Request for Stories on Community Music Experience

Dear Musician Friends,

Over the past several years, many of you will remember that I travelled through the eastern states to speak with - and in some cases conduct - a range of community and brass bands. Those sessions were more than presentations; they were early steps in a much larger global project examining how community-based music functions as a critical mental-health intervention, especially in regions facing entrenched social adversity across Africa, Southern Asia, and South America. The conversations, questions, and insights shared during those visits have since shaped programs that continue to grow internationally.

Today, in partnership with colleagues in Europe, we are taking the next significant step. Our collective goal is to consolidate and elevate the research so that it carries genuine weight when set before governments, funding bodies, and international development agencies. Community music movements - brass banding in particular - are often praised for their sense of belonging and camaraderie. These are valuable sentiments, but they do not constitute the full psychological story. If our movement is to be recognised as a legitimate therapeutic and community-strengthening intervention, we must present evidence that is rigorous, data-driven, and academically defensible.

To date, one of the greatest challenges has been the gap between what musicians know intuitively and what we can demonstrate empirically. Bands are excellent at declaring their social value, but less equipped to articulate the deeper mechanisms - neurological, behavioural, relational, and developmental - that make ensemble music-making a powerful tool for emotional regulation, trauma recovery, cognitive restructuring, and community cohesion. Moreover, these claims must be presented through appropriately qualified researchers if they are to survive scrutiny at government and policy levels.

In response, I am developing a comprehensive academic program and a new major text that will assemble the historical context of brass banding and integrate it with contemporary data, psychological science, and global case studies. The intention is to create a resource that finally bridges the gap between lived community experience and the kind of evidence required by policy architects and international funders.

Before this work enters its final phase, I would like to extend an invitation to our community. I am seeking personal accounts from individuals within the brass band world - not simply reflections on enjoyment, friendship, or belonging, but experiences that reveal why banding influences wellbeing on a deeper level. This includes, but is not limited to:

• moments where structured musical discipline helped stabilise emotional states or supported recovery from trauma;

• experiences where ensemble synchronisation produced measurable changes in mood, motivation, or resilience;

• instances where rehearsal processes reshaped cognitive patterns, improved executive functioning, or interrupted cycles of rumination;

• stories that highlight long-term developmental impact, such as how music-making strengthened identity, agency, attachment, or intergenerational healing.

These narratives will not be used in isolation, nor will any material be published without permission. Instead, they will be integrated alongside validated research to demonstrate how brass banding activates the brain, supports nervous-system regulation, and strengthens communities in ways comparable to formal therapeutic programs.

If you believe your journey, or the journey of someone you know, may contribute to this study, I would be honoured to hear from you. Your experiences are vital - not simply for this book and the associated academic output, but for ensuring that governments, NGOs, and health systems finally understand the profound therapeutic potential of the community-music movement we have spent decades nurturing.

Please email me at robertkavanagh@brightlights.life if you wish to contribute.

All information shared will be handled with strict confidentiality and managed in accordance with recognised professional, ethical, and academic standards governing health research and scholarly practice.