Intense emotion and boundless energy courses through my veins when I listen to a song. I devour every note and without music I would feel starved. Not everyone feels the same way I do. To some people, life would continue to move on with or without songs. Whether a person loves or loathes music, music continues to be a significant aspect of everyone’s life. People are surrounded by pitch, melody, and rhythm every day. Before a child is even born, the fetus develops an auditory system between the seventeenth and nineteenth week of pregnancy, allowing it to experience the beauty of music for the first time (Musical Alertness in the Womb). The rhythm of the mother’s heartbeat and breathing becomes the child’s biological soundtrack. When brain damage …show more content…
Therapists can have patients listen to music or produce music, stimulating the brain cells connections in the motor cortex to rewire. The motor cortex is an area of the brain that is mainly concerned with the execution of voluntary movements. By rewiring those connections, it opens up the possibility of recovering motor skills that seemed lost forever. For those dealing with a stroke or Parkinson’s disease, restoring the ability to control muscle movement means gaining back independence. If a person can be mobile, they can interact with other people without having to rely on family or friends to assistant them. It can be embarrassing for some people to have to be completely dependent. They may not want to engage in social activities as often if they have to be seen in a helpless state. No one truly wants to be isolated because of a medical condition; humans are social creatures by …show more content…
In one case, sixty-year old Rande Davis Gedaliah suffered from Parkinson’s disease. She had great difficulty walking and often dealt with frequent leg spasms, but when she put on her headphones she somehow began to walk with ease. While listening to Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A.”, she could move at a much quicker pace. If she wanted to walk a slower gait, she put on “We Are The Champions” by Queen (Shulman, 2008). The rhythm of the songs acted as external stimuli, organizing her movements. “Some internal rhythms come to match external rhythms. In effect, a rhythm in the external world is heard and internalized, evoking an answering rhythm within us” (Tomaino, 2009). It is similar to when someone taps his or her foot in time to a metronome or the rhythm of a song on the radio. From an evolutionary standpoint, having a motor system that was sensitive to sounds allowed humans to evade potential threats to their survival. Sound stimuli could invoke the fight or flight response of the sympathetic nervous system, a specific branch of the nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system is involved in preparing the body for emergency
People who cannot sing are missing a structure that enables a response to inform the motor system and person that he/ she is singing off tune. Gottlieb proposes a research method, involving how music making engages and modifies the brain. As Gottlieb understood, music making can be used as a therapeutic tool to improve neurological impairments and
“I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music” (Billy Joel). Although most listeners may not have the same technical experience in music as Billy Joel, it is easy enough to see the effect it has in a person's every day life. Music has the ability to pick us up when we are down, carry you back in time to a cherished memory, and transform silence into a symphony that can move one to tears. Music therapy is simply an application of the life that music creates.
The overall mission of music therapy is to increase and advance public awareness of music therapy and its benefits. Boosting access to quality music therapy services is also part of the mission of music therapy. Music therapy can be used for many different purposes. Music therapy can be designed to promote wellness, manage stress and alleviate pain. It can also be designed to express feelings, ...
Music and the Brain: Processing and Responding (A General Overview). For any individual who either avidly listens to or performs music, it is understood that many melodies have amazing effects on both our emotions and our perception. To address the effects of music on the brain, it seems most logical to initially map the auditory and neural pathways of sound. In the case of humans, the mechanism responsible for receiving and transmitting sound to the brain is the ears.
Music is everywhere we go; we listen to it in the car, while doing work, and there are even people who pay to listen or watch an artist perform live. Yes, life goes on without music, but music has such an impact on our lives. Life is a rollercoaster of emotions and we have music to fit our emotions to be just as we feel. Music has a great deal of importance of many people. It can have a meaning that they cannot explain to others and are able to connect with the song. By doing so experts are able to help patients overcome many sicknesses with the help of music. Music therapy is capable of being an advantage for many individual patients, it can encourage responses from patients that other methods of therapy cannot get from them. Also, it improves the patients in distinctive ways other than for an illness.
What is music? Where did it come from? According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, music is defined as the science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity (Music). There are many types of genres of music. Examples include classical, rock, rap, techno, metal, acoustic, pop and many others. Music is one of the most popular cultural aspects that we have adopted from ancient societies throughout history. Some forms of music date back to ancient civilizations of Egypt, China, India, Greece and Rome. Music can be used during every day activities such as working out, relaxation, for entertainment and also therapeutic uses. Many types of music therapy have been seen all over the world and also in different time periods. Music Therapy was used in the 20th century for World War One and World War Two veterans. Local musicians were hired to play in the local hospitals where veterans that were suffering both physically, emotionally and mentally were making progress towards recovery. Music therapy is still very common today. It gives an opportunity for a musical therapist to work with people of all different ages and varying disabilities. In order to become a musical therapist, a person must have some special qualities. Some of these include basic understanding of music, the willingness to help people, patience, creativity, empathetic and supportive. According to the Cancer Association society “ Music therapy may be used to encourage emotional expression, promote social interaction, relieve symptoms, and for other purposes.”
I’m writing my paper on Music Therapy, and how music affects the mind and body, to treat various illnesses. Music therapy is the prescribed use of music under the direction of specially trained therapists to influence changes in negative conditions and behavior. It accomplishes this by maintaining and restoring mental, physical, emotional and spiritual health .One type of theory is the idea that music, movement, and speech are inseparable. Music evokes unconscious thoughts and feelings, which in turn expand self-awareness. Music therapy is a powerful and non-invasive form of sensory stimulation which provokes responses due to the familiarity, predictability, and feelings of security associated with it. In some medical settings such as mental health services, it has been used to decrease patient’s perception of pain, anxiety and depression. ICU patients listening to music showed a significant decrease in blood pressure. It has been shown to calm the patient and to relax their mind and body. Music eases the burden on the arteries and nerves through relaxation. Du...
Trials have been done on children with autism, cancer patients, and those with substance use disorders. In music therapy trials done on various cancer patients, significant positive affects have occured. Data collected from a study at Wake Forest Hospital in Winston-Salem, North Carolina showed significant improvements. The patients was diagnosed with Leukemia. The music therapy type was PME and the patient showed improvements in relaxation and heart rate normality (Boehm). Music therapy not only facilitates the brain and allows the patient to relax and be in touch with their
It is true that music has a compact link to our emotions. Music assists people to overcome the bad situations in their life, just like it did for Sonny, the barmaid, or some other people in the Harlem. Music has a tremendous effect on people’s mind because it makes them feel relax and comfortable, especially the soft classical music. It helps distressed people to stay smooth and peaceful. In fact, music is a remarkable way to ease our stress.
Music Therapy is the use of music to treat a range of conditions either physical or mental (Questia, 2017). It can be used to help a range of conditions such as: autism, mental health (for example anxiety and depression), learning disabilities and neuro disabilities (British Association for Music Therapy (BAMT), 2017). This could be proven useful due to its variety of conditions it can help with, it is a very different idea to help people and music in general is very enjoyable and uplifting. It can also be useful for it is a way people can express themselves, there are many cases in which people do not know how to communicate with others or do not like talking about their conditions or how they feel and communication is very important. However,
The brain is a very powerful organ, no doubt. It tells your body how to react and what to do. But what happens when you listen to music? How does your brain react? Let’s take a look.
After great practice, Josh Clark learned to spell his last name. This may not seem like a grand accomplishment, but for Josh, it is. Josh has down syndrome. He attends weekly music therapy sessions and his parents are seeing great progress. Mother said, “Within a week, he learned how to spell ‘Clark’. Without music therapy, it would have taken several weeks or several months. So how does music help Josh to learn at a faster rate than without music? Josh’s music therapist knew that Josh was accustomed with the song “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” so she used that to help him learn. Josh listened to her sing each letter of his last name to the familiar tune. His mom thinks, “Music therapy helps him to focus. He loves it. He’s always loved music.” It is true that music is a large part of everyone’s lives, whether it is listening to it or playing it. Josh also loves playing the maracas, so his music therapist uses the maracas as a reward for spelling his name. To the average person spelling a name is no big deal, but to Josh’s family and friends, it is much more than that. “He takes a lot longer to learn, but there are a lot more small triumphs,” his mom says (AMTA 2014). This family has seen great results from the music therapy and they are not the only ones. As more people with various therapeutic needs begin to see the benefits of music healing, it has become one of the best forms of treatment.
Weir, Kirsten, and Debbie Nevins. "Music And Your Mind.. (Cover Story)." Current Health Kids 34.1 (2010): 10-12. Health Source - Consumer Edition. Web. 9 Jan. 2012.
Music and the Brain. (n.d.). Music and the Brain. Retrieved April 25, 2014, from http://tdlc.ucsd.edu/research/highlights/rh-music-and-brain-2011.html
Music Therapy is the prescribed use of music and musical interventions to restore, maintain, and improve emotional, physical, physiological, and spiritual health and well-being. These are the key elements which define interventions as music therapy. Music Therapy is goal oriented and provides a system to work towards a specific therapeutic goal and objective. Goals identified can include communicative, academic, motor emotional and social skills. In the end the music development learned in the sessions hopefully have a relaxing, positive effect on the client’s physical, psychological and socio-economical functioning. Music Therapy became a profession in 1950 with the establishment of the National Association for Music Therapy and the American Association for Music Therapy Association. (AMTA) There were nonmusical goals set for the professional setting. “They included: improving communication skills, decreasing inappropriate ...