Great TED talks for music educators (and students)

As we head into our school holidays I thought it might be a great opportunity to enjoy some inspirational speaking via some amazing TED talks by musicians and music educators.

Here’s what I consider to be the pick of the bunch. Enjoy!

PS Do you have a favorite TED talk? Share if you do!

Richard Gill: The Value of Music Education

Music educator Richard Gill argues the case for igniting the imagination through music and for making our own music. In this talk, he leads the TEDxSydney audience through some surprising illustrations of the relationship between music and our imagination.

Benjamin Zander: The Transformative Power of Classical Music

Benjamin Zander has two infectious passions: classical music, and helping us all realize our untapped love for it — and by extension, our untapped love for all new possibilities, new experiences, new connections.

Michael Tilson Thomas: Music and Emotion through Time

In this epic overview, Michael Tilson Thomas traces the development of classical music through the development of written notation, the record, and the re-mix.

Julian Treasure: The 4 Ways Sound affects us

Playing sound effects both pleasant and awful, Julian Treasure shows how sound affects us in four significant ways. Listen carefully for a shocking fact about noisy open-plan offices.

Charles Limb: Your Brain on Improv

Musician and researcher Charles Limb wondered how the brain works during musical improvisation — so he put jazz musicians and rappers in an fMRI to find out. What he and his team found has deep implications for our understanding of creativity of all kinds.

Bobby McFerrin: Hacks your Brain with the Pentatonic Scale

In this fun, 3-min performance from the World Science Festival, musician Bobby McFerrin uses the pentatonic scale to reveal one surprising result of the way our brains are wired.