Book Condensation
Music, especially Indian music, is not merely a pleasant pastime, a way of devotion or an expression of bhava. It has therapeutic value and is capable of transforming our thinking process, mood complexes and attitudinal traits into a healthy pattern. Vibration forms the very core of our existence. Rhythm is an intrinsic part of each one of us.
Hence it is that music therapy, the prudent use of sounds and rhythms to tone up one’s overall health, is gaining popularity as proto-medicine which accelerates the healing process.
Music therapy is dedicated to the prudent use of sounds and rhythms aimed at one’s overall health. Music, we all know, is a series of sound vibrations, consisting of compressions and rarefactions.
When prudently administered, music is capable of transforming our thinking processes, mood compositions and attitudinal traits into a healthy pattern.
A healthy and flexible approach to life is what one gains with music. In terms of its contribution, what music offers is more than whatever the best life has in store for us.
Music brightens us when we are dull and depressed. When the mind becomes overactive, creating havoc, it is, again, music which comes to our rescue as a sedative!
Scientific studies have shown how rhythms in music coincide with those rhythms in the human brain, altering the neuro-physiological functions and paving the way for a healthy outlook.
The Procedure
A trained music therapist acts primarily as a facilitator for diagnosing the health conditions and for prescribing musical inputs, and treatment schedules, such as timing and duration, in all therapeutic settings.
However, it is not always possible to position a music therapist next to a patient. The next best course would be to train the patient himself on the basics of music and infuse enough confidence in him to be responsible for his own health. Music, nevertheless, is not a full-fledged medicine. It can be, at the most, a proto-medicine which, in combination with other forms of medicine, can activate or accelerate one’s healing mechanism.
How to Select ‘Right’ Music?
Selecting music may appear difficult initially, but eventually one can master it. The musical piece that loves you, or makes you love is the right music for you.
Never select the genre of music with which you have never felt comfortable. Never go by others’ tastes, preferences, idiosyncrasies or standards.
The First Step
Before using any music, close your eyes, take long breaths, sit or lie comfortably after pampering yourself with a light snack or a soft drink. Having done that, it is time to observe your mood level.
Are you left with any tinge of ill feelings, disappointments and frustrations causing hopelessness, jealousy or anger? Then imagine (rather believe forcefully) that the music you are about to play now will transform all those things, ill feelings to love, disappointments and frustrations to thankfulness and anger and jealousy to compassion. As the music comes to an end you must have enough time to bask in silence and dry your inner being with it!
For, silence is as important as music, if not more.
After two or three rounds (let’s call it “active listening exercise”) all you do need is a good degree of silence and rest, preferably as in savasana, the easiest of the asanas.
This session can be repeated every 30 to 40 minutes with intermittent silence.
Since `musicscape’ influences our mindscape, make music your companion for life and love it so much that you are always loved back.
Now that the dirt stuck in your mind is cleansed with the flow of music, and your body and mind has been dried under the brilliance of silence, you get ready to face yet another day with a beaming smile. Who knows, your smile may infect others around you.
Music the Mirror of Life
The Love, Yoga and Music
`The supreme happiness in life’, says Victor Hugo, ‘is the conviction that we are loved’.
Yoga and music are the two time-honoured systems that can ensure this. They guarantee not only a balanced approach to life, but also a feeling of ceaseless love. They are the two eyes of humanity, capable of transforming the ‘beast’ in a man into a divine being.
What makes them so special is their instant acceptability by our inner being and their incessant influence on our mind and manners.
Love, yoga and music can nourish the mentally deprived amongst us. They can transform the severest of challenges into normal, ordinary events–and opportunities too!
Both yoga and music can be proactive to our spiritual goals. They can be a dependable aid in the search for self-knowledge.
Notice the way the Carnatic kritis juxtapose ‘intellectual’ tala with ’emotional’ Raga (full of gamaka swings) to evolve perfect harmony and balance. Music and yoga lend flexibility and adaptability, which enable one to accept nature’s logic.
Yoga and music are man’s life of lifelong companions and guides. They may not change things and events around us, but bring in change in us, so that we face life’s challenges with cheer and courage.
The Vibes of Harmony
It is an age-old concept that everything we come across in the universe is energy. It manifests itself through vibrations, bodily or mental; vibration forms the very core of our existence.
The sound intonation, celebrated as nada in the ancient Indian system of Nada Yoga, has been re-interpreted by modern science.
School children are familiar with experiments in physics, using tuning forks. When you strike a tuning fork and keep it near another tuning fork without touching it, the second fork vibrates precisely like the first one!
Music is an intrinsic part of each one of us, whether we are singers or just listeners. The rhythmic patterns found in our heartbeat, in our breathing and in our body, movements are just a few indicators of vibrations from which we are inseparable. There is an inherent rhythm everywhere, in and around us. If we fine-tune our mind, our body rhythms become perceivable. These rhythms go on and on, until, perhaps one day, we cease to exist in the present form and shape.
Melody built in our laughter, cry, scream or songs follows a definite rhythmic pattern. The whole range of emotions could be captured and communicated through rhythms and tones of different lilts and frequencies.
All biological processes including breathing, food-intake, excretion, energy exchange, metabolism, circulation, action of nerves and reproduction follow certain basic patterns of rhythms, in orchestrated manner.
Consciousness Transformation
Man-made rhythmic patterns in all musical compositions normally reflect the life pattern in an unconscious and often, unintended way. Listening to musical rhythms has a noticeable impact on the natural brain wave rhythms and is responsible for transformation of consciousness.
Whether we are in a state of alertness (with the predominance of beta waves inside our brain) or in a state of relaxation or deep sleep, certain tunes and rhythms are found to have a de-stabilising effect on a given state. A musical harmonic order called ‘rhythmic functional order in humans’ can be intensified even when a person is in slumber.
The New Vistas
Not only our ears, but also other parts of our body can detect sounds. The whole body resonates to the sound energy around us, about which we are not all the time aware. Any school textbook would say that sound waves, when wafted into the human ear, set up vibrations on a tissue called eardrum. These vibrations pass along the bones and fluids in the ear, before they finally set up tiny electric currents in nerve cells running between the ear and the brain. Ultimately, it is the brain that analyses and interprets the sound as pleasant or unpleasant.
For nada means not just music. Music, as commonly understood, refers to vibrations perceived through sensory stimulation. Sound waves are actually a series of compressions and rarefactions, causing alternative pressure disturbances that travel through a medium (e.g. air) by particle-interaction.
Nada, as an intonation, is rather a product of consciousness, consisting of vibrations sui generis. It is not mentally sculpted or determined, nor is it differentiated from a sound-matrix. It is natural, holistic and absolute. It can be uplifted along with one’s awareness, to reach new terrains of sound-consciousness.
It is nada which forms the primordial energy source of the Universe. Thus, it refers to an emanation of life-principle, perhaps, with a ‘big-bang origin’ often attributed to Western theorists.
Svara is yet another word loosely used to denote a note, whereas its ambit covers even the frequencies of its neighbouring notes!
To talk about fixing rigid sound frequencies to a svara may sound strange to Indian ears, which glorify oscillations in sound frequencies as a means to reach into the niches of nuances in one’s emotional experience. This flexibility makes the svara experience all the more emotional, laden with bhava, which in turn, helps in achieving what is called the intuitive or meditative state.
As a svara is not just a note, a raga is not just a melody. While a melody is a somewhat loose arrangement of single notes, raga depicts a closer emotional bondage within its structure with enormous scope for oscillation of a single svara to bring unusual emotional nuances in the most unexpected way.
The lack of ‘smartness’ on the part of a raga, however, is more than compensated by the Indian tala system, which is highly calculated and cerebral. A Carnatic singer’s struggle to keep pace with his tala, particularly while singing an emotional tune, is nothing short of any acrobatic display!
Nada and Nada Yoga
It is a well-known fact that Indian classical music aims at serenity and a meditative state of mind as its primary goal. As such, it facilitates the balancing of the left and right hemispheres of the brain, assigned with functions of analysis and intuition respectively.
In Indian systems of music – both Hindustani and Carnatic styles – the drone is an essential requirement. It can be compared to the blissful state of mental equilibrium as it represents the essence of the musical scale on which the raga is conceived.
The ancient system of Nada Yoga had fully acknowledged the impact of nada on body and mind. The vibrations emanating from sounds were consciously put into use to uplift one’s level of consciousness. It is the Indian genius, who had recognised that a raga is not just a means of sensory entertainment. The vibrations in resonance were synchronised with one’s awareness so that the desired levels of healing consciousness could be obtained through repeated practice.
By stimulating the moods and controlling the brain wave patterns, a raga could work as an effective healing medicine.
The Concept of Nada
Nada has ‘certain mystic aura attached to it and is believed to have originated from the two mystic syllables (bijaksharas) na, and da, which in turn are derived from breath (prana) and fire (agni) respectively.
Matanga, an ancient sage, categorised nada into five types, based on its origin from the body; navel (ansukshma), heart (sukshema), throat (pushta), head (apushta) and lips (kritama). Some later day musicologists identify eight places from where nada could emanate– head, heart, lips, nose, palate, root of tongue, teeth and throat.
Sangita Ratnakara, an ancient music text, authored by Saranga Deva, takes into account the subtle links that exist between the three body humours (doshas) and one’s voice quality.
Nada and Consciousness
Nada Yoga makes an attempt to synchronise the intonation with one’s own consciousness. As the system is built on vibrations, mirroring one’s own consciousness, it is the unique method aimed at altering the consciousness to enjoy the real state of bliss, intrinsically linked to one’s existence.
Inner and Outer Music
Nada Yoga divides music into two categories: The inner music or anahata and the outer music or ahata. While the outer music is heard through the sense organs, where mechanical energy is converted into electro-chemical energy, to be perceived by the brain, the inner music owes its reception to the subtle heart-chakra, also known as anahata chakra, which is one of the seven energy-centres in the human body. How can one search out one’s music within his or her constitution? While elaborate techniques are prescribed for listening to one’s own inner music, it is suffice for a debutant to select a place where, he would be least disturbed
As one sits comfortably with the spine erect and starts breathing in and out slowly, he would focus his awareness on the “soundscape” that naturally emanates in his “mindscape.” During this “journey,” he is expected to avoid making any guttural noise of his own. He gives his total attention to the natural vibrations that emanate when the breath is exiting his system. Initially, he can hold his concentration for two to three minutes and over a period of a month he should be able to focus his concentration for a longer duration. Those who have tried this would endorse that observation and concentration on anahata, relieves all tensions caused by the mind.
It is often recommended as a reliable remedy especially for trauma victims. Such practices can also help in mind-control, which results in expansion of one’s consciousness paving the way for self-realisation.
The outer music, or music as we generally understand, with its infinite variety, affects our moods and minds in various ways. It draws our attention, affects our temperament and has a definite say in our behaviour, too! It may stimulate, agitate or encourage relaxation, affecting us in myriad ways. When one feels depressed and worn out in life, it is music that could inject hopes and sunshine.
The saptaswaras are notes of an octave which represent seven chakras situated on the vertebral column. By playing these notes and simultaneously visualising their impact on the chakras, the sadhaka is believed to effortlessly wander through the seven levels of consciousness as represented by each chakra.
As the ascending and the descending tonal frequencies of the musical octave are juxtaposed with their predetermined chakras, the sadhakas derive an exhilarating experience unique to all yogic practices, such as pranayama. Thus, as the yogi sounds the frets, he is sensitised to experiencing the appropriate frequencies of chakras in his body. By playing up and down repeatedly, he is able to agitate the flow of psychic energy in his body, which can, over a period, result in awakening the dormant kundalini.
Meditative Music
Meditative music does not require elaborate orchestration or voice-culture as practised in the West. Simple tonal combinations, which are found in the elements, such as wind, fire, water, earth and ether, are considered quite effective in altering or uplifting one’s level of consciousness to new heights. It is also possible that just a single tone-cluster, as in archika, may have a much greater impact on the listener’s mind than an elaborate combination of notes, portraying the musicologist’s perfect feat.
The ‘Sticky’ Tunes
The ‘sticky’ tunes found in popular bhajans and kirtans, and the almost endless repetition of melodies as in Hare Rama Hare Krishna, Govind Bolo Govind Bolo, Buddham Sharanam Gachchami, etc. are time-tested interventions for enhancing meditation.
Prof. James Callaris of the University of Cincinnati observed after questioning a thousand men and women on tunes that they could not get out of their heads that a combination of simplicity, repetition and adrenaline inducing jaggedness can turn an ordinary sequence of notes into something unforgettable.
East or West, music is the best for transporting one to greater heights or subtler depths and for better understanding of one’s own self.
Neuro-Musicology
Recent experiments in neurology, employing sophisticated neuro-imaging techniques, have all established that there is a close linkage or synchronisation between the musical rhythms and those of the brain waves. Thanks to the recent advances in brain mapping, the scientists are now on a much stronger foothold for unveiling the myths and magic of nada, celebrated as the universal principle that governs every manifestation in and around us.
Neurologists categorise four types of brain waves – beta, which vibrates @ 14 to 20 Hz, representing alertness at mundane matters, alpha patterns @ 8 to 13 Hz enabling, relaxed feelings and a sense of calm, theta @ 4 to 7 Hz inducing intuition creativity, or sleep and delta @ 0. to 3 Hz guaranteeing deep sleep or a meditative state akin to samadhi.
An appropriate music can change brain wave rhythms from the alpha to beta range, enhancing alertness.
However, certain other genres of music may induce tranquillity and relaxation, by converting the brain wave patterns with predominant mix of alpha and/or theta levels, whose frequencies are slower than the beta ones.
Raga-Chikitsa, an ancient text in Sanskrit, is all about the therapeutic and mood-enhancing quality observed in various Indian ragas. Known for a high degree of emotional content and dynamism, the Indian raga has remained a time-honoured source of strength to our people who have faced the legendary history of dominating egos and their clash, resulting in wasteful energy depletion till, of course, the truth comes to prevail’
Ragas have not only influenced people in overcoming the misery of the past but remain the continuing source of confidence.
Nada and the Brain Waves
Ancient traditions in India view sound intonation (Nada) as an important principle of existence.
Nada is considered as the non-material source of all matter. It is also viewed as the ‘threadlike’ link between material and spiritual realms – a key through which one can become free from the worldly bondages.
Nada Yoga believes that it is through the distortion of Om, the primordial sound, that various sound frequencies (dhavanis) have come into existence. All such manifested sound frequencies are believed to have joined the body of the divine language, Sanskrit, in the form of its alphabets (varnas).
Energy Source
While food and fodder nourish the body, music nourishes the mind. Music nourishes through a regular pattern which, when synchronised with the irregular pattern of our mind, gets nourished and rejuvenated.
It has been found in all traditions – including yoga and shamanism – that in order to have more energy, one has to affirm one’s oneness with its source.
Faith and energy go hand in hand. Music helps us in building faith in us, by re-orienting our thinking processes from self-oriented to universe-oriented, which gives us greater confidence and conviction in ourselves.
All these need the building up of our inner “power installations.” Music can play the role of an engineer – excavating incongruities, erecting faith, drilling away the negativities and cementing the bonds of love and fraternity, ensuring sustained flow of energy, not only for us but also to all who are our fellow-travellers.
The ‘Feel Good’ Factors in Music
‘That which pleases the mind’, proclaims an ancient verse in Sanskrit, ‘is music!’
Musical experience involves emotional titillation in a pleasing and balanced way. By diverting the mind from its concentration on a pain location (or a painful experience), it works like a pain-relieving tablet.
Through subtle rhythms music can agitate or soothe, attract or repulse, tense up or relax – all in the blink of an eye.
What are these “feel good” factors in music, which promise therapeutic impact when we feel sick or physically and mentally restless?
In Resonance
If a pitch is sounded by striking a string, what emanates is not just a tone of uniform frequency, but a feast of secondary tones called harmonics. They raise their heads at fixed intervals above: the fundamental tone. They can be produced separately too.
Observing the intro-tonal frequencies and focusing awareness on them has been a time-tested method of dhyana.
In the ancient system of nada yoga there has been a ritualistic practice of concentrating on the inter-tonal fluctuations of ‘frequencies and utilising them for oscillating or `cradling” one’s level of consciousness: with tonal oscillations, glorified in the Indian raga system. In addition, each chakra in the body gets associated with a particular svara assigned to it and by sheer practice the sadhaka achieves synchronisation between a particular svara and the chakra associated with it. This method is called nada anusandhana.
In Rhythms
Rhythm refers to the time aspect of music. Tremendous mental impact can be produced by a judicious use of rhythms in music.
Some music therapists believe that the mind is more easily trapped by rhythm.
Mind-music Nexus
The analytical mind works on the basis of analysis, segregating the self from the rest of the world and its emotional counterpart. The emotional mind, on the other hand, works at a deeper level, exhibiting inherent powers of creative and intuitive capabilities.
`Every outward manifestation of music,’ proclaims Swami Prajnananda, ‘is caused by the mind or will power.’
Music, like the mind, is both analytical and intuitive. This strange combination of analytical and intuitive contents in music could, perhaps, be the reason for the impact of music in balancing the brain’s two hemispheres – the left half and the right half. This balancing power of music has been recently confirmed by many scientists including Foster (1990).
Music Erases Ego
When we are absorbed in a good piece of music, we forget the problems. The mind becomes like a waveless ocean, calm and serene. This blissful experience is the real egoless state we attain, though it may be transient. During such a state of mind, we become non-judgmental and impartial. This state of mind helps us overlook our grievances and disappointments and enables us to forgive even those who may have caused harm to us.
Ironic Awareness
Music itself is like a coin with two sides. On one side, we have resonance which can cajole us with positive emotions. On the other hand, we have a consistent regularity in rhythms: Laya and tala, which refer to the time reminders so that we are not entirely carried away by the emotional appeal in resonance. It is the mathematics involved in the latter which activates the left hemisphere of the brain, while the right hemisphere is very much absorbed in the feelings and moods created by the musical piece we listen to.
Ragas and Feelings
The system of raga, well known for its emotional content, is a unique contribution to the world of music by the Indian mind. The Indian system includes not only the tones but also their quartertones, making ragas the miracles of microtones! Every raga has an emotional appeal.
Broadly speaking, certain ragas or their passages woven in a certain particular rhythmic pattern and tempo do convey a definite emotional appeal.
Let us examine a few ragas, which convey certain definite feelings.
Raga Bilahari in fast tempo, for example, reflects the effervescent joy in good measure. It is the hopping, rapid kala pramana fused with the melodic structure that creates joy in our minds.
Bilahari also evokes courage, confidence and heroism.
Compassion-laden Kanada, an offshoot of Kharaharapriya, exhibits a gem of a note, the oscillating dhirga kavita gandharam. By swinging this delicately, the artist brings forth a magic that envelopes the listeners with special feelings of love and care.
Nata abundantly portrays the vira rasa or valour and pride.
Devotion or bhakti, an essential ingredient in Indian culture, can be found in many melodies. Dwijavanti, an offshoot of Hari Kambhoji, has magical Rishabam and Madhyamam as key notes with special embellishments like ullasa and kampita (oscillations) which fuel devotion and admiration.
Khamas, the raga often used in javali, an erotic form of composition in Carnatic music, is supposed to reflect matrimonial bliss.
Behag, with its dazzling sangatis, can easily be a wonder raga, creating a sense of awe and fascination.
Let us go for music that makes us withstand our negative thoughts and emotions and helps us spread the message of love and peace to everybody around us.
Attitude Development
The right attitude alone can make a person’s life noble, lofty and useful.
Certain attitudinal adjustments make one’s existence meaningful and purposeful.
In the systems of yoga, we have several exercises aiming at this goal. Let us see how a musical input could facilitate such a transformation.
Mindfulness of breathing (anapanasati) is an important mind control exercise. As we begin to focus on our breath, we realise how complex this apparently simple and natural process of inhaling and exhaling could be! Listening to music, one can overcome the blockages and barricades which inhibit our mental expansions and expressions.
If we could develop loving kindness, the whole world could be conquered. For developing this attitude certain musical pieces and ragas could be of immense help.
For example, raga Hamsanandi can pour down such feelings, conducive for developing such an attitude. It needs to be played softly and slowly to achieve optimum results.
Compassion is paramo dharma, the supreme of all virtues.
The raga, Kanada, is capable of pouring down this attitude. The secret could be in its oscillating notes, which sparkle like diamonds.
Any music, which harmoniously combines rhythm and resonance, can aid in achieving equanimity. For instance, the emotion in Indian ragas gets automatically balanced by the intricate and elaborate tala system. By singing or listening to Indian music, one is wafted towards equanimity.
Ragas for the Gym
In an exercise conducted on 14 volunteers (eight men and six women in the-age range 42 to 61) at Visakhapatnam, a Carnatic `wake-up’ raga, Bhupalam, was found to cheer up the depressed. The music was played to a tempo akin to a senior’s normal walking pace for 20 minutes.
The other cheer-up ragas ideal for gym could be: Ahirbhairav, Anandabhairavi, Atana, Behag, Bilahari, Devagandhari, Dvijavanti(Jayjayvanti), Hamsadhvani, Hindolam, Jaganmohini, Kadana-kuduhalam, Kharaharapriya, Khamas, Kundalavaralli, Latangi, Mohana-kalyasi, Nagasvaravali, Nata, Sankara-bharanam and Suddhadhanyasi.
A Complementary Medicine
A survey was conducted during the workshop on ‘Indian Music as Complementary Medicine’ at Visakhapatnam on April 25, 2004.
Of the participants, 80 per cent believed that music should be combined with other forms of treatment, such as yoga and meditation exercises, while 20 percent of the participants felt other systems of medicine, such as aromatherapy, herbal medicine, Reiki music coupled with counselling sessions and psychotherapy and ayurvedic massage should also go well with appropriate music.
According to psychologists who attended the workshop, music can be an analgesic. Early morning and late evening hours could be the right time for music therapy sessions and music should be administered at least twice a day for effective results.
Most of the participants favoured music therapy as an essential tool for mental health and well-being. For the mentally-challenged at a workshop on April 9, 2005, at Visakhapatnam, attended by sociologists, psychologists, musicians and volunteers who work with special children, there was a general consensus that the methodology adopted had made tremendous impact on the mentally retarded children. Even the most severely affected showed definite response (though feebly) to music.
There was unanimous agreement that the selected ragas motivated the mentally retarded. Their behavioral problems could also be easily corrected with the free communication, which was established by music.
Music Relieves Stress!
We are living in an age where competence and competition fuel the engine of economic growth. This means that stress and strain are inevitable in- this growth process! It is recognised from time immemorial that faith in and involvement with music erases anxiety.
Raga Chikitsa offers unconditional hope to rid ourselves of not only anxiety, but also anger, fear and. jealousy. A childlike and abiding trust in music itself could be conducive – for generating positive patterns.
Soothing and unhurried music, playing faintly in the background while engaged in work may increase one’s efficiency levels. Anxiety and tension involved in every problem-solving process can be overcome by the soft strains of music before undertaking such exercises.
In a recent experiment with some 61 post-operative patients, a team of researchers led by Voss (2004) has endorsed the importance of “sedative” music with 60 to 80 beats per second (bps) as complementary therapy to alleviate post-operative trauma and to ensure faster rehabilitation. Anxiety and pain common after open-heart surgery is found to have been overcome with such music.
In Business Management
Achieving supremacy in a competitive milieu is the concern of all business thinking, which is also referred to as a strategic tool, and it attracts considerable attention in all business schools globally.
To achieve supremacy over competitors in less time, at less cost, and with long-term effects, without the need for armies of consultants, or endless ‘strategy projects’, musical patterns can contribute to one’s creative and strategic thinking with much more enjoyment and ease.
A unique strategic thinking process can be activated with the help of music in the background, and a musical structure of one’s compatibility; as one tosses the pros and cons of business solutions.
Rhythm Therapy
Use of ‘appropriate’ rhythms may stimulate growth of neural paths around damaged or dysfunctional portions of the brain, promoting harmonisation of the left and right brain hemispheres. It also appears that rhythm therapy may enhance short-term memory, mind-body coordination, and to remedy impaired speech patterns
Recently an American jazz drummer, Ronnie Gardiner, has made considerable research on the impact of rhythms.
The conclusions of this research were reported as follows:
“The results from this study based upon the investigated participants showed a significant improvement with regard to functions areas which measured motor speed, and coordination of the arm-hand spatial capabilities according to Judgment of Line orientation, spoken word flow according to Functional Assessment of Speech, and short term memory according to sections of the Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test.”
Something magical appears to happen when this therapy is followed. The brains of Rhythm Therapy patients become exercised in coordination with their body movements. Classical music also plays a role in stimulating neural pathways.
Unlike traditional physical or cognitive therapies, Rhythm Therapy imparts joy and well-being, as evidenced by the faces of the participants. This could be due to the combination of mental, physical and emotional stimuli that enables the brains of these stroke patients to begin to heal themselves.
What is the mechanism hidden in Rhythm Therapy?
Although no answer is forthcoming yet, it is broadly understood that like muscles and other body organs, the brain has to be challenged (worked) in order to develop. Rhythmic Therapy allows the brain to be challenged, and positively stressed, to the point that it stimulates growth rather than frustration and defeatism.
For Children
Music therapy facilitates a child’s behaviour development of communication skills, social interactions, besides developing emotional, sensory-motor, and/or cognitive skills in children.
The therapy necessitates close relationships between a qualified therapist and child; between one child and another; between child and mother; and between music and children. All these relationships build up a feeling of `belongingness’
For Emotional Stability
Adolescents undergo emotional uncertainties, as adolescence is the stage where extreme emotions are experienced with the intensity of adulthood.
The journey towards emotional stability has been a hot topic for the ancient explorers of mind. How to discipline the mind?
Music emerges as a powerful weapon to conquer emotional pain. The highs and lows of our musical experience take our mind through the meandering passages of music resulting in a ‘treadmill’ effect, toning and servicing our thinking and feeling mechanisms.
For the Elders
It is increasingly recognised in recent times that music can play an important role in rejuvenating those who succumb to immune deficiencies and metabolic changes in old age.
Therapists use music to facilitate movements (especially in elders who have problems such as arthritis).
Music of appropriate rhythms is employed for activating the body rhythms. They should also be able to uplift the depressed and gloomy outlook, which tends to creep in, due to ageing blues.
In special circumstances, the therapy can also be extended to bed-ridden or paralytic patients. The selected musical dose should enable them to ‘visualize’ the lighter side of their existence.
Music for Alzheimer’s Patients
For Alzheimer’s Patients Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive, irreversible brain disorder with no known cause or cure. It attacks and slowly steals the minds of its victims. Symptoms of the disease include memory loss, confusion, impaired judgment, personality changes, disorientation and the loss of. language skills.
While medication is the most prevalent of interventions, with its accompanying and inevitable side effects, alternative approaches, such as music therapy, are also being tried with considerable success
A study by Rugneskog (1996) showed that AD patients remained calmer when music was played; music also resulted in the subjects eating by themselves more often. There was a significant fall in irritability, anxiety, and depression.
Lindenmuth (1992) found that music increased the number of hours of productive sleep in people with AD.
Recent studies indicate that the presence of music in nursing homes is quite important. Music therapy resulted in increased social interaction of residents with AD. It is, therefore, suggested that Alzheimer’s patients should continue to take part in organised music activities, such as simple drumming, even though they exhibited deteriorating levels of functioning. It is felt that Alzheimer’s sufferers may be able to retain musical perception, and learn new information when presented in a musical context.
It is the experience of this author that a therapist, while selecting a musical piece, should go for those numbers with which the AD patient grew up, when he or she was a child. The melodies heard in one’s childhood work better than those which had not been heard.
Designing Training Methods
It becomes the responsibility of a music therapist to select an appropriate musical piece after examining its structure, content and the probable impact on the patient. The patient’s responsiveness needs to be observed by co-therapists and recorded for scientific scrutiny.
While active participation by the patient (vocally or with instruments or by actively moving his limbs and body) has to be recorded in exercises with normal patients, mentally retarded patients sometimes do not respond or they hide their response. In such sessions, one has to be content with ‘passive participation’ i.e., listening alone with inconsistent limb movements.
As a rule, however, beta music with rapid-fire orchestral rhythms employing heavy drums, cymbals and metallic sounds, can be used for initiating participation. Such music, by activating the mind and body, gears up physiological activities causing a rise in blood pressure and making the mind alert and watchful.
What is ‘Appropriate Music’?
A music that appeals to a listener can be termed as ‘appropriate music’ Deciding which music is `appropriate’ to a mentally retarded patient is an uphill task but with patience and dedication on the part of a music therapist, it can be sorted out by way of trials. It is interesting to note that basically heart patients (or those who remain impatient with a fiery temper) prefer fast-paced, variable music rather than the slow-paced music (as in bhajans, alapana, etc.). The real challenge before a music therapist is how to wean such people away from a fast-paced, variable music to a slow-paced, iterative music.
The mentally retarded need greater activation and stimulation. Though such people tend to prefer sedative music, which is slow and iterative, in order to put them back into ‘alert’ states, there is a need for pumping in ‘progressive’ music. Inclusion of body movements considerably (“Dance Therapy”) could also produce the desired impact in such cases.
Musical Mix
During therapy sessions, it may be beneficial to change the tempo in music (fast, medium and slow). Changing the tempo (e.g., as in Camatic Trikala Varnam) exercises the brain.
To produce the full impact of alpha ragas, more stringed and wind instruments could be included in the orchestra, curtailing the percussion instruments. For beta ragas we can employ more drums, cymbals and the like.
Ailment-centred Music Dose
A vast and thorough knowledge of different musical grammars and structures, instrumental or voice combinations, rhythmic or tonal varieties is essential in making a choice of ‘appropriate music’ for ailments, such as autism, stress, depression and dementia.
Here the knowledge of ragas is also of great value. The decision, again here, is not just based on analysis alone but on intuitive judgement. Thus music therapy is more a creative field of trial and error than a ‘settled’ set of formulas. The therapist-patient nexus alone makes the therapy session effective or successful.
Immense Possibilities
Music, they say, is an ocean. It represents the immensity of mind, which is never containable. It can reach all those territories where the human mind or consciousness could not visit. It can also lead the consciousness towards various facets of existence. As the musical process involves both analytical and intuitive aspects of the human brain, music can be both art as well as science.
Besides, a sound knowledge of acoustics and certain wisdom about its application, a therapist should also possess adequate knowledge of mind and behaviour. Music therapists should employ their inherited traditions as well as modern tools of science for a re-discovery of sound and music as a dependable therapeutic tool. It is essential that music therapists meet frequently on a common platform to exchange their experience and understanding, achievements and failures so that the approaches could be refined and redefined.
This book, Self-music Therapy: Musings on Music Therapy, is a compendium of some of his articles on the subject, first published in 2006.
This was published in Tatvaloka Nov 2007 – Page 51 to 77
Edited by Geeta Shreedar, July 15, 2021