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Music Psychology
Music psychologists explore the ways that music impacts our emotions, relationships, brain and bodies. We use a range of research approaches to explore the connection between music and individuals, groups and society in order to better understand how music can promote health and wellbeing.
Music Psychology at the Conservatorium
Discovering how people think, feel, behave and learn when engaging with music.
Our Music Psychology Laboratory undertakes research, learning and teaching around the key concept of what it is for individuals and societies to be musical, and the ways music forms an invaluable aspect of everyday life. Our researchers collaborate and engage with other disciplines and organisations in ways that foster exploration, innovation and experimentation.
We work in close association with our sister laboratory at the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences – the Clinical Music Neuroscience Laboratory – and collaborate on projects within the Music Mind and Wellbeing Initiative (MMW) at the University of Melbourne.
The Music Psychology Laboratory provides an innovative and overarching framework within which is housed three key areas of music research, teaching and engagement:
Psychology of Music
Focuses on the role music plays in every society and culture, and how it is an important part of all aspects of life, including various social, recreational and cultural occasions. Utilising a range of methodologies, our research initiatives seek to understand the role and purpose of music for individuals and communities, and the ways people engage with music and use music to regulate their mood and emotions in ways that reinforce wellbeing.
Performance Science
Involves the interdisciplinary study of human performance within music. We draw on methodologies across various scientific disciplines to understand the fundamental skills, mechanisms and outcomes of music involvement that enhance the delivery of various forms of professional music performance and music creation.
Performance Teaching
Applies empirical evidence from music psychology related to skill acquisition, practice quality, and motivation, to explore targeted interventions that can be utilised by musicians and teachers and implemented within music education settings, both formal and informal.
Learn more about Masters in Music - Performance Teaching course
Music Psychology and Performance Science courses
How to Prepare for Peak Performance with Dr Margaret Osborne.
Our people
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I was really interested in the work Dr Margaret Osborne was doing at the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music, which seemed to be at the forefront of performance science research and everything seemed to evolve from there. My current research involves the development and assessment of an online performance skills curriculum for adolescent music students and teachers.
Anneliese GillMusic Psychology and Performance Science Research
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Conservatorium Events
Music Neuroscience Symposium 2020 – How Music Sculpts the Brain
Monday 24 Feb 2020 at 5:00pm
The Melbourne Conservatorium of Music and the Melbourne School of Psychological Sciences are delighted to welcome as our recently appointed Professorial Fellow in the MSPS, Dr Isabelle Peretz, from the University of Montreal.
Dr Peretz’s keynote will describe the main findings of more than thirty...
Puccini Double Bill: Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi
Thursday 12 Mar 2020 - Sunday 15 Mar 2020
Featuring the next generation of Australia’s emerging opera performers, Master of Music (Opera Performance) students from the Melbourne Conservatorium of Music present Puccini’s Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi.
In the first, Sister Angelica is a young noblewoman who has been forced to become a ...
News
Four new faces at the Melbourne Conservatorium in 2020
23 December 2019
2020 promises to be an exciting year at the Melbourne Conservatorium, with milestone anniversaries, an incredible array of public performances, and teaching, research and musi...
Dr Kim Dunphy, Dance Movement Therapist: ‘It’s our moral obligation to make a contribution’
4 December 2019
Digital archives of sung poems might seem a long way away from dance movement therapy, but for Dunphy it’s all part of a broader engagement with art, culture and communi...
A chance for teachers to upskill and make music accessible to students with disabilities
3 December 2019
A new course at the University of Melbourne will help equip music teachers with the skills to work with students with special needs and ensure they have equal access...