Listening to music can facilitate improvement of cognitive skills and emotional intelligence, which are key antecedents of learning. Music listening can also improve auditory perception and memory. 

Adjacent to a concert of music evoking strong emotions, the audience was asked to complete a Visual Analogue Scale (10-cm) before and after listening to the concert, along five variables Arousal, Joy, Degree of upset, Daily worries and Benevolence. Changes in the responses to these scales were subject to analysis.

Statistically significant changes were observed in the outcome measures of arousal (p=0.005), daily worries (p<0.001), degree of upset (p=0.048) and joy (p<0.001) but were not found for benevolence (p=0.93) in 228 concert attendees who completed the questionnaires. Age, gender and previous music experiences did not make a difference to perception of the music.

Attending a music concert with sensitive, emotionally charged topics significantly contributed to stimulating emotional interpretation, which was used as preparation for a reflective participation in subsequent satellite seminars.