TED : Ideas worth spreading

Review: How to find peace with loss through music

Speaker: Steven Sharp Nelson
TEDxSaltLakeCity
Date: September 2020
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah

Description from TED website:
Music can act as a guide, says cellist Steven Sharp Nelson. It has the power to unlock the mind, tap into the heart and bring light in the darkest times. Take a deep breath as Nelson takes you on a melodic, meditative journey that could reconnect you with your closest loved ones — no matter how near or far they may be.

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My Review / Notes / Thoughts

I very much enjoy the TED Talks conducted by artists. This one especially since I saw The Piano Guys in concert several years ago in Atlanta (took my parents & grandmother to see them for my parents’ anniversary one year).

This talk is a bit different from the normal ones that I bring up through this review process. However, I still believe it has major potential for the educational realm.

The primary field I see this talk good for is psychology. Since music is a means of therapy, it would be good for introducing young psychology majors to the realm and study of Music Therapy (which is a wonderful field of study, in and of itself).

I think instructors could use this in a course when starting the topic of music therapy with those students. In music programs, this also could be used to show music students various alternative uses for their craft.

How can you see this talk being applied to a curriculum? Do you have any ideas of what types of assignments you might pair this talk with? I’d love to hear your thoughts!


Until next time … live long, life-learner!