It is now a scientifically acknowledged fact that sound and music have a major influence on our mind and behaviour. Of late, there is a growing realization that a person can develop auditory, visual, motor, communication, social, academic (cognitive), and self-help skills through music activities. Soft lullabies sung by the mother soothe infants, national anthems played by the band stir us, reminding of our roots to our motherlands, heavy metal music played in discos send us into frenzies. It’s no wonder, then, that music therapists working in clinics and hospitals have tactfully adopted sound and music that can soothe their inmates from pre-operative fears and post-operative pains in ICUs. The same is the case with the fear and anxiety among our senior citizens, destined to live in isolation away from their loved ones, as music in and around them work as constant and most reliable kith and kin.
Of all the forms of sound therapies used today for addressing the body and mind (and also the spirit, who believe in the latter), music is the most common and widely practised all over the world. The fact is that music can do wonders in reducing heart rate, blood pressure, pain, and anxiety. Many high-end hospitals in advanced countries such as the USA (and some in India too, of late!) have started using rhythms and tunes, which are pleasant and popular as a part of their prescribed treatment! In short, they are deliberately employed as a means to boost the patient’s level of physical, mental, and social functioning.
While hospitals use music to overcome anxiety of patients, to improve their moods and to alleviate their pain (of course, along with pain medication or anaesthesia, wherever necessary), music is also being increasingly used in senior homes, rehab centres, mental asylums, physiotherapy centres, besides in school assemblies and in meetings. There has been a system of using prayer songs in many schools and colleges, before the commencement of the academic sessions, which has been found to prepare the students to get ready for the mental tasks expected of them by their teachers and professors. Besides its calming role, music is also used as a sedative, since it induces a good amount of sleep. It helps in counteracting fear, and reducing muscle tension.
Nada Centre for Music Therapy, a Chennai-based organization propagating music therapy in the country (www.nada.in) is of late flooded with queries as to how exactly music can be used by those who want it to cure their mental ailments or inadequacies in their lives. This article aims at giving a broad guideline. Those who wish to specialize in music therapy, of course are welcome to join the distance learning course conducted by the Centre successfully for the past six years (The participants at the end of this course, are issued with the prestigious Nada certificate which qualifies them to be the pioneering music therapists of the nation!).
Methods in Music Therapy
Like music, music therapy practices are also unbounded and can be left to one’s skill and imagination. There are many ways one can use music for healing purposes, depending upon the imaginative power and innovative methods adopted by a music therapist!
Simple Ways to Use Music
From the days of Plato and Aristotle and even before from the dark eras of shamans and primitive human societies, music has been valued for its healing impact on the mind. When we talk of diseases to be cured by music, we must be clear about the word ‘disease’ which has two parts: dis-ease. A disease therefore, need not necessarily mean a plague or a cholera for which you can seek for a more relevant intervention than music! But whenever you are not feeling at ease with yourself or with the situations around, there is no point for you to undergo a surgery or a brain-replacement operation, if there is one!
‘Dis-ease’ which refers to uneasiness is 100% a mental phenomenon. You get ‘disease’ because of your own weakness or inadequacies in life and also due to the crucifying demands of people or situations around you! Yes, here pops in music as the most promising medicine without any side-effects! It helps not only in addressing your ‘situation’, but also helps in your relaxed expression and communication with others without any lack on the part of your confidence level!
Type of Music – Never Matter!
Many people ask us this question: “Is it necessary that we should study classical music, which is so complex so as to apply such music for self-healing or for healing others?” Our answer is a simple ‘No’. As long as one has a musical ear which comes from mindless listening rather than any intellectual pursuit for years and years, any kind of music (be it Jazz or Carnatic; film songs or folks songs) will be fit enough to fulfil the musical needs of people. Moreover the common man is cut off from the ‘intellectual’ classics and he may not be able to appreciate the ‘grammar’ part of such music, though he may derive pleasure from its musical base – as in any other type of music. It is essential whatever be the type, the musical choice has to be the prerogative of the listener and not that of a music therapist. So, it is the musical choice which makes the listener or user listen to it. Every music therapist has to be aware of the likes and dislikes of music by his or her clients, before prescribing one. Even after prescribing, the frequent feedback on the acceptance of the musical piece is the responsibility of the therapist. It is the ‘Bhakti’ for music by the user which helps in energizing and in healing the body, mind and spirit.
Bathe in Tones and Tunes!
Visualizing that you are bathing in sounds is a good idea and certainly a good way of benefiting from the musical sounds and rhythms played around you for healing your dis-ease! Softer and more relaxing forms of music (without high decibels and drums) can be enjoyed this way. It would be nice if you could still listen to such music in your bath-tub or showers! If not lying on your bed and imagining water being splashed along with the tones and tunes is also perfectly okay! Be informed that many spas of repute around the world have made use of such music to make their clients forget the money spent by them! Some western music therapists recommend putting on your headphones while listening to your music so that you can cut off yourself from the rest of the world or not be distracted by anything. However, the volume of such pumped-in music should be minimal so that your ear-drums do not get damaged even temporarily!
Slow but Steady Music
It is an open secret now that slow movements in any musical piece help listeners. The heart rate and breathing cycles get slowed down so that it helps in de-tensing the tensed people- at least temporarily! You can deliberately work on slowing down your breathing by listening to the required rhythms and tempos while doing pranayama. It can tremendously increase the effect of doing pranayama exercises! It goes without saying that stress gets reduced by such interventions.
Faster Numbers
On the other hand, if your day at school or office has been pretty boring and you reach home well-harassed, it is time for you to shift your moods by choosing a different genre of music. Something faster with more beats and pep will work better for you in this case.
Another method of ‘pepping up’ is to go for a brisk walk with a faster-paced music streaming from your mobile musical apparatus like a walkman. Please ensure that the volume is minimal in case you use ear-phones. Brisk walking with a brisk musical genre will help improve your breathing, bringing in more oxygen. By combining exercise, visual imagery and music, many people have benefited from getting out of stress as well as depression. All that you need is to become light and breezy to laugh away the blues, which are but part of our life.
We must remember that the sights and sounds of nature have a natural healing role in our lives. As we walk on the beach or in groves, leaving behind the loads of tensions, accumulated unknowingly we are able to relax. Sit and enjoy the birds singing or the water gently gushing in a stream. Unfortunately, we have very few places which are close to nature thanks to the industrialization and urbanization processes going on and on.
But there are CDs and tapes in which you can store nature’s sounds emanating from bird’s chirps, flowing streams, rustling leaves, sounding waves and what not. Such CDs are also available with such readymade sounds for you to switch on! So, make use of them when you are comfortably seated and let your imagination fly! You can even devote some time in your daily routine to make it a habit so that you have a de-stressing mechanism in action! You yourself will notice how much better you feel in ten to fifteen minutes of these practices! If you are in a dilemma as to which music you should go for in order to de-stress yourself, then better go for the one which is your old favourite. Many seniors have derived tremendous relief by playing even nursery rhymes- actually meant for their grandchildren or great grandchildren! Such pieces and selections are associated with pleasant memories of their childhood or youth and can, at least temporarily, make them forget their present miseries.
Administering Music Therapy
Though music therapy is administered by a trained music therapist in the West, any thinking person with an ear for music can learn easily how to use sound and music. Nada Centre for Music Therapy, a pioneering non-profit organization working for this cause through its education, research and publication programs since 2004 has turned many an ordinary citizen ·into a music therapist through its distance learning course! Now they prescribe and utilize music not only on them, but also on their kith, kin and neighbours, which has resulted in more harmony and melody in their and other’s lives! There is a dire need for such music therapists in the society as more and more people are falling prey to behavioural, social, learning, or physical disabilities due to the faster pace of mechanized and gadget-ridden life and its resultant complexities unknown for our previous generations!
Music Therapy – Session Planning
Sessions can be organized in a group setting or in an individual (one-on-one) setting – like any music classes. The length of the sessions can be flexible though on an average it could be something between 30-60 minutes.
What is important is to assess the needs of each individual before the session starts. People who are in need of such sessions no doubt, will come on themselves. They should never be compelled to undergo music therapy. In India, I consider every session of Bhajan as an ideal music therapy session. In temples and gurudwaras, we have beautiful sessions of Bhajans and Kirtans sung by experts. Whether one believes in God or not, one should attend such sessions as one can feel the vibrations there which transcend the narrow premises in all religions and reach spiritual heights which are unbounded!
A music therapist must prepare and carefully plan in order for music therapy treatment programmes and intervention strategies to be effective. The four basic steps for a music therapist to prepare for a new client are: (1) define the client’s problem or area of need (assessment); (2) set a therapeutic goal for the client; (3) devise music activities that are related to the goal and appropriate to the client’s level of functioning and capacity to respond; and (4) implement the procedure and evaluate the client’s responses.
Music therapy often elicits changes in non-target behaviours that may be just as significant as those initially sought. In the music therapy literature, positive “side effects” are almost always reported, as a result of the many influences of music. Frequently observed increases which often accompany musical experiences are: motivation to try new things, pride in self, and enhanced fine motor coordination.
One of the oldest methods in music therapy, familiar to several religious groups around the world from ancient times is ‘toning’. The toning session involves the patients/participants to repeat certain vowels, which are tested by trial and error for their psycho-acoustic ‘life-energy’ which get infused for ‘inhibiting’ or ‘balancing’ various parts/areas/’ chakras’ of the body.
In addition to the methods referred to above, there are many schools in music therapy, which employ different methods in treating the listener-patients with their kind of music. For instance, the Tomatis school works on employing specially modified auditory feedback in a broad range of frequencies; the Berard school deals with a form of ‘treatment’ (may not be a treat for some!) which uses electronically enhanced music aimed at connecting hypersensitive or distorted hearing. Yet another school which employs what is called ‘spectral activated music of optimal natural structure’ for therapeutic sessions. Also called ‘Samonas’, this is a form of electronically-tailored music, aimed at training the auditory system so as to process the full range of spectrum without any problem, such as distortion, hypersensitivity or frequency loss.
As in the United States and in several other advanced nations, music therapy is going to occupy its pride of place in countries like India, China, Korea, South America etc. as these nations are presently undergoing the ‘developmental pains’ involved in their rapid economic developmental path. The pains of change can only be toned down by the musical tones and their right combinations. Though music therapy can soon be found in·clinics and hospitals in India in the near future, it is our endeavour to have at least one music therapist at every household. Very much like charity, health too begins at home!
This article was published in Science India, July 2015, p-21-26
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, Nov. 16, 2021