There is a growing awareness in the West that certain music can provide physiological as well as psychological benefits. Several experiments conducted on the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart have revealed that many of Mozart’s sonatas result in increased joie de vivre and quality of life, regardless of one’s age or health conditions. Dr. Oliver Sacks, a neurologist, acknowledges the role of music in many neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s because of its unique capacity to organize and reorganize cerebral functions, when it has been greatly damaged. Design music sessions using music improvisations, receptive music listening, song-writing, guided imagery, learning through music has proved to be useful in ensuring emotional well-being besides improving communication and cognitive skills through musical responses.
Treatment Sessions
Though no hard and fast rules regarding the music treatment sessions have been laid down, a daily session at a fixed timing is recommended by some Western therapists. Basically, it is the convenience and the need of patients that counts.
The session could last for anywhere between 1 to 2 hours and with a few intervals for optimum results. Higher frequency is always better and would in no way, be harmful unlike other medications or drugs, which exhibit significant side-effects. While under-going music therapy, one should, however, avoid an empty stomach.
In a typical therapeutic session, the patient is provided with an instrument or a piece of notation to go on improvising the value of the piece. In the true traditions of manodharma sangita, the patient is encouraged to carry on whatever he feels like doing with them till an emotional bond develops between the patient and the musical piece. It should be made clear to the patient that his musical outputs will never be judged and that he is absolutely free to make the way he wants to sound his music. All that, patient has to try to do is to make the sound as pleasant as possible. He is also persuaded to use his vocal chords the way he wants– which could range from mere murmurs to loud shouts. It also creates a ‘musical and emotional’ environment that accepts everything the patient tries to formulate. There’s no rejection whatsoever. As the patient’s response to the challenges increases, it also provides experience for socialization, improves his self-confidence and communication. Rhythm instruments have been found to be useful for this type of therapeutic goals, particularly in the case of hyperactive patients. The therapist can also prescribe speech, movement, drama etc. to enhance the value of such methods. Familiar songs or tunes of the patients provide better effect than the unfamiliar ones. In the west, the therapist works usually with piano where the potentials of rhythm, melody and harmony are combined with a very wide range of fluctuations of pitch or loudness. A co-therapist may also work with a therapist to help support the client if necessary and both therapists may use their voices or other instruments as appropriate. It has been clinically found that creative endeavour in music has comforted disabled children, trauma victims and individuals under geriatric care in a significant way.
Custom-Made Music
In the developed world, an individual-based music programme is often customized, after studying the individual constitution of the patient and his problems. Once a programme is formulated, it is also necessary to review it periodically and incorporate changes so as to suit the changed conditions in the patient. Music is thus improvised uniquely for each patient and for each session. Audio recording allows the therapist to monitor the music process from session to session. Particular songs, bits, pieces or styles of music may also become part of the therapy process.
Creative Music Therapy
An approach in which co-creative sessions between the therapist and the patient, aimed at activating the innate musicality, using a variety of standard and specialized instruments has also become popular in recent times, particularly in the West. Combining aesthetic sensibilities with ongoing analytical assessment, such improvisational music has helped patients to overcome their physical, emotional and cognitive barriers. Such improvisational, creative music is administered for helping disabled children, victims of accidents and trauma, individuals under psychiatric or geriatric care and self-referred adults seeking to overcome their emotional problems and stress. Known as Nordhoff Robbins System, this approach has its growing popularity in the U.S.A., U.K., Germany, Australia, Scotland and Japan.
Music with Guided Imagery (GIM)
As the musical melody progresses, the therapist explains imaginative events, situations, characters which are further elaborated by the patient. Several symphonies in the Western classical system, particularly those of Beethoven, Bach, Haydn, Vivaldi, Tchaikovsky etc. could be utilized by the therapists for activating the imagination of the patient vis-a-vis the melody played, which not only induces satisfaction in the patient but also greatly helps in overcoming his problems such as depression, trauma and other psychological ailments. Such a method called ‘Bonny Method’ is also reported to have considerable impact in lowering one’s heart rate.
The value of the GIM approach lies in its permissiveness, as well as in the depth of penetration, which is found possible in one or many sessions. The GIM approach is self-evocative. It is based on the theory that the individual psyche when properly approached will respond with the most efficient and effective imagery, and that music is the central evoking agent. The therapist and the music provide a milieu within which the widest possible choices can be made. This milieu is referred to as “an envelope of sound”, or “sound presence” and the element of sound presence introduced into work with imagery creates the powerful therapeutic differences between verbally product and music-evoked imagery.
Music is central to GIM work. Music is considered here as a co-therapist but in fact it is the core. The three year training which is required to professionally use the Bonny Method of GIM is largely spent in coming to know music, especially classical music. How to use music as the opener to altered states of consciousness; what elements in music evoke emotional responses, suggest imagery sequences. How the various tapestries of music suit personality types. In a sense the GIM facilitator over a period, becomes a composer of sorts —using of course readily-available music selections to suit the client’s present state of mind.
The uses of music in GIM are cited as a major difference between the Bonny Method and traditional music therapy. An intimate knowledge and use of classical music is required. The music itself is pre-composed, chosen from the masters, and listened to in a deeply relaxed state of consciousness. Deep conscious elements of the person are evoked through the imagery which arises in response to the music medium and the presence of the supportive guide. Other artistic media are used to make the imagic experiences more concrete and to help in the integration of the experience. Immediate interpretation of the imagery and feeling responses are not asked for because we feel that imagery has a life and response of its own that reveals interpretation when the client is ready to realize it. The Bonny Method of GIM has borrowed strongly from the clinical drug-related work begun in the early 70’s at the MPRC. It has, however, separated itself by making music, rather than the drugs, the initiator, supporter, and mediator of deep inner experience.
Music Therapy Practices Conducive Environs
Many therapists recommend that the patient should have a comfortable place for treatment without much noise or other disturbances. He should be seated in a most convenient way although yoga postures such as padmasana or vajrasana are often recommended. Simple steps involved are :
- Close the eyes
- Play or mutter soft/slow music,
- Focus on the breathing process (for instance, by simply placing hands on abdomen one becomes aware of the movement of that part of the body during breathing),
- One could use meaningful mantras such as “I’m good”, “The Environment around is gracious and kind”, “God is kind and protective”, etc. Phrases such as “I’m loved”, “I love me”, I’m good” etc.
Such assertions are said to result in erasure of depression. As one absorbs music, one absorbs all positive vibrations from Nature, which are conducive to good health and well-being.
The Duration of Therapy
There cannot be any hard and fast rules on the duration of musical inputs. The prescribed music can be played even when the person is in deep sleep or coma. As rhythms are linked to the heartbeat, more music one receives should do wonders. However, instead of playing the music continuously, it can be given with some short intervals of gaps to make it more effective. Duration of therapy could be flexible, depending on the need of each patient and his response to it. Individual duration of therapy can however be determined through trial and error as one develops experience. There is a general consensus that an hour’s dose of appropriate music at a fixed time of the day every day with intermittent intervals should be ideal. As the improvement in ailments takes place, there would be a need for changing the musical inputs by the therapist. The first step would however involve the correct diagnosis followed by the selection of appropriate raga or melody to suit the individual requirement.
References
Bagchi, K. 2006 Music Therapy : An Alternative Medicine, Delhi: Gerontological Society of India
Sairam T V 2007 Self- Music Therapy, Chennai: Nada Centre for Music Therapy.
This article was published in ‘AYURVEDA AND ALL’ – December 2008 – Pages 29 to 31
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, July 19, 2021