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A new website offers video capsules and popular texts to inform the general public about the scientifically recognized benefits of playing and listening to music You don't have to be a violin virtuoso or a guitarist of the calibre of Jimi Hendrix to enjoy the benefits of music. Every amateur musician benefits from playing an instrument, even if it's just a few notes or a wooden spoon.

An international study co-authored by McGill psychologist Caroline Palmer suggests our brains and bodies don't just understand music, they physically resonate with it. These discoveries, based on findings in neuroscience, music, and psychology, support Neural Resonance Theory (NRT). NRT maintains that rather than relying on learned expectations or prediction, musical experiences arise from the brain's natural oscillations that sync with rhythm, melody and harmony.

A study carried out at UdeM by Craig Turner and his doctoral supervisor Felipe Verdugo shows how pianists' "expressive intentions" may heighten their risk of long-term injury. Playing the piano involves much more than striking the keyboard. The pianist's entire body is in movement, from the torso to the fingers.

We each have a natural rhythm, and music that matches it offers the best pain relief, McGill research suggests Music has the best chance of providing pain relief when it is played at our natural rhythm, a McGill University research team has discovered. This suggests it may be possible to reduce a patient's level of pain by using technology to take a piece of music someone likes and adjust the tempo to match their internal rhythm, the researchers said.

Singing, at any age, can improve accuracy and speed of elocution during complex tasks . Talking is an exercise that requires great coordination between the lungs and the muscles that control the vocal cords, jaw, tongue and lips. As the years go by, these anatomical structures undergo changes that affect vocal function.

When Burnaby eighth grader Advaith S. Iyer decided to participate in the Greater Vancouver Regional Science Fair (GVRSF) for the first time this spring an ambitious research idea emerged. Seeking to test the cognitive load - the amount of work the brain is doing - associated with playing musical instruments, his high school laboratory equipment was insufficient for his complex experiment.

A new study out of Jessica Grahn's music lab suggests music training may preserve certain rhythmic motor training abilities in early-stage Parkinson's disease. Grahn, a psychology professor and member of the Western Institute for Neuroscience , combines her unique background as a classically trained concert pianist and training as a neuroscientist to focus on why humans move to rhythm, and how and why movement and rhythm may be connected in the brain.  "Humans naturally perceive and move to a music beat, falling into the rhythm through clapping, tapping and dancing," she said.