Research Short: How Group Music Lessons Boost Children’s Wellbeing

This week, I met with Claudia Fernández de Cañete García, Pastora Martínez Castilla and Graham Welch to discuss their recent article ‘The Impact of Music Instrumental Training and Second-Language Learning as Extracurricular Activities on Children’s Well-Being: A Randomised Controlled Study From a Positive Psychology Perspective.’ The project consisted of a randomised controlled trial which compared nearly seven months of extracurricular group music lessons, individual piano lessons, English lessons, and no extracurricular activity, and found that group music tuition significantly boosted children’s psychological wellbeing – especially for those who started with lower wellbeing – while children with no extracurricular activity saw their wellbeing decline over the same period.

Children who took part in group instrumental lessons – playing percussion instruments and singing together weekly for almost seven months – showed a significant improvement in psychological wellbeing (feelings of self-acceptance, purpose and positive relationships with others), especially those who started the project with lower wellbeing scores. Children who received no extracurricular activity, on the other hand, showed a significant decline in psychological wellbeing over the same period – a drop that was not seen in any of the music or English groups. No significant changes emerged for life satisfaction or positive and negative affect in any group.

The research team randomly assigned 70 Year 4 children (aged around 9) from middle-income families in Málaga, Spain, to one of five groups: individual piano lessons, group instrumental lessons, individual English lessons, group English lessons, or a control group with no extra activity. Free weekly lessons ran for nearly seven months (24 sessions), delivered by the same teacher. Wellbeing was measured before and after using validated scales covering subjective wellbeing, life satisfaction, psychological wellbeing, and positive and negative affect. Limitations include relying on children’s self-reports, and that the group music condition happened to start with lower wellbeing scores than the other groups.

This research is relevant for music services, hubs and schools deciding how to structure extracurricular or after-school music provision, particularly whether to offer individual or group tuition. Their findings suggest group instrumental sessions – which reach more children per teacher and cost less to run – may carry wellbeing benefits beyond individual lessons, especially for children who most need support. It should also be useful for anyone making the case for music provision to policymakers or funders, since it adds evidence that group music-making can help protect children’s wellbeing, not only their musical skills.

This project was carried out by a team based at UNED (Spain) – Claudia Fernández de Cañete García, who led the study and taught the piano and English lessons herself, and Pastora Martínez Castilla – together with Graham Welch (UCL). The article was written during Claudia’s research stay at UCL, hosted by Graham, from April to July 2024. The study was supported by Fundación Musical de Málaga, and Claudia’s research is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities through an FPU grant.

Find out more:
Read the full article in Psychology of Music journal

Written by Kerry Bunkhall – Research Manager for Music Mark

See the full list of Music Mark’s research