The Music in Life's Moments

Why is music part of healing?

Before you were born, rhythm was essential to your life. Rhythm and sound, that is. The first rhythm and sound you heard was your mother's heartbeat. (We respond faster to sound, throughout our lives, than to sight or touch.)

Sound, sometimes known as music, will effect us physiologically and neurologically. Even sound that we can't hear (or we think we aren't taking in, at least through our ears) has it's effects on our environment, and consequently us.

The physiological effects of music can change brain waves. That would mean you can go from a state of agitation to relaxation to sleep, simply by taking in or listening to music.
External rhythms (music) are natural, inexpensive and effective tools. Which may explain why they're often overlooked.

Do you want to increase energy? Use music. Do you want to decrease energy? Use music. Stimulate speech? ... use music. People who haven't spoken because of aphasia will often sing the words to songs they've known since childhood.

Rhythm and body movement go together like... dancing! I had the experience of being in a geriatric-psychiatric ward playing music for patients. Once, an elderly hispanic man, dressed in his pajamas, came elegantly dancing out of his room while I was in the hallway playing a lovely little bossa nova (Cherry Pink & Appleblossom White) on solo clarinet. "Musica, Musica!" he called out. The nurses jaws had fallen open~ he'd been one of their more difficult patients, but here he was smiling and dancing. What a beautiful sight!

On the less elegant side of rhythmic movement, but just as important, is the need of many to get that old body up and moving with the help of a walker. The Battle Hymn of the Republic has encouraged many a patient to make it to a meal, or the bathroom, with no help from the already over-worked staff.

Natural, inexpensive and effective tools for healing. Music, the leader in affordable healthcare!