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| Oli Braithwaite, founder Stars & Catz |
Earlier this month Oli Braithwaite, after stumbling upon my interview with Henry Wiens about the power of music to heal and give hope, reached out to ask if I might put a link from that page to his web page featuring the aforementioned research papers. When I saw the page I wanted to do more than a link. An interview with Braithwaite seemed in order.
Stars & Catz is much more than a repository for music research. In fact, that's just a side alley. Connecting students and teachers is a bigger part of his vision. When all has been boiled down to its essence, the message is clear. Music ought to be part of all our lives, for the sake of our mental, physical and spiritual health.
EN: You are something of an evangelist for the power of music. How did this come about for you?
Since I’m also interested in the mind and the human condition in general, I was naturally curious about these additional benefits. When I tried to find a single, central place that summarized and categorized all (or at least many) of the most important music related studies, it became clear that no such page existed on the internet. I knew the value that such a page would have for the wider music education community, teachers and students, so I undertook to put it together and publish it on Stars & Catz. That’s how our page on the benefits of music and music education, with over 200 studies, came into being.
EN: When did you begin Stars & Catz, and what is the story behind the name?
OB: The name is a bit weird, right? We wanted something a bit different because there are so many generic names around. How it came about was that we originally started in 2010 with only two instruments, guitar and piano. So students had the opportunity to become a ‘guitar star’ or a jazzy ‘piano cat’, hence Stars & Catz. When we expanded beyond those two instruments, we decided that being a star or a jazzy cat still applied, so we kept it.
EN: How does Stars & Catz fulfill its mission to help people realize their music dreams?
OB: We achieve this with three core pillars:
1. A free suite of music tools including, for example, this online metronome
2. Our learning hub articles, mostly catering for beginners in various instruments and singing
3. A teacher matching service to find either a local or online music teacher
EN: What prompted you to begin assembling all these research reports on the impact of music?
OB: As mentioned above, I realized that a comprehensive collection was missing from the web and knew how valuable it would be for music teachers, students and just anyone writing about the benefits of music. I also knew we’d be able to do justice to it, so we rolled up our sleeves and set aside the time (many weeks) needed to do the job properly. We also intend to update the page annually, if there’s enough interest in it.
OB: Great question. The general reaction to the page as a whole is ‘wow’ and then people tend to
comment on the sheer weight of evidence and the wide range of benefits derived from listening or playing music. Most people, aside from music teachers, simply aren’t aware of the power of music on the human mind and body. I don’t tend to get specific feedback on which benefit was most surprising though. For me, it was definitely music’s ability to boost the immune system that was most surprising.
EN: Anything else you would like to add?
OB: If anything is clear from the body of scientific work on the benefits of music, it’s that it really doesn’t matter what age you are, learning a musical instrument or singing is a wonderful and potentially very beneficial thing to undertake on many levels.
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Key Links
The Benefits of Music & Music Education (200+ Studies)
242 Music Quotes to Share & Inspire
Copyright 2021 Stars & Catz PTY LTD
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