thus, seeing how this intervention also serves as a platform to empower those around the children and help strengthen the relationships that are crucial to their lives was especially heart-warming. As I mentioned at the start, as musician and aspiring music psychologist myself, this webinar was a great opportunity for me to think about the applications of my future research, and also served as reminder of the power and importance of music in our lives. I think the best way to end this would be with what one of the children said, “God took away my eyes, but put music in my ears.”