We all know that music makes us feel better!  It cheers us up, it calms us down, it brings back wonderful memories of love, childhood, holidays, vacations, and our whole lives.  The field of music therapy has provided lots of wonderful information on this and so much more.

The following list is from www.preludemusictherapy.com.  I highly recommend this site to you and encourage you to check out all of the resources it provides!

• Music captivates and maintains attention — it stimulates & utilizes many parts of the brain.
• Music is easily adapted to, and can be reflective of, a person’s abilities.
• Music structures time in a way that we can understand (“that’s the last verse – my exercise session is almost over!”).
• Music provides a meaningful, enjoyable context for repetition.
• Music provides a social context — it sets up a safe, structured setting for verbal and nonverbal communication.
• Music is an effective memory aid.
• Music supports and encourages movement.
• Music taps into memories and emotions.
• Music — and the silences within it — provide nonverbal, immediate feedback.
• Music is success-oriented — people of all ability levels can participate.

If you still have doubts about the power of music in the health and healing world, I urge you to start at the beginning of this blog and read all the way through.  Music is powerful medicine!

by Steve Toll and Linda Bareham

What better “medicine” than a “treatment” that has only positive side effects and “therapy” that is actually enjoyable? That is the “miracle of music” when applied with intention. Music is shown to have the ability to help organize the brain; especially vital to those who are afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

Usually after twenty minutes of music, there are observable effects, such as singing, foot tapping, and clapping. Studies have shown that the results of a musical therapy session last for several hours afterward. Positive results include elevated mood, increased socialization and appetite and reduction in agitation. These benefits are attributed to the stimulation the brain receives during a music therapy session, a sort of “cognitive workout” inspiring us to coin the phrase, “What exercise is to the body, music is to the brain.” The power of music often inspires physical movement and can be used in combination to encourage gentle exercise.

As speech, writing and traditional forms of communication are compromised, music provides an alternative means of maintaining a connection, thereby helping to normalize interaction between caregiver and patient. Music used therapeutically creates an environment where the patient can be nurtured and cared for in a way that is safe, gentle and appropriate. Music is central to maintaining human bonds when those with dementia have lost the ability to initiate communication or to respond verbally.

The powers of music when focused and used therapeutically are many. Critical to maintaining quality of life for those with Alzheimer’s is management of emotions and preserving the connection with others. Music is conducive to keeping those connections strong as long as possible while helping the participant to focus, increase awareness and orient to the environment. A number of research studies have looked at music therapy as an important adjunct to medical treatment and findings suggest a possible link between the use of music and slowing the progression of dementia.

From the rhythms of the heartbeat experienced in the womb to the stirring sounds of a marching band, rhythmic patterns and music surround us. Language itself has a musical quality to it and from the beginning of mankind, as expressed through chanting and drumming, resembled music more closely than speech. Music is primal to life and expressed by each of us every day whether through dancing to a favorite tune, keeping rhythm with a pencil or remembering a special time when hearing a forgotten melody. It is central to our lives and is embedded in our culture, defining how we acknowledge milestones, rites of passage and celebrations as well as providing comfort, transformation and inspiration. Music links us to our world and provides a pathway back to our past.

You don’t need to have any special musical training to institute a therapeutic music program. You will need to select appropriate music, however. This music consists of familiar tunes from the 30s, 40s and 50s with more contemporary music included, depending on the preference or age of the participant. Before you invest in any CDs, check in your own home for possible sources of music. Your local library is a good source. Consider individual preferences and select music that is singable and upbeat.

Steve Toll, a professional musician and trainer, and his wife Linda Bareham, a writer and researcher in the area of alternative therapies for seniors with dementia, formed the company Prescription-Music. Mr. Toll is on the Speaker’s Board for the National Alzheimer’s Association and trains professional and family caregivers in the development of music therapy programs where his intent is to spread the word of the healing power of music for those afflicted with Alzheimer’s.

Click here to purchase music for Alzheimer’s

 More and more people are hearing about our Surgical Serenity Headphones and choosing to use them.  People remember reading about them and know  that they will use them if they are told that they need surgery.  That’s exactly what happened with a customer today and she  will be “practicing” with them over the next few weeks so that she automatically relaxes and calms down when she hears this particular music.

For people who don’t happen to live in Louisville, KY, they are readily available online!  Surgical Serenity Headphones are also being test and several key hospitals around the country and just this week I talked with two more hospitals about research and testing.  There are so many interesting studies that people people are devising for me; studies that look not only at the headphones ability to decrease the amount of pain medication, but also comparing our headphones to acupuncture, and another looking at whether people wearing our headphones and listening to our proprietary music perhaps leave the hospital sooner, thus getting back to their homes and lives sooner as well as allowing the hospital to see more patients.  Lots of good information to be gathered.

As a matter of fact, I’ve sold so many lately that my inventory is getting low so I’ll be ordering another 100 or so soon.  The price on the new ones may have to go up so if you want some, now would be an excellent time!  Surgical Serenity Headphones.

We’ve known for a long time that listening to calm, comforting, soothing music before surgery could do the same thing as the drugs that are now given…and without the risk of adverse reactions or overly and unnecessarily sedating the patient.  Today another study appeared also documenting this! 

Biol Res Nurs. 2011 Jan 28. [Epub ahead of print]

Evidence That Music Listening Reduces Preoperative Patients’ Anxiety.
Lee KC, Chao YH, Yiin JJ, Hsieh HY, Dai WJ, Chao YF.

Abstract
Background: Patients often exhibit preoperative fear and anxiety that may influence the process of induction and recovery from anesthesia. Music is thought to be an alternative to medication for relief of fear and anxiety. Objectives: The purpose of the present study was to explore the feasibility of using heart rate (HR) variability (HRV) for evaluating the efficacy of music listening to relieve the patients’ anxiety during their stay in the operation room waiting area and to compare the HRV measures with subjective Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) scores. Methods: In total, 140 patients were randomly assigned to the experimental (n = 64) or control group (n = 76). The intervention consisted of a 10-min period of exposure to relaxing music delivered through headphones. Anxiety levels were measured by VAS (a 10-point scale) and 5 min of HRV monitoring before and after the music intervention. Results: The music group demonstrated significant reductions in VAS scores, mean HR, low-frequency HRV, and low- to high-frequency ratio and an increase in high-frequency HRV, while patients in the control group showed no changes. The subjective results of patients’ VAS anxiety scores were consistent with the objective results of HRV parameters. Conclusions: Listening to music can significantly lower the anxiety levels of patients before surgery. The frequency-domain parameters of HRV can be indicators for monitoring the change in anxiety level of preoperative patients.

How does musical taste develop?  I’m sure that volumes and volumes have been written on this subject and I’d love to read them, but for now I will just expound on my own theory. 

We know that different cultures around the globe (and probably around the universe!) have evolved different types of music and different instruments, dances, and art forms of different kinds.  It probably is safe to say that most people tend to like or appreciate the type of music that they heard growing up. 

In my case, I grew up in the 50′s and 60′s in South Carolina, hearing the popular music of that day (Perry Como, Doris Day, Elvis, the Beatles, etc.) and I also heard a lot of church music in the United Methodist Church.  I still love all of that music.  But when I was 13/14 I was introduced in a big way to classical music.  For the first time, I got a wonderful piano teacher who not only taught me the classics but also encouraged me to go to hear our local symphony orchestra (the Greenville Symphony) and Opera.  I will never forget seeing my first opera ( Gounod’s “Faust”) for the first time at Furman University and just loving it!! 

Starting around age 15, I would get up an hour earlier than the rest of the family and either practice the piano (my siblings did not appreciate that!) or play the classical records that I checked out of the library or got as presents.  Even though most of the people in my famiy did not love classical music ( they liked it, but were more into sports) I was in love with classical music from the beginning.

About 20 years ago, I make a conscious effort to begin broadening my horizons and listening to every type of music I could get my hands on!  I listened to hip-hop, rap, reggae and all kinds of music that was new to me.  Since I’m in the music healing/music medicine field, I believe that I can help more people if I know and appreciate more types of music.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.  What type of music did you grow up with and what do you listen to now?

Today is the final lesson in this series on the components of healing music.  The component I’ve chosen is similar to yesterday’s lesson on Major and Minor but goes back in time hundreds if not thousands of years!

In the 800-700′s BC, the music played in ancient Greece was not played in major and minor scales, Greece, Rome and other cities and civilizations used scales that sound very different to our ears.  In those times, every physician knew about the healing powers of music and rhythms and instruments and often times a prescription for healing, also had a musical prescription as part of it!

There are seven basic Greek modes that are easy to hear or play if you have a piano:

Aeolian is A-A

Locrian is B-B

Ionian is C-C

Dorian is D-D

Phrygian is E-E

Lydian is F-F

Mixolydian is G-G

Each mode was thought to have specific healing powers and if a person was depressed, for example, the physician might suggest that the listen to a lute for an hour or so in the evening, playing in the Dorian mode.

Many modern English composers such as Vaughn-Williams, Elgar, Holst and Delius have written beautiful pieces that have a distinctly modal flavor and are exceptionally healing and calming to me. I’ll add a YouTube video of one of my favorites now!
. If you are a musician you will recognize the characteristic “lowered 7th” that immediately give the piece it’s modal flavor, i.e. the Dorian mode in this case.
Another tool used by many “New Age” composers is the whole tone scale with is composed using all whole steps. You can hear this on the piano by playing C-D-E-F#-G#-A#-C. If you play this ascending through several octaves, with the damper pedal down, you will get a good idea of the “feel” and “mood” that a whole-tone scales sets.

Another scale used in much folk music and in healing music as well is the Pentatonic Scale. This can be found on the piano by simply play the five different black keys: C# D#F#G#A# and using them in any order to make a melody and/or harmony as well. Both of these scales do not have a strong sense of a tonic or “home” key and thus allow the listener to just bathe in the sounds with no expectation of a final cadence.

If you have any questions about this particular component of healing music, please leave me a comment or question and I’ll certainly do my best to answer it for you! I do hope you’ve enjoyed this series and will tell others about it as well as leave me lots of comments!

Also, please tell me what else you would like to know about healing music and what it can do for your own health, wellness, and healing!

Today is the sixth lesson in our series of “The Components of Healing Music.”  Please remember that these components are not absolutes and are definitely open to interpretation.  Music as a whole is very personal and each of us has our inner filters that we bring to our own interpretation of a piece of music and how it affects us.  We each hear a piece of music in the contextof what we’ve heard before.

Think about it:  if you grew up hearing classical music or country music or New Age music, then hearing a new piece or song in the genre you’re accustomed to might be new, but not startlingly new!  If you grew up on country or classical, hearing your first piece in the NEW genre will likely be memorable and there’s a fairly good chance that you won’t like it.

We all tend to like what we’re familiar with because there’s a comfort level that goes along with familiarity.  We humans tend to like what we’re familiar with and that applies to music, food, people, climate, and on and on.

In healing music, traditionally, you want to have a tempo that is between 50-70 beats per minute.  This would be the range of beats per minute for the healthy, resting heart-beat.  The tempo, or rate of speed, thus, is very important so that the music slows down and stabilizes a rapid heartbeat and helps the person to calm down and relax.   A person cannot really begin to heal until the body can relax and release stress and tension in the muscles.   Choosing music that has a slow, steady tempo will be very important to getting the most healing effect from music.

  The ladies to the left are members of a female barbershop quarter group called the “Sweet Adelines.”  They sing mostly familiar songs but with a unique type of harmony.  “Barbershop” harmony is quite distinctive and easily recognizable. 

The harmony that is heard in music with a healing quality is very different, but the idea is that all harmony involves multiple pitches being sung (or Played) simultaneously. 

The ensemble to the left is a classical string quartet.  In my opinion, their music is much more like to have a healing effect on the listener, depending of course, on the particular composition they are playing.

Harmony is a very important aspect of healing music because for whatever purpose you’re trying to achieve, the music needs to be, well, harmonious.  My friend Don Campbell has even written a book called “Harmonies of Health.”   Even people who claim to “have no ear” can tell the difference between harmonious music (music that blends well together and has a pleasing effect on the listener) and dissonant music that can actually hurt the ears and cause pain and displeasure. 

What is acceptable in musical harmony has changed greatly over the last 350 years.  Music that to our ears sounds perfectly beautiful would have sounded very strange and possibly dissonant in Bach’s time or Mozart’s time.  What music do you find harmonious?