Cooks Hill School of Music is an independently owned and operated business, founded on the principles of sustainability, community and kindness. Having only opened our doors in March of 2024, we’ve got a lot of work to do to become what we’d like to be, but we’re looking forward to the journey. We eventually want to transform into a people focused social enterprise – possible even a worker led cooperative, striving for a better, more harmonious world – harmonious, just like our favourite music.

Our proprietor has 36 years of history playing musical instruments and has amassed a large body of knowledge of music, and now wants to share the joy and privilege of playing music with others.

Also, recent studies have shown that learning to play musical instruments is more beneficial for developing brains than learning computer coding.

The A.C.T. Government has an infographic on the power of music, which covers the benefits of studying music, and the positive effects playing a musical instrument can have, especially for those suffering from childhood trauma, but even for those not.

Cambridge University in England agrees.

The National Library of Medicine in the USA published a study from the University of Geneva that concludes that “musical education starting already early in childhood offers the opportunity to tune and train the brain for important cognitive and possibly also social functions. Furthermore, it provides the child with techniques and foundations, which will probably serve as a benefit for the entire lifetime; not to mention that having learned to play an instrument in childhood may be a great source of pleasure later on in life.”

Also, “The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.”

And, a study from January 2021 at the University of Zurich (published in The Journal of Neuroscience) shows that teaching kids to play a musical instrument increases other skills and brain power.

We also agree!