Music Therapy Issues - Essay Example

Music therapy Music is an art involving sound and silence. The sound should have a pitch, a rhythm, dynamics, a timbre, and texture. Music has to be created and performed, and it should have significance; of which all differ from one culture to another. Music could be in the form of an organized composition or in aleatoric form, and as an art, it could be a performing art, a thriving art or an auditory art. Music is a hugely crucial aspect of life that heard everywhere at all times. In fact, John Cage had it that any sound can be music i.e. there is no noise. While Jean-Jacques, a musicologist, added by saying that cultural definition in the border between music and noise. Music is an art with a strong connection with mathematics. On the other hand, musical therapy is a health profession. It is an interpersonal process where the therapist, who is trained personnel, develops a relationship with his clients using music and all of its facets i.e. physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, and aesthetic aspects, enabling them to improve their health. They use musical experiences such as singing, song writing, and listening, free improvisation, discussing to music and even moving to music to improve the healing process. The health issues in subject consist of cognitive functioning, emotional and affective development, behavioral and social skills, motor skills and, the quality of life. Music therapists can work in general hospitals, psychiatric facilities, schools, prisons, community centers, universities and training institutes. Music therapist is in the hospital setup; work hand in hand with the physicians, psychologists, physical therapists and the occupational therapists. Individuals of all ages and those with specific requirements such as the stroke, sensory impairments, communication disorders, cancer, psychiatric disorders, those in palliative care and those in rehabilitation centers (recovering from substance abuse) benefit a lot form music. Apart from the entertainment they get from the music, they also get relaxed, improve their learning, build their self esteem, reduce stress, support physical exercise and get composed which improves the healing process. Music therapy has its history back in the biblical times when David played the harp to get rid of an evil spirit, which was in King Saul. In 400, B.C, the Greek father of medicine played music to his mental patients. Music therapy began after World War I and II, where musicians would travel to hospitals to play music to solders who suffered from war-related trauma. Aristotle himself described music as an energy that purifies the emotions. While music is an art with a strong connection with mathematics, music therapy is an art and a science. Introduction Music therapy has a strong relationship with play, creativity, use of the whole personality and individual discovery of one self. In fact, Winnicott (2005, p.120) claims that It is in playing and only in playing, which the individual adult or child develops the ability to be creative and utilize the whole personality, and the individual discovers the self only in being creative. The essay will highlight various issues on music and music therapy holding on the argument that music therapy enables play, creativity, and individual self-discovery. Creativity and play in music and music therapy Creativity is a phenomenon where a person comes up with something that had never existed before. This is all that makes music therapy different from other professions. The item one creates should have some value accompanied with it. There exist a relation between personal intelligence and creativity, and every session involves the client in some kind of music experience. The various sessions include improvising, re-creating, composing, and listening to music. In improvising, the client comes up with his/her own music and starts singing whatever arises now. The client then freely responds spontaneously to the sounds as they emerge or according to the specific musical directions given by the therapist. Spontaneity is a voluntary or undetermined act or movement in that; there is no force or planning. Spontaneity widely valued as an aspect of performance. The client then improvises sounds; portraying feelings, events or situations one is in for instance, something about spontaneity feels real All this could be with the help of other clients or therapist or even alone. Sessions involving recreating music where the client sings-along a pre-composed music helps them in learning how to produce vocal or instrumental sounds. They could also take music lessons, participate in music shows or drama, performing a piece of memory and all the empowerment is through practice. In fact, Pat Methany says, “Music requires years and years of practice in order to make what are conscious unconsciouses. Sometimes the clients have to interpret a piece of composition writing and analyze it between the lines. Composing is another session where the therapist helps clients write song lyrics or create musical products. Teaching of clients on, how to harmonize a notation, how to generate a melody, and how to create music videos or audiotape programs. In the listening session, the client is to react physically, emotionally, intellectually, aesthetically and spiritually to live music. The client should relax; take some free movements, associate freely with the audience. The client could even be seated listening to music. He /she should be able to identify the music i.e.; classical, jazz, rock, country, gospel, etc. The client should be able to identify popular music from one that is not popular. In other cases the client imagines of the real situation in the music, can even draw pictures in its relation and can tell a story from a song. The engagement of verbal discussions enables one to express him/herself freely. Clients talk about a given music, what they feel about it, what they feel should be added, or subtracted. All this thoughts, feelings, and expressions are taken into account in later lessons. Music being an art, can lead others into expressing themselves through drawing, painting, poetry, drama and play activities more especially it involves children. What gets in the way? ; No audience, no aesthetic conditions, no possibility of being spontaneous. While audience, aesthetic conditions, and being spontaneous are extremely fundamental aspects of music and music therapy, they could lack in some situations. This calls for the qualities of a music therapist who can handle such situations with integrity. A music therapist should be prepared to conduct, evaluate, and document sessions with clients with diligence to counter all this. While on stage, all actions should come out automatically. This exist trough creativity and improvising of stuff. In fact, music requires years and years of practice for one to become perfect. One should be in a position to make a U-turn from the planned and shift into something else, bringing in melodies, harmonies, and rhythms without anyone noticing. Something about spontaneity feels ‘real’ and not forced, but it comes out naturally. Failure of lack of creativity, play and spontaneity, compares to the other side, and dullness goes through the emotions of the audience. In the music therapy, if there is no audience, no aesthetic conditions, and no possibility of spontaneous then there is no essence of music at all. ‘Blocks’ in music therapy Not playing at all is where a client is not composing, not listening, not recreating, and is not improvising any music. It could be due to lack of interest or inaccessibility of required materials or miscommunication and misunderstanding with the music therapist. Sticking rigidly to known material is where a client does not want to compose or improvise any new music material. The materials could be available but due to rigidity is not ready to welcome change. Bailey (1992, p.29) states that perseverative (highly repetitive in some aspects) playing is where a client only interested in one music aspect and keeps on replaying some music. The client is not ready for change. Nachmanovitch (1990, P.240) says that talking to avoid playing is where a client would rather prefer to discuss some music already done criticizing it and giving ideas on what should or should not be done to it rather than composing their own or listening to some pre-composed music. Playing to avoid talking where clients prefer listening to some pre-composed music or compose theirs rather than criticize or talk about some music, which has already been performed. Controlling behavior e.g. imposing rigid structures where a client would give his/her own views as per own interests and does not want to follow what the therapists or the other clients offers. It is evident in one’s own behavior or actions. Playing in a seemingly healthy way, but seeming incongruent is where a client seems okay with the music is not compatible with in that the music is not appropriate with the personality of the client. The feeling of emptiness is where the clients do not cooperate with the therapist, and he seems to do things for himself. It is imperative that in the end, the clients have no progress and have not achieved the set objectives. The therapist then feels low. Play and transitional phenomena A transitional phenomenon refers to a particular developmental sequence. Where transition objects like, dolls and teddy bears or a music sound (melody) or even a word take the place of the mother-child bond. This transition experience refers to a particular developmental sequence bringing in the interest of examining the phases of development. Phases of development Dependency in early infancy is a phase where the child entirely depends on the mother. Here, the child is not familiar with the transitional objects. It clings to the mother all day for protection and food. The child believes the mother is the most superior to anyone else. Partial dependence (6 months~70+years) is a phase where the introduction of the child to transitional objects that tends to separate it from the mother. It is after the evolvement from the stage of complete dependence to a stage of relative independence. The infants are able to see themselves and the mother as a whole where the introduction of the infant to the world and it are given a moment of illusion. In a later stage, the child no longer needs the transitional objects, and to distinguish between ‘me’ and ‘not me’ (Winncott, 2005, p.137). Towards dependence is the phase where the child stretches its dependency to the other thing outside. There is no more dependence on the mother whatsoever. Definition of terms:- Early – infantile omnipotence- Omnipotence is the power to do all that is intrinsically possible. When a baby is born, it is everything as far as it knows. It is as powerful as God Himself. It can establish its own limits and boundaries without question. Me verses Not-me it is a later stage of development where the child no longer needs the transitional objects as the dolls, teddy bears and music as described by Oldfield & Flower (2008, p.98). He distinct himself from other people, keeping outside and inside apart yet interrelated. Transitional objects are physical objects such as dolls or teddy bears that take the place of the mother-child bond. They play a role in the developmental transition of a child. The child is more occupied by these transitional objects, and the bonding between the child and the mother gets weak with time. Potential space is the space that exists between two physical features that are apart adjacently. It could be a playing room set aside for the child’s music therapy session. Play and creativity; play is physical activity that brings in calmness, relaxation and simulation to the whole body. Creativity, on the other hand, is the act of coming up with a new thought that had never been in existence before. Play and creativity work hand in hand in coming up with music. Good enough mother; this is mother that provides an environment that a child can grow in comfortably. She provides an environment fit for transition of the child at its own rate. What is creativity? There exists no link to artistic achievement, but to the basic human condition. Creativity is a phenomenon where a person comes up with something or an idea that had never existed before. It is more of using the mind as the tool to come up with ideas. The mind helps one to be more organized, efficient and in control of tasks enabling one to be creative. It is, therefore, right to say that creativity has no link to artistic achievement, but to the basic human condition. Vygotsky: Developmental importance of play Play is extremely influential in child development especially when a child participates to their full potential. Play enables a child to: • Have brain development; brain connections leading to development of the brain occurs when a child is playing. Parents, therefore, should not see playing, as a waste of time but a worthwhile activity. • Be ‘in charge’ in that in the absence of the adult the children can decide on what to do and how to do it without control. • Learn about the world in which they live. They can investigate and discover, explore the causes and effects of unknown phenomena, test theories and act social roles and family values which cannot be taught anywhere in a class setting. • Build self esteem to know what they can do best and, therefore, improving their ability and confidence to try new things. • Build social skills, therefore, can interact with others, and build relationships that teach them to share, alternate responsibilities correct one another and empathize with others. • Work out their feelings by expressing their emotions and know, how to deal with them. A child who worries about visiting a doctor whom he believes or associates with pain will understand how to cope with the anxiety by setting up a medical play as described by Priestley (1994, p.139). • Develop language in word pronunciation and enhancement of language skills by the repetitive use of words during their play. • Grow beyond their years in pretending to be all sorts of things in play e.g. acting as a doctor, nurse, teacher etc • Stimulate their creativity and imagination by stretching their limits in thinking and world experience and make it real. Recommendations Ruud et al (2004, p. 130) asserts that parents should understand the importance of play in children and should not view it as a waste of time. They should not introduce activities as computer games, which they term worthwhile and constructive than play. Blocks in music therapy should be worked upon. The therapist should leave it open for clients to choose the music they area ease with and support them to improvise, recreate, compose and to listen to music since all this works towards making out the best out of music. The government should allocate funds in the health facilities to employ music therapists who play a crucial role in the healing process of patients of all ages and with needs. Conclusions According to Werner (1996, P.150), Music therapy is extremely beneficial for child development, in adolescents and the medical field at large. Music therapy for children could be conducted as a one to one session or a group. There exists importance in setting of various goals before the start of the sessions. Music therapy helps children in communication, motivation, behavior, and attention. Playrooms with different sets of colored materials and different textures and a set of high quality well maintained instruments. The therapist can play a guitar to keep everything grounded on the rhythm. The children too should be given an opportunity to handle instruments as per their capabilities. These instruments should be as safe as possible. Experience acquired through this is essential in determining who child will grow up to be. Daniel Leitin says that music therapy started inside the womb, where the fetus, surrounded by the amniotic fluid heard the sound of the heartbeat of the mother. According to Aigen (1998, p.138), adolescents who are most vulnerable to stress and depression listen to music for approximately 4.5 hours a day. In fact, they contribute to 70% of pop music sales. With the invention, of iPods and access to music digitally, access to music has become easier and adolescents listen to music while with friends instead of sitting and watching television. Adolescents then get emotional, social, daily life benefits while music also provides them with a sense of identity and self-discovery. Messages on, how to cope with situations, and even how to control emotions passes, and one learn how to deal with moods by reducing stress and lowering anxiety. Music acts as a force of unity, bringing people of different background, different age groups, and different social groups together. Finally, the adolescents learn life skills such as patience, self-discipline, and diligence. Music affects portions of the brain. Stroke therapy is the capability of music to affect social interactions and emotions. Nordoff et al (2007, p.56) argues that music therapy associates with a decrease in depression improved moods and reduction in state anxiety. Music has effects on the expression of feelings, quality of life, awareness, and responsiveness and the expression of feelings. Research shows that music can increase the patient’s motivation and positive emotions, and when used in conjunction with traditional therapy it enhances rates of recovery and social and emotional deficits ensuing from stroke. Music may reduce heart rate, respiratory rates and blood pressure in patients with coronary heart disease as described by Cochrane (2009, p.90). References Aigen, K 1998, Paths of Development in Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy, Gilsum, Barcelona. Bailey, D 1992, Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music, Da Capo Press, New York. Nachmanovitch, S 1990, Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art, Putnam, New York. Nordoff, N, Robbins, C, & Marcus, D 2007, Creative Music Therapy: A Guide to Fostering Clinical Musicianship, Gilsum, Barcelona. Oldfield, A, & Flower, C 2008, Music therapy with Children and their Families. Kingsley,. London. Pavlicevic, M 1999, Music Therapy: Intimate Notes, Kingsley, London. Priestley, M 1994, Essays on Analytical Music Therapy, Phoenixville, Barcelona. Ruud, E, Pavlicevic, M, & Ansdell, G 2004, Community Music Therapy, Kingsley, London. Werner, K 1996, Effortless Mastery: Liberating the Master Musician Within. New Albany, Aebersold. Winnicott, D 2005, Playing and Reality, Routledge, London. Read More