Music Speaks Louder than Words

“One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter.” Communication, whether it be verbal or nonverbal, is essential in this social world. There are a great many people who have trouble with one, or both, of these forms of communication. Those who stutter, for instance, struggle with the verbal aspect greatly. The frustration and anxiety felt by those who stutter can be so debilitating that they may even refuse to speak. With this anxiety comes shame, shame in not having the ability to say a simple sentence without hitting those articulation roadblocks. It is in their childhood, and sometimes in their adulthood, where people turn to the various therapies offered for this disorder. One that has garnered more attention within the last few years is music therapy. This form of therapy is being used, but not to the extent that it ought to be. Music should be used as a form of therapy due to its close relationship with speech, its interaction with the brain, and its various forms of therapy benefit those who stutter.

Stuttering, as a disorder, has been around ever since man could speak. It is said that the ancient Egyptians, through the use of hieroglyphics, were the first to form a definition of stuttering. Two hieroglyphics were found and deciphered, their phonetic transcriptions being /ket ket/ and /nit nit/, which respectively mean “to quake” and “to hesitate.” Combined with the Egyptian symbol indicative of the mouth, these hieroglyphics carry the meaning of “to stutter.” This definition of stuttering has been revised a bit since the time of the ancient Egyptians. Stuttering is now defined as a speech disorder which involves the disruption of the fluency, timing, and rhythm of speech. The prim...

... middle of paper ...

...vidual. This is no different for one who stutters. One should not go through life being afraid to talk.

Works Cited

Ashwell, Ken W. S.. The Brain Book. South Yarra, Vic.: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.

Gioia, Ted. Healing Songs. Durham: Duke University Press, 2006.

Hausen, Maija, Ritva Torppa, Viljami R. Salmela, Martti Vainio, and Teppo. "Music and speech prosody: a common rhythm." Frontiers in Psychology 4 (2013): 1-16.

Horden, Peregrine. Music as Medicine: The History of Music Therapy Since Antiquity. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000.

Khurana, Simran . "Heart Quotes." About.com Quotations. http://quotations.about.com/od/moretypes/a/heart.htm (accessed March 6, 2014).

Lavid, Nathan. Understanding stuttering. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003.

Small, Larry H.. Fundamentals of Phonetics: A Practical Guide for Students. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2012.