Con Brio Initiative

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Minneapolis, MN
Con Brio Initiative

Music helps young people grow socially, emotionally, and artistically, and has a lasting impact on well-being.

Con Brio combines music and public health education to build resilience and well-being for youth.

04/22/2025

Hi all! Please call your state reps TODAY to support the Science Museum of Minnesota and their important programs that help educate youth across the state!! 🔬🦠🦖

03/08/2025

Songwriting is a great alternative to journaling because it can be private OR shared. Writing songs helps us get our feelings on paper and can also connect us to others by playing for or with each other!

02/21/2025

"How do I sound?" can mean a lot of things! Here's how to ask for exactly what you mean to request. 🎵🤔
Transcript in bio!

02/08/2025

Positive adults make a huge difference in a young person's life. Music mentors can be those adults, and make youth feel safe, belonging, and support in all aspects of their well-being. Adults can support youth by disrupting injustice.

01/25/2025

Every creative or performing process includes moments of self-doubt. Some reminders for young makers, creatives and performers 🎶
Transcript in bio

01/11/2025

Music shouldn't (but can) hurt! Our minds and bodies are not as separate as we sometimes think: injury can cause sadness, grief, and emotional stress. Here are some tips for building your sixth sense (proprioception: awareness of the body in space) to prevent injury and keep playing music. 🎻🧠
Transcripts can be found at our link in bio!

12/28/2024

Happy holidays, music teachers! Here are 4 free-to-download posters about how music is tied to young people's health, formatted for age and reading level. All are available in pdf and png formats and are ready-to-print as 18x24 posters to hang in your classroom, practice rooms, or private studio. 🎁

Visit our website or linktree for these free resources: "Music and Health: Spheres of Influence" and "Music and Communication Skills." Happy Holidays!

12/14/2024

Winter is a time of hibernation and rest, so it's no wonder it can affect our mood, too. Thankfully, the solstice marks longer days ahead! Here are some ideas to use music to lift your mood while we wait for spring ❄🎵 (full transcript in bio)

11/30/2024

Cultural song and dance practices are empowering and healing for Indigenous youth. CW: colonization & historical trauma. Link to the transcript is in bio!

11/16/2024

Many musicians are perfectionistic and have loud, harsh inner critics. Instead of beating ourselves up, it can be better to approach our critic and practice sessions with gentleness and curiosity. How do you deal with your inner critic?

ID: Music & perfectionism: How can we use curiosity to soothe our inner critic?

Perfectionism often leads to harsh criticism of ourselves, despite only wanting to improve. A harsh inner critic can cause extra stress and impact our practice sessions, performances, and mental health. Instead, we can try approaching music and our well-being with gentleness and curiosity.

Gently responding to your inner critic: When you practice, perform or otherwise feel your inner critic nagging you, consider what you would say to a five year old child. How would you respond to soothe them? Do you treat yourself with the same kindness?

Channel your inner investigator: A curious investigator solves problems differently than a harsh critic. The next time your critic shows up, play investigator:
Pause and ask yourself, “do I need to take a break instead of pushing through?”
Try experimenting and exploring instead of fixing or self-punishing. Ask “What new thing can I try?” instead of “Why can’t I get it right?”
Or, soothe your critic by responding to it with gentle gratitude: “I know you’re trying to help. Thanks, but I’ll try x instead.”

Playing and healing: Whether we’re approaching our feelings or our practice routine, gentleness and curiosity can help us care for ourselves and play music in a more fulfilling, expressive way. It may also help relieve stress while sustainably improving our technique through kindness.

11/02/2024

Playing music together is a lot like having a conversation, and music itself can help us learn better communication skills. What are some ways music has helped you communicate better? 🎵
Transcript:
Music and communication: music can help us learn how to better listen, speak to, and understand others. Here are some of the many ways how.
Listen first! Playing music together requires active listening & watching for nonverbal cues, which also allows us to consider & process conversations with care.
Intentionality: We make intentional expressive musical choices based on dynamics, tempo & technique. Intentional & specific word choice also prevents misunderstandings.
Ask questions: Music and conversation both can benefit from asking questions to make them clearer. Sometimes, face-to-face speech is clearer than only reading text. Collaborate: Playing music together has us work together to keep it enjoyable. Talking is the same. During conflict, we express our own needs & wants, respectfully listen when possible, and leave when we need to.

10/19/2024

Both positive and traumatic experiences impact our mental health starting from a young age. How has music contributed positively to your life? 🎵 Shortened transcript below.
Transcript: What are ACEs & PCEs, and what does music have to do with them?

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are potentially traumatic events that occur before adulthood. Most people experience 1+ ACEs before they turn 18 (CDC, 2024). ACEs can include experiencing or witnessing neglect/abuse, poverty, family mental health struggles, incarceration, neighborhood violence, bullying & discrimination. But ACEs aren’t the full picture.

Positive childhood experiences (PCEs) increase our resilience and well-being. Many adults report having 6-7 PCEs (Sege et al., 2024). PCEs can include (among others) feeling peer support, safely expressing feelings around family, and finding joy in community traditions. PCEs paint a fuller picture of our lives and strengths, and can protect against the negative effects of ACEs.

ACEs and PCEs have lifelong effects, and add up. Both are associated with physical and mental health outcomes and quality of life through our early, middle, and even late adulthood.

Music can lead to many PCEs that can support lifelong well-being (Varner, 2024). For example, playing music in ensembles or community groups can promote peer support, cultural joy, and belonging. Having 2+ caring adults beyond one's family is also protective, a role that supportive music teachers can easily fill.

Private and school music teachers can also protect and empower youth with trauma-informed, culturally-responsive practices (McEvoy & Salvador, 2020). For example, teachers can give youth a say in what music they play, commit to self-reflection, focus on youth's strengths, especially to build new skills. Music teachers often already do these, and positively improve youth well-being.

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Minneapolis, MN

Website

https://linktr.ee/conbrioinitiative

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