Recent goings on and upcoming projects

Music

As the rain sets in here in the UK, for what looks like a prolonged period, it seems that summer is well and truly over.

The last few months have been pretty busy, so I thought I’d quickly let you in on what I’d been up to…

…aside from the usual, that is

My main working week is still taken up with the music therapy service I provide in a range of settings. Most of my therapy work is with children and young people, and one of the best things about my job is seeing how music helps to communicate feelings which, for some of my clients, can be hard to articulate with words. It makes the more difficult aspects about this work (such as the seemingly endless stream of reports) worthwhile.

Wedding season is coming to an end

In terms of live music, it is the covers bands that continue to make up majority of my professional output. However, I enjoyed playing more solo guitar gigs, performing at wedding services and receptions.

*Credit: Imogenkate Photography (2023).*

It’s nice to see this type of work coming back through into my diary again. After Covid, I feared that live classical guitar may have been an expense too far for couples planning their big day, but this summer has thankfully proven my fears to be unfounded. I’ve already got several dates in my diary for 2024 (if you are looking for a solo guitarist for your own big day please get in touch via my contact page).

Nick Gladdish is recording his next LP

In August, Nick called his usual crew into the studio to lay down baking tracks for his new album, he follow-up to 2021’s Last One Get The Lights. Although we all (Nick included) expected this record to feel like a companion piece to LOGTL, we soon discovered a slightly more rock-orientated edge to the arrangements. This may be a result of the tighter arrangements, as Nick told us he was consciously trying to keep the tunes on this record shorter than his usual fare. With John Timey back in the joint producer/drummer chair, and the brilliant Adam Cornell on bass guitar, this felt like one of the smoothest recording sessions I’ve ever been involved with.

The results so far are promising; ten pop-rock songs about love, loss, disillusionment and corruption. I certainly enjoyed writing and layering rhythm guitar tracks. There’s not many guitar solos this time around, but there is some interesting experimentation going on, from drowning out the end of one song in multi-tracked guitar feedback, to a bluesy ukulele solo on the opening track! Next come the overdubs, editing and mastering…

New original project finally ready to launch

Finally, despite various obstacles thrown at me, I am pleased to announce that I have a new original music project about to start performing live. Solcade began as an outlet for music I was writing which didn’t fit anywhere else – too jazzy, bluesy or indeed too varied for many of the ensembles I have been working with.

After recruiting a stable five-piece lineup, the project quickly became much more of a democratic process, and the music is all the better as a result. With each member having an equal credit in writing and arranging, everyone involved has been bringing their ‘A game’ and making some amazing contributions. If you’re a fan of psychedelic funk, Jazz, soul and rythym & blues, then watch this space for upcoming details about our forthcoming debut record (likely scheduled for completion & release in 2025).

We have some live shows coming up in the autumn, too. Follow us on Instagram to hear the latest updates.

But what have you been up to?

Let me know! Also, I’m planning on writing a Q&A article so if you have any guitar, composition, music therapy or psychotherapy-based questions, get in touch and I may well include it!

Happy birthday, Kenny Burrell

Music

July the 31st this year marks the 92nd birthday of Kenny Burrell, who, unlike many of the greats I feature in my Great Guitarists series, is still with us!

Such an occasion is enough of an excuse to revisit his classic cut from 1963, Midnight Blue (if an excuse is even needed)…

Those interested can read more about Kenny here.

Best wishes to Kenny and his family!

Haiku for the end of June

Poetry & Writing

High Sun burns the blooms

Midsomer passes in heat

Giving. And taking.

Great Guitarists #14: BB King

Great Guitarists

Amongst the most famous blues guitar players, there are the so-called Three Kings of the Blues. All unrelated despite the shared surname, these three guitar players helped to define the sound of modern blues guitar.

We have already looked at Albert King and how his unorthodox technique and biting sound left a huge influence on later guitar megastars such as Jimi Hendrix, Buddy Guy and Stevie Ray Vaughan (to name just three). This time, we will focus on the man who is – quite probably – the most influential blues guitarist of all time: B.B. King.

Much of King’s influence is indirect, but the vast majority of guitar superstars in the 1960s and 1970s owe a debt to this man’s melodic and simple, yet incredibly emotional and effective, style of lead guitar playing. He was also a brilliant singer, working in duet with his own guitar playing, like the singer-guitarists of the early blues period, but bringing the genre into the modern electric era with a wonderfully soulful edge.

Early years

Riley B. King was born on the 16th of September, 1925, on a cotton plantation in Leflore County, Mississippi. In his teens, King sang in a local gospel choir and learned his first few guitar chords from the preacher at his church. He spent his late teens working as a tractor driver and as a guitar player for a popular touring choir, performing at religious services across Mississippi. But after hearing Delta Blues on the radio, King aspired to become a radio musician. Following a move to Memphis, King began to realise this dream, performing on various radio shows and eventually landing his own on the station WDIA. Here he soon garnered the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy”, which was shortened to “Blues Boy”, eventually becoming the “B.B.” he was known by for the rest of his career.

It was during his stint at WDIA that King first met T-Bone Walker, later stating “Once I’d heard him for the first time, I knew I’d have to have [an electric guitar] myself”. Aside from the Delta Blues and T-Bone Walker, King’s early blues influences were singer-guitarists such as Blind Lemmon Jefferson and Leadbelly. He was also influenced by early jazz guitarists Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt.

What these players had in common was a knack for beautiful single-line guitar melodies, and an ability to work with singers and other instrumentalists in a ‘question and answer’ style which King would later perform with himself, singing his songs and responding to his vocal lines with a guitar lick.

(*Credit:* *Colin Escott/Michael Ochs Archives)*

Finding success

King became popular on the Beale Street blues scene in Memphis, performing with other well-known acts of the time, such as lifelong friend Bobby Bland. He cut some early records with Sam Phillips, who later founded Sun Records (and discovered Elvis Presley), but these did not chart too well. However, he soon had a number one record on the Billboard Rhythm & Blues chart with 3 O’clock Blues in 1952. This was followed by a run of successful blues singles which helped King become a well-known name on the national blues touring circuit.

During the 1960s, King received the nod of approval from a singer he much admired, Frank Sinatra. Sinatra had arranged for King to play at the main clubs in Las Vegas. King credited Sinatra for opening doors to black entertainers who otherwise were very rarely, if ever, given the chance to play these venues.

Water from the white fountain didn’t taste any better than from the black fountain
BB King, quoted in Esquire, 2006

By the end of the 1960s, groups associated with the so-called British Invasion (see below) allowed King to reach a larger audience than before, through exposure to white audiences. This included opening for The Rolling Stones on their US tour of 1969.

BB King never abandoned the blues. But his biggest breakthrough hit, The Thrill is Gone, released in 1969, showed that the blues could be framed in a more modern, funk & soul-based setting that left room for King’s equally soulful singing and lead guitar voices. Although the song had been written in the early 1959s, King’s rendition, the first time he incorporated strings into his arrangements, earned him a Grammy Award for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance in 1970 and became his signature song.

The 1970s saw King release similarly soul-blues singles such as Hummingbird and I Like to Live the Love. For the latter of these songs, the studio version of which feels like a classic soul record, but here’s a slightly faster version from a concert King gave in Zaire (now known as The Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1974 – look out for legendary session guitarist Larry Carlton on backing guitar:

Video credit: GravyLimited/YouTube

King’s music included elements of funk, soul, gospel and jazz, all combined to create a unique style which many bluesman continue to emulate to this day. By the 1980s, King was already an Elder Statesman of the blues, and the LPs he released over the decades from here until his passing in 2015 were largely albums of duets, featuring a veritable Who’s Who of stars from the world of the blues and beyond.

Influence

Early on, King transcended his musical shortcomings — an inability to play guitar leads while he sang and a failure to master the use of a bottleneck or slide favored by many of his guitar-playing peers — and created a unique style that made him one of the most respected and influential blues musicians ever.
LA Times obituary of BB King, 2015

Although his urbanisation of the blues brought forth some detractors, King’s economy of style proved influential on many of his peers, not least the generation of guitar players who followed him, such as Buddy Guy. Jimi Hendrix was also a big fan of King, incorporating some of his licks into his eclectic vocabulary of psychedelic blues playing.

However, King’s greatest influence came from across the pond in the United Kingdom. While blues artists were not getting much airtime on mainstream radio in the US, young guitar players in Blighty were eager to snap up any blues records which came across the Atlantic. The resulting generation of guitarists redefined the sound of the blues, taking their bands back across to the US and finding great success. Groups such as The Rolling Stones (with guitarists Keith Richards, Brian Jones and later, Mick Taylor, who who displayed BB King’s influence the most overtly), The Yardbirds (which featured, at varying times, legendary guitarists Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck and Jimmy Page) and Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green) were just some of the British bands who followed the success of The Beatles, and helped US audiences rediscover their own elder statesmen of the blues, such as King.

Yet King’s influence didn’t end with the generation which followed. He recorded the rock-based duet When Love Comes To Town with U2 on their 1988 album Rattle and Hum. The arena-filling bluesman of the moment, Joe Bonamassa, puts his success down to a meeting with King when he was just twelve years old, leading the young guitarist to act as an opening act for King, from which he has grown an illustrious career of his own. The groove from King’s 1970 song Chains and Things was a huge inspiration for Gary Clark Jr. The track was also sampled by hip hop artists such as 50 Cent and Ice Cube.

Credit: BB King Official YouTube Channel

Looking back from the history of guitar, blues or otherwise, from the mid-20th century to date, you’d be hard-pressed to find a guitar player who doesn’t owe King a debt f thanks, be it directly or indirectly. It has even been said that a young Elvis Presley was a fan, long before he helped create a newer, uptempo version of the blues known as Rock’n’Roll…

Equipment

All this passion and soul, not to mention influence, from a disarmingly simple setup. Although early photos sometimes show King playing a Gibson ES-5, most of initial singles with RPM were in fact recorded on a Fender Esquire, the forerunner to the Telecaster.

However, by the 1960s, King had switched to the guitar he is most associated with, the Gibson 335.

The semi-hollow design allowed space for King’s lead lines to ‘sing’ a little.more freely, but in an era of loud onstage volumes, it also meant the guitar was prone to feedback. To counter this, King used to stuff the f-hole with material to cut down on feedback. Eventually, Gibson began making him his own signature model 335 without f-holes. All of these guitars have since been known as Lucille, following an incident where a fire was caused at a show, all started over a woman of the same name.

For amplification, King favoured the sound of a Fender Twin. King has stated his belief that Fender amps were “the best ever made”, in terms of sound and durability.

*King and Eric Clapton sitting on their Fender Twin amplifiers in the late 1960s (left); Lab Series advert from the 1980s (right).*

During the seventies and eighties, King also used a Lab Series L5 2×12″ combo amp. This was probably an upgrade of sorts on the Twin, while still retaining the tone King loved and was renowned for.

Recommended listening

There are plenty of records to choose from, spanning the entirety of King’s long career. You won’t go wrong with any of his releases, but for a taste of his early singles, check out The Modern Recordings: 1950-1951. These tracks (including rare alternate takes of his original 45rpm releases) most strongly showcase the jazzy influence of T-Bone Walker in King’s melodic guitar playing.

In terms of King’s collaboration albums, there’s plenty to choose from. Lucille and Friends (1995), Deuces Wild (1997) and B.B. King & Friends: 80 (2005) feature a wealth of well produced blues duets with the cream of the rock and blues worlds, recovering songs from King’s repertoire. King also recorded albums of Louis Jordan covers, as well as records and live albums with the singer Bobby Bland. However, his 200p release with Eric Clapton, Riding With The King, shows both guitar players on top form.

However, the quintessential B.B. King record, and one that I believe is essential listening for any blues guitarist, is his 1965 release Live At The Regal, a concert recording from a show at The Regal Theatre in Chicago on the 21st of November, 1964. Hailed as one of the greatest blues albums of all time, this record showcases King at his finest, and is one of the records which helped to shape me as a guitarist. Highly recommended.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts. King was a prolific live performer, so if you were ever lucky enough to see the master at work onstage, do get in touch to share your experiences. Until next time…

Music & Wellbeing (Part 6): Music Therapy & Educational Wellbeing

Music Therapy

Music and educational wellbeing

So far, we have investigated the value of music in physical and mental wellbeing. As previously discussed, a better education leads to greater feelings of wellbeing, particularly in later stages of life (Merriam & Kee, 2014). With that in mind, if we are to consider the value of music on our physical and mental wellbeing, we must also discern its role in our education.

There have been recent arguments for the evaluation of wellbeing in the school system, examining what good practice is already in place, and also discussing ways to implement further measures (Aggleton, Dennison & Warwick, 2010). A recent study by McFerran & Rickson (2014) also highlighted the positive effect of music and music therapy in educational wellbeing. Both of the above studies allude to the wider benefits in the community and later on in the child’s life, once they reach adulthood. In this chapter, I aim to examine current thinking on the effects of music on improvements in children’s learning.

The act of participating in musical activities, or playing musical instrument, is seen by many to be of great importance to children’s development (Scripp, Ulibarri, & Flax, 2013; Swanwick, 1988, 1994;). As well as teaching self-discipline and providing feelings of achievement, it acts as ‘a powerful therapy for all sorts of childhood conditions. It develops body, brain and soul in balance’ (Ben-Tovim, 1979, pp. 15-16). Music has been considered to share many similarities with language throughout our history (Thaut, 2005, p. 171). It has long been used as a method of communicating new ideas and concepts to children in a classroom environment (Welch, 2005, p. 254; Barrett, 2005). The use of music in teaching pre-school children acts as both an ‘aid in language development while promoting musical development at the same time’ (Wiggins, 2007, p. 55). Recent studies, such as those carried out by Rickard et al (2010) noticed significant improvements in the verbal memory of primary school children who had spent time studying and playing music.

Such improvements, however, stop a little short of the now famous ‘Mozart effect’. This term is derived from an experiment in which students who listened to at least ten minutes of Mozart’s music performed better in special awareness tests (Rauscher, Shaw & Ky, 1993, quoted in North & Hargreaves, 2008, p. 346). The popularity of these studies allowing the idea that certain genres of music can increase intelligence has since filtered into popular assumption. However, the theory that listening to music increases intelligence quotient (IQ), excluding any other factors or stimuli, is in itself a ‘massive oversimplification and overgeneralisation of the original scientific findings’ (North & Hargreaves, 2008, p. 346). I agree that there are too many additional factors to be considered when taking into account music as stimulation for learning. I find it unreasonable to rely on an almost magical ‘Mozart Effect’ for better results in a classroom environment. I believe music needs to be employed intelligently as a communicative and participatory tool in teaching practice. Student engagement will be increased through activities they regard as ‘fun’ and consequently topics can be digested more effectively. In my opinion, the musical method should stimulate creativity in the children, and better equip them for future learning in other subjects (Scripp, Ulibarri, & Flax, 2013).

While Wiggins (2007) conducted her research in the United States of America, there is an emerging global consensus to collaborate her view surrounding music as an effective tool in teaching. A similar study undertaken in Australia investigated the effects of shared music activities in pre-school children at ages 2-3 years old. The researchers then successfully linked these to a positive range of skills by the time the subjects reached ages 4-5 years old. The children demonstrated higher abilities in ‘vocabulary, numeracy, attentional and emotional regulation, and prosocial skills’. (Williams et al, 2015). The children in these tests proved to be more developed in terms of numeracy, literacy and prosocial skills, than children who had not partaken in shared music activities at a young age; more, even, than children who had participated in shared reading activities at the same age as part of the same research (Williams et al, 2015). This builds upon previous research in Germany, which suggests the level of skills such as numeracy in children may be largely down to the home environment of the child, not to mention other factors such as the educational level of the mother (Anders et al, 2012). Williams et al (2015) use the studies of Anders et al (2012) as one of the bases for their own research. While the German studies are not music-specific, they do not preclude the theories on which the Australian study was conducted. Similar investigations on older children by Hille & Schupp (2015) demonstrated not only an improvement in school performance, but greater conscientiousness and improved social awareness.

So what about children with special educational needs? ‘Special educational needs’ (SEN) is a term which encompasses a wide variety of physical and mental circumstances which might impede learning, experienced both within and outside of the educational system. In the classroom environment, examples of SEN include children with speech, sight or hearing impairments, dyslexia, dyspraxia, delayed cognition, Down’s syndrome and those on the Autistic spectrum (ASD). Studies carried out by Dieringer & Porretta (2013) have shown that the use of music during lessons improves concentration in children on the autistic spectrum. The data returned by their research showed significantly less propensity on the child’s part to diverge into off-task behaviours. They showed higher levels of concentration when music was used as part of the learning process. They reasoned that ‘music can act as an extra auditory stimulus providing additional environmental structure, thus prompting children with ASD to stay on task.’ (Dieringer & Porretta, 2013, p. 8). Dieringer & Porretta (2013) also conclude that looking into this area of study further could lead to improvements in other aspects of life for children with ASD, not least enhanced inclusiveness with other children.

While Dieringer and Porretta (2013) demonstrate in their study that off-task behaviours are reduced when music is used, they argue that further research needs to be conducted into whether or not ‘improved performance or learning actually took place’ (2013, p. 9). However, similar research by Gerrity (2013) focused specifically on improved learning in children with autism during music lessons. The findings of this research conclude that improvements in musical ability and understanding did in fact occur.

What is interesting about the studies carried out by Gerrity (2013), and those undertaken by Dieringer & Porretta (2013) is that they both focus on children with varying levels of autism inside the regular public school system. However, research by (Sandiford, Mainess, & Daher, 2013) has shown how music is of enormous help to teachers in specialist schools for children with profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD), including the most severe cases of autism. My caveat to this would be that such improvements depend on a number of interlinking circumstances. This is similar to the findings of Anders et al (2012) and include, amongst other factors; teaching style; available resources (learning support and funding, for example); environment (at home and school); and parental support.

(This article was first published in June 2015)

REFERENCES

Anders, Y., Rossbach, H., Weinert, S., Ebert, S., Kuger, S., Lehrl, S., Von Maurice, J. (2012) ‘Home and preschool learning environments and their relations to the development of early numeracy skills’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Vol. 27, pp. 231–244. Available From http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ecresq.2011.08.003.

Barrett, M. (2005) ‘Musical communication and children’s communities of musical practice’, in Miell, D., MacDonald, R. & Hargreaves, D. (eds.) Musical communication. United States: Oxford University Press, pp. 261-280.

Ben-Tovim, A. (1979) Children and music. Great Britain: A. & C. Black Ltd.

Dieringer, S. & Porretta, D. (2013) ‘Using music to decrease off-task behaviours in young children with autism spectrum disorders’, Palaestra, Vol. 27, No. 1, pp. 7-9.

Dennison, C., Warwick, I. & Aggleton, P. (2010) ‘Evaluating health and well-being in schools’, in Aggleton, P., Dennison, C. & Warwick, I. (eds.) Promoting health and well-being through schools. United States & Canada: Routledge.

Gerrity, K. (2013) ‘Conditions that facilitate music learning among students with special needs: a mixed-methods inquiry’, Journal of research in music education, Vol. 61, No. 2, pp. 144-159. Available from: 10.1177/0022429413485428.

Hille, A., & Schupp, J. (2015) ‘How learning a musical instrument affects the development of skills’, Economics of Education Review, Vol. 44, pp. 56-82. Available from: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2014.10.007.

McFerran, K. & Rickson, D. (2014) ‘Community music therapy in schools: Realigning with the needs of contemporary students, staff and systems.’ International Journal of Community Music, Vol. 7, No. 1, p. 75. Available from: 10.1386/ijcm.7.1.75_1.

Merriam, S., & Kee, Y. (2014) ‘Promoting Community Wellbeing: The Case for Lifelong Learning for Older Adults’, Adult Education Quarterly, Vol. 64, No. 2, pp. 128-144. Available from: 10.1177/0741713613513633.

Rickard, N., Vasquez, J., Murphy, F., Gill, A., & Toukhsati, S. (2010) ‘Benefits of a Classroom Based Instrumental Music Program on Verbal Memory of Primary School Children: A Longitudinal Study’, Australian Journal of Music Education, No. 1, pp. 36-47.

North, A. & Hargreaves, D. (2008) The social and applied psychology of music. United States: Oxford University Press.

Sandiford, G., Mainess, K., & Daher, N. (2013) ‘A Pilot Study on the Efficacy of Melodic Based Communication Therapy for Eliciting Speech in Nonverbal Children with Autism’, Journal of Autism & Developmental Disorders, Vol. 43, No. 6, pp. 1298-1307. Available from: 10.1007/s10803-012-1672-z.

Scripp, L., Ulibarri, D., & Flax, R. (2013) ‘Thinking Beyond the Myths and Misconceptions of Talent: Creating Music Education Policy that Advances Music’s Essential Contribution to Twenty-First-Century Teaching and Learning’, Arts Education Policy Review, Vol. 114, No. 2, pp. 54-102. Available from: 10.1080/10632913.2013.769825.

Swanwick, K. (1988). Music, mind, and education. USA & Canada: Routledge.

Thaut, M. (2005) ‘Rhythm, human temporality, and brain function’, in Miell, D., MacDonald, R. & Hargreaves, D. (Eds.) Musical communication. United States: Oxford University Press, pp. 171-191.

Welch, G. (2005) ‘Singing as communication’, in Miell, D., MacDonald, R. & Hargreaves, D.J. (eds.) Musical communication. United States: Oxford University Press, pp. 239-259.

Wiggins, D. (2007) ‘Pre-K Music and the Emergent Reader: Promoting Literacy in a Music-Enhanced Environment’, Early Childhood Education Journal, vol. 35, no. 1, pp. 55-64. Available from: 10.1007/s10643-007-0167-6.

Williams, K., Barrett, M., Welch, G., Abad, V., & Broughton, M. (2015) ‘Associations between early shared music activities in the home and later child outcomes: Findings from the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children’, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Vol. 31, pp. 113-124. Available from: 10.1016/j.ecresq.2015.01.004.

Music & Wellbeing (Part 5): Music & Pain Relief

Music Therapy

Music & pain relief

So far, we have examined the positive effects of music on our wellbeing, both physically and mentally. However, if music can indeed make us ‘feel better’, is there any scope for its application towards pain relief? As well as being beneficial, can music be medicinal? There is historical evidence of music playing a role in treating disorders as early as ancient Egyptian times, circa 4,000 B.C. (Thompson, 2015). An additional benefit to the use of music is its lack of invasiveness, compared to other forms of treatment:

Music is perhaps unrivalled by any other form of human expression in the range of its defining characteristics, from its melody and rhythm to its emotional and social nature. The treatments that take advantage of these attributes are rewarding, motivating, accessible and inexpensive, and basically free of side effects, too. The attractive quality of music also encourages patients to continue therapy over many weeks and months, improving the chance of lasting gains (Thompson, 2015)

Rather than being a physical experience alone, pain is a ‘biopsychosocial experience’ (Gregory, 2014, p. 27) which exists in the mind as much as the body: ‘It is affected by psychological and social factors, such as the site and nature of the injury, personality, age, gender, anxiety, understanding and cultural factors’ (Godfrey, 2005, quoted in Gregory, 2014, p. 24). In previous studies on chronic pain, it has been noted that patients who concentrated on other tasks or activities experienced less pain (Löfgren & Norrbrink, 2012, p. 2146). Since many sections of the brain are activated when listening to music (Levitin, 2006, pp. 270-271), it stands to reason that the use of music could be highly effective as a distraction from pain, reducing or cancelling-out pain signals.

A clinical study by Mitchell et al (2007) supported the idea of music as a means of distraction from chronic pain, if not a complete remedy to pain altogether:

Music listening, and in particular listening to our own preferred music, may provide an emotionally engaging distraction capable of reducing both the sensation of pain itself and the accompanying negative affective experience (Mitchell et al, 2007, p. 37)

Mitchell et al’s (2007) study paints a highly optimistic picture for the application of music as an effective means of distraction. In particular, they noted that the patients in their study who place a higher value on music, and listen to it more frequently, responded that they were ‘enjoying life more, having more energy and ability to perform activities, and feeling depressed and in need of medical treatment less often’ (Mitchell et al, 2007, p. 37).

Another study by Silvestrini et al (2011) produced similarly interesting findings:

The present study was designed to test the pain-reducing effects of pleasant music compared to silence, unpleasant music, and to an auditory attention task. Results partially confirmed our hypotheses. Compared to the silence and the unpleasant music, pleasant music had a significant effect on the pain ratings and pain tolerance to the cold pressor test but not on the NFR. This finding suggests that the auditory stimuli used in this study, and more particularly pleasant music, did not produce any central descendent analgesic effect on spinal nociception, which would have resulted in lower NFR. In contrast, music had a significant effect on the NRS, the sensory and the affective thresholds, and on the pain tolerance to the cold pressor test compared to silence and to the unpleasant musical stimulations, and these results are consistent with previous studies showing pain-reducing effect of music on reported pain experience (Silvestrini et al, 2011, p. 268)

Silvestrini et al’s (2011) report suggests that the areas of the brain responsible for processing pain signals are the same as the areas for analysing music we hear. This is mainly because our brains utilize several different areas and functions when listening to music. These include the areas which process movement: the Cerebellum; a combination of Cortexes (Prefrontal, Motor, Sensory, Auditory and Visual); and the areas which process emotions: the Amygdala and Nucleus Accumbens. (Levitin, 2006, pp. 270-271).

Does this mean music is a distraction? Pain acts as a signal in the brain, alerting the conscious mind of something which may be an ‘issue’ or problem. This is a survival-trait ingrained in us through our evolution. Like music, ‘the areas of the brain involved in pain experience and behaviour are very extensive’ (Melzack, 1996, p.134). However, some studies, such as those by Fabbro & Crescentini (2014), indicate that once we are aware of these ‘issues’ with the body, manifested as pain we experience in the affected area, it is possible to cancel out the signal. We can, in effect, ‘switch off’ pain, depending on the individuals attitudes to pain.

This might go some way to explain the variance in results found by Silvestrini et al (2011) and Mitchell et al (2007). Both seemed to find generally positive results when studying the effect of listening to music in relation to experience of pain. However, both reports clearly show mixed results amongst their test groups. Other research, while demonstrating an overall positive effect of music in medicinal use (Hargreaves & North, 2008, p. 301), met with similarly varied outcomes depending on the subject’s gender and age:

With regard to sex, music was less effective for males than it was for females. With regard to age, children responded more positively to music than did adults and infants (Standley, 1995, quoted in Hargreaves & North, 2008, p. 302)

This runs in accordance with the findings of Fabbro & Crescentini (2014), which stated that different people apply varying levels of importance and focus to the pain they experience. What one individual might experience as mild pain, another could feel something altogether more debilitating; the change in pain experience is determined mainly by the “expectations” of the patient’ (Fabbro & Crescentini, 2014, p. 545). Gregory (2014) agrees with this view. As we have already seen, pain is ‘an individual experience and the effectiveness of interventions can vary between individuals’ (Gregory, 2014, p. 24). Therefore, their ability to focus on music instead of the brain’s pain signals will be compromised. Giving focus to anything our minds have deemed important for our attention means the brain is devoting less processing energy to listening to the music. This renders as null the positive effect music can have on our experience of pain, because ‘even if you’re only paying attention to one other factor, our capacity to focus on the music may have already been cut in half’. (Green, 1986, p. 68)

It is especially interesting that both studies yielded more positive results when the participants were listening not only to pleasant music, but to music they preferred (Mitchell et al, 2007, p.37). Levitin (2006, pp. 231) states that we often make our preferred musical choices during our early teenage years, and we attach a level of emotional importance to this music. Therefore, music’s ability to have a reductive effect on pain must be, in part, the mental act of processing these positive emotional feelings when listening to music we enjoy.

(This article was first published in June 2015)

REFERENCES

Fabbro, F., & Crescentini, C. (2014) ‘Review: Facing the experience of pain: A neuropsychological perspective’, Physics of Life Reviews, Vol. 11, pp. 540-552. Available from: 10.1016/j.plrev.2013.12.010.

Green, B. (1986) The inner game of music. United States: Pan Books.

Gregory, J. (2014) ‘Dealing with acute and chronic pain: part two – management’, Journal of Community Nursing, Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 24-29.

Levitin, D. (2006). This is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession. Great Britain: Atlantic Books.

Löfgren, M., & Norrbrink, C. (2012) ”But I know what works’ – patients’ experience of spinal cord injury neuropathic pain management’, Disability & Rehabilitation, Vol. 34, No. 25, pp. 2139-2147.

Melzack, R. (1996) ‘Gate control theory: on the evolution of pain concepts’, Pain Forum, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 128-138.

Mitchell, L., MacDonald, R., Knussen, C. & Serpell, M. (2007) ‘A survey investigation of the effects of music listening on chronic pain’, Psychology of Music. Vol. 35 (1), pp. 37-57.

North, A. & Hargreaves, D. (2008) The social and applied psychology of music. United States: Oxford University Press.

Silvestrini, N., Piguet, V., Cedraschi, C. & Zentner, M. (2011) ‘Music and auditory distraction reduce pain: emotional or attentional effects?’ Music and Medicine. Vol 3 (4), pp. 264-270.

Thompson, W. (2015) ‘The Healine [sic] Power of Music’, Scientific American Mind, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 32-41.

Music & Wellbeing (Part 4): Music & Movement

Music Therapy

This is a continuation of my mini-series examining the value of music on our overall wellbeing. The next two installments will look at the physical benefits of music as a means of healing and rehabilitation.

I got rhythm: Music & Movement

Levitin (2006, p. 174) states that the cerebellum, as one of the earliest parts of our brain to evolve, is responsible for motor functions, including timing:

The Cerebellum is the part of the brain that is involved closely with timing and with coordinating movements of the body…From phylogenetic studies – studies of brains of different animals up and down the genetic ladder – we’ve learned that the cerebellum is one of the oldest parts of the brain, evolutionarily speaking. In popular language, it is sometimes referred to as the reptilian brain. Although it weighs only 10 per cent as much as the rest of the brain, it contains 50 to 80 per cent of the total number of neurons. The function of this oldest part of the brain is something that is crucial to music: timing (Levitin, 2006, p. 174)

As one of our oldest brain functions, our propensity for rhythm is therefore hardwired into us. Combine these automatic functions with the reward-centre activation we experience when listening to music (Salimpoor et al, 2015), and it goes quite some way to explaining our natural need to set things in order; an ‘unconscious propensity to impose a rhythm even when one hears a series of identical sounds at constant intervals’ (Sacks, 2008, p. 264).

Sacks (2008) discusses studies which demonstrated that the motor cortex and subcortical motor systems were activated when listening to music, or even merely imagining it. He argued that keeping time, in both a mental sense and as a physical act, depends ‘on interactions between the auditory and the dorsal premotor cortex’ (Sacks, 2008, p. 262). The human mind is unique in its ‘functional connection between these two motor activations’ (Sacks, 2008, p. 262) which are so intricately integrated with each other. Further to this, when listening to music is coupled with a physical activity, such as finger-tapping or any other movement in the body, several more areas of the brain are utilised. These include the cerebellum and the areas of the frontal lobes commonly associated with ‘higher perceptual and cognitive control’ (Thaut, 2005, p. 179).

According to Thompson (2015), utilizing music’s effects on the brain has yielded a positive response in stroke patients with impaired motor skills:

Patients who engaged in this intervention, called music-supported training, showed greater improvement in the timing, precision and smoothness of fine motor skills than did patients who relied on conventional therapy. The researchers postulated that the gains resulted from an increase in connections between neurons of the sensorimotor and auditory regions…the hope now is that active music making-singing, moving and synchronizing to a beat-might help restore additional skills, including speech and motor functions in stroke patients (Thompson, 2015)

Thaut (2005) has also recorded positive results when using ‘rhythmic auditory stimulation to facilitate walking’ in patients who have been partially paralysed following a stroke (Sacks, 2008, p. 276). Again, we see rhythm at play here to increasingly useful effect. Similar research carried out by Jun, Roh, & Kim (2013) investigated the benefits of music therapy in rehabilitating stroke patients. They discovered that better results, and improved mood, were increased by providing music-based movement treatments on a more regular basis (Jun, Roh, & Kim, 2013, P. 29).

Parkinson’s Disease is another condition in which music has been proven to help in alleviating symptoms. Parkinson’s Disease is a progressive neurological condition (www.parkinsons.org) caused by the ‘degeneration of cells in the midbrain that feed dopamine to the basal ganglia, an area involved in the initation [sic] and smoothness of movements’ (Thompson, 2015). These symptoms worsen as the disease progresses (Ross & Singer, 2014). In later stages of the disease, it is not only movement which is slowed down, but also the ‘flow of perception, thought, and feeling’ (Sacks, 2008, p. 274). This highlights the roots of the disease in the brain rather than in other parts of the body, much in the same way that the body can be affected after a stroke. Most studies conclude that music supplants a rhythm where the patient’s brain has stopped carrying out movement functions automatically (Jun, Roh, & Kim, 2013; Sacks, 2008; Thaut, 2005; Thompson, 2015).

As we saw when looking at musical interventions on stroke patients, one of the key factors to the success of music therapy in patients with Parkinson’s Disease is down to timing. In regard to Parkinson’s Disease, there are particular observations to be made about the patient’s own perception of timing:

‘An observer may note how slowed a parkinsonian’s movements are, but the patient will say, “My own movements seem normal to me unless I see how long they take by looking at a clock. The clock on the wall of the ward seems to be going exceptionally fast.”’ (Gooddy, 1988, quoted in Sacks, 2008, p. 276)

Regarding this example of relative time, using music has a positive effect because it ‘imposes its own tempo’, effectively overriding the impulses to speed up or slow down that Parkinsonion patients experience (Sacks, 2008, p. 276). Sacks (2008) continued that for as long as the music lasts, the patients’ rhythms returned to pre-illness speeds of movement. In other cases, where one side of the body is operating at a different speed to the other, getting the patient to play on an organ brought his limbs back into synchronicity again (Sacks, 2008, p. 277).

In many of the case studies provided by Sacks (2008), he mentions that the patients ‘come alive’ and in some examples shake off all visible signs of Parkinson’s Disease; walking more fluidly; singing; and even dancing energetically. In one case, an especially motionless patient is seated at the piano and not only frees up in her movement, but plays beautifully from memory; the act of imagining the music has the same effect as physically hearing it (Sacks, 2008, p. 278).

The phrase ‘come alive’, to me, suggests a happier state of mind when music is present in these patients. This is similar to the stroke patients in Jun, Roh, & Kim’s (2013) study that experienced an ‘improved mood’. While music is being applied here seeking physical improvements, it is simultaneously improving the patient’s mental wellbeing. Therefore, music can be seen to have an overall positive effect on the patients’ combined wellbeing. I agree with the research in these chapters, and believe that further implementation of music-based interventions within the National Health Service will show quicker recovery times in patients. This, in turn, should lead to a greater overall mental wellbeing in the patients as their health improves. As for the National Health Service, they are optimistic about the positive use of music as a means for treating stroke and Parkinson’s patients. However, they wish to see larger studies with more varied groups of patients. (National Health Service, 2008).

(This article was first published in June 2015)

REFERENCES

Jun, E., Roh, Y., & Kim, M. (2013) ‘The effect of music-movement therapy on physical and psychological states of stroke patients’, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol. 22, No. 1/2, pp. 22-31. Available from: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2012.04243.x.

Levitin, D. (2006). This is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession. Great Britain: Atlantic Books.

National Health Service (2008) Music aids stroke recovery. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/news/2007/January08/Pages/Musicaidsstrokerecovery.aspx (Last accessed: 07/05/2012).

Parkinson’s Society (2015). Available at: www.parkinsons.org

Sacks, O. (2008). Musicophilia: tales of music and the brain. 2^nd Edition. United Kingdom: Vintage Books.

Salimpoor, V., Zald, D., Zatorre, R., Dagher, A., & McIntosh, A. (2015) ‘Review: Predictions and the brain: how musical sounds become rewarding’, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 19, pp. 86-91. Available from: 10.1016/j.tics.2014.12.001.

Thaut, M. (2005) ‘Rhythm, human temporality, and brain function’, in Miell, D., MacDonald, R. & Hargreaves, D. (Eds.) Musical communication. United States: Oxford University Press, pp. 171-191.

Thompson, W. (2015) ‘The Healine [sic] Power of Music’, Scientific American Mind, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 32-41.

Music & Wellbeing (Part 3): Music Therapy – a brief introduction

Music Therapy

Music Therapy

As a practice, music therapy sits somewhere between art, therapy, healthcare, and psychoanalysis; it ‘invites the art, science and craft of music and healing’ (Pavlicevic, 1999, p. 141). Its practice has been proven as having a ‘huge impact on confidence, and therefore improved wellbeing’ (Therapy Today, 2011, p. 5). Besides more common associations with mental health and children with special needs (SEN), music therapy has also proved to be of benefit on a much wider scale, including, amongst other areas, ‘physical impairments, people with hearing and visual problems, the institutionalised elderly, and people in the criminal justice system’ (North & Hargreaves, 2008, p. 298-299).

Within the field of music therapy, there is a history of deploying music to ‘alleviate chronic psychological disorders and problems associated with long-term physical impairment’ (North & Hargreaves, 2008, p. 298). There is evidence of music-based practices dating back prior to the beginning of recorded history. Being centered on music makes it one of the most accessible forms of treatment in terms of engagement:

Everyone has the ability to respond to music, and music therapy uses this connection to facilitate positive changes in emotional wellbeing and communication through the engagement in live musical interaction between client and therapist (British Association for Music Therapy)

The idea of creating music ‘out of thin air’ might seem like an alien concept to some. However, the process of music therapy sessions is to create something out of the patient’s feelings, situation and environment, with the assistance of the therapist (Williams, 2014). In the context of a music therapy session, there are ‘no ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ notes: all are part of possibility.’ (Pavlicevic, 1999, p. 143) Improvisation between therapist and client is key to allowing the client to experience music as a positive means of therapy:

Music therapy allows people to discover for themselves what is going on underneath, as well as allowing them to express repressed emotions or memories. If verbal communication has shut down, as with autism or stroke, it has a huge impact on a person’s confidence, which in turn affects every aspect of their life (Angela Harrison, quoted in Therapy Today, 2011, p. 5)

Just as the act of talking, or indeed writing, about one’s personal experiences can be seen as therapeutic and empowering (Newham, 1999, p. 32), so too can singing about it (Stige et al, 2010; Harrison, 2006). Due to the connections music makes with the brain and emotions, singing as a means of therapy can be seen to be even more cathartic:

To fill our memories with emotion requires us to use the full range of our voice to express the full range of feelings. And nowhere do we witness such a use of the voice more intensely than in the art of singing (Newham, 1999, p. 59)

Community Music Therapy

Such feelings of catharsis and empowerment which music therapy can provide are also useful in the context of a community. One’s place in their community has an effect on their overall wellbeing (Venkatapuram, 2013). According to Feld (1994, p. 77), ‘music has a fundamentally social life. It is made to be engaged – practically and intellectually and communally’. I agree that the main purpose of music is as a shared form of communication, much as it has been considered a language throughout history (Thaut, 2005, p. 171). This language reaches us at a level of understanding deeper than verbal communication (Harrison, 2006).

According to the National Health Service (2006) there are five evidence-based steps we can take to improve mental wellbeing:

Get active
Connect with others
Keep learning
Be aware of yourself and the world
Give to others

(National Health Service, 2006)

I believe that the practice of community music therapy covers all five of these points, through a variety of styles. Modes of practice, including music workshops, which act to ‘foster active and collaborative music making’ are therefore an excellent way of fostering better community wellbeing (Higgins, 2012, p. 144). Harrison (2006) believes the power of singing lies in its power to move other human beings; its ‘transformative qualities’; the way it can allow others unable to sing to feel cathartic benefits through empathic listening (2006, p. 24). I am inclined to agree with this view. I believe this element of music therapy has in fact the most potential to affect overall wellbeing, through its inherently inclusive and group-based nature. Participants, in making music with others, can experience ‘one of life’s greatest pleasures’ (Green, 1986, p. 69).

Further examples highlight to me that community music therapy might be better thought of in more broad terms, such as ‘care’ and ‘service’ (Stige & Aarø, 2012, p. 14) Like Stige & Aarø (2012), I believe it represents a group musical ‘service’ which takes place outside of the private, confidential, one-on-one setting of the traditional music therapy session. It is a means of bringing the community, and neighbouring communities, together through local music-based activities, the kind of which I have witnessed throughout my life in one form or another, without ever having identified them as ‘therapy’. These activities can take place in ‘arts centers [sic], schools, prisons, health settings, places of worship, festivals, on the streets, and in a wide range of community contexts’ (Higgins, 2012, p. 174). They can be said to be having a beneficial effect on the wellbeing of the community, and therefore the individuals within those community groups (Choi, Lee & Lim, 2008).

Music Therapy & Dementia

The term dementia, generally associated with old age or degenerative neurological diseases, is displayed as memory loss and difficulties with thinking, problem-solving or language, the most common form of which is Alzheimer’s Disease (Alzheimer’s Society). Alzheimer’s is characterised by changes in nerve cells and neurotransmitter levels, as well as destruction of synapses (Levitin, 2006, p. 231). In many cases, short term memory is largely absent, creating frustration among patients (Pavlicevic, 1999, p. 130). However, music therapy has proven to be of enormous positive effect in improving the wellbeing of Alzheimer’s patients (Lee & Thyer, 2013; Stige et al, 2010). Levitin goes on to report an interesting observation in the musical memory of Alzheimer’s patients:

As the disease progresses, memory loss becomes more profound. Yet many of these old-timers can still remember how to sing the songs they heard when they were fourteen. Why fourteen? Part of the reason we remember songs from our teenage years is because those years were times of self-discovery, and as a consequence, they were emotionally charged; in general, we tend to remember things that have an emotional component because our amygdala and neurotransmitters act in concert to ‘tag’ the memories as something important (Levitin, D. 2006, pp. 231-232)

Music’s innate ability to hone in on these ‘tags’ seems to almost reverse the symptoms of dementia for a brief time; play or sing a song from their past and they are once again ‘present’ (Sacks, 2008, p. 377). The practise of community music therapy has also been seen to have a positive effect in regards to Alzheimer’s patients, due to the added social factor involved (Stige et al, 2010, p. 266).

Music as alleviation to anxiety and depression

The frustration experienced by many people with dementia can often lead to frustration and agitation (Clare, 2004). While research on the subject is limited, music therapy has been proven as a noticeably effective, low-cost, non-pharmacological intervention (Blackburn & Bradshaw, 2014). Music-based interventions have yielded positive results in easing depression among adults without dementia (Chan et al, 2012). Occasionally studies note reduced anxiety as a by-product of alleviating another condition (Hargreaves & North, 2008).

There has been found to allow improvements to self-esteem and reduced depression in children and adolescents with behavioural and emotional problems, which were sustained over a prolonged period (Therapy Today, 2014, p. 6). One particular advantage of music therapy over talking therapies is that younger people seem more open to participation:

The most popular activity was song-writing or writing their own lyrics to music, which seemed to benefit their ability to communicate their feelings more generally, she said. Nearly all — 97 per cent — chose to write autobiographically about how they were feeling, where they were at. This age group tend to find talking therapies slightly more challenging but our psychology colleagues tell us that, as a result of the music therapy, these children are more open to engaging with them in their sessions and more able to express how they were feeling. (Therapy Today, 2014, p. 6)

The level of effectiveness music has in relieving stress varies ‘according to age, the type of stress in question, the means by which the music was used, the listener’s musical preference, and their prior level of music experience’ (Hargreaves & North, 2008, p. 307). This brief overview highlights to me that music therapy is of intrinsic value to our wellbeing. As well as the areas mentioned above, music therapy has seen measurable success relieving anxiety in a variety of settings (Hargreaves & North, 2008). It is also useful in treatment as therapy for drug and solvent abuse (Oklan & Henderson, 2014; Silverman, 2009).

(This article was first published in June 2015)

REFERENCES

Alzheimer’s Society (2015) What is Alzheimer’s disease? Available at: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200171&documentID=100&gclid=CI_j59OHv8UCFYgIwwodCqUAPA (Last accessed: 06/05/2015).

Blackburn, R., & Bradshaw, T. (2014) ‘Music therapy for service users with dementia: a critical review of the literature’, Journal of Psychiatric & Mental Health Nursing, Vol. 21, No. 10, pp. 879-888. Available from: 10.1111/jpm.12165.

British Association for Music Therapy (2012) What is music therapy? Available at: http://www.bamt.org/music-therapy/what-is-music-therapy.html (Last accessed: 12/05/2012).

Chan, M., Wong, Z., Onishi, H., & Thayala, N. (2012) ‘Effects of music on depression in older people: a randomised controlled trial’, Journal of Clinical Nursing, Vol. 21, No. 5/6, pp. 776-783. Available from: 10.1111/j.1365-2702.2011.03954.x.

Choi, A., Lee, M., & Lim, H. (2008) ‘Effects of group music intervention on depression, anxiety, and relationships in psychiatric patients: a pilot study’, Journal of Alternative & Complementary Medicine, Vol. 14, No. 5, pp. 567-570. Available from: 10.1089/acm.2008.0006.

Clare, M. (2014) ‘Soothing sounds: reducing agitation with music therapy’, Nursing & Residential Care, Vol. 16, No. 4, pp. 217-221.

Feld, S. (1994) ‘Communication, music, and speech about music’, in Keil, C. & Feld, S. (eds.) Music grooves: essays and dialogues. United States of America: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 77-95.

Green, B. (1986) The inner game of music. United States: Pan Books.

Harrison, P. (2006) The human nature of the singing voice: exploring a h basis for sound teaching and learning. Great Britain: Dunedin Academic Press.

Higgins, L. (2012) Community music: in theory and in practice. United States: Oxford University Press.

Lee, J., & Thyer, B. (2013) ‘Does Music Therapy Improve Mental Health in Adults? A Review’, Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, Vol. 23, No. 5, pp. 591-603. Available from: 10.1080/10911359.2013.766147.

Levitin, D. (2006). This is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession. Great Britain: Atlantic Books.

National Health Service (2006) Wellbeing self-assessment. Available at: http://www.nhs.uk/Tools/Pages/Wellbeing-self-assessment.aspx (Last accessed: 11/05/2015).

Newham, P. (1999) Using voice and song in therapy: the practical application of voice movement therapy. United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

North, A. & Hargreaves, D. (2008) The social and applied psychology of music. United States: Oxford University Press.

Oklan, A., & Henderson, S. (2014) ‘Treating inhalant abuse in adolescence: A recorded music expressive arts intervention’, Psychomusicology: Music, Mind, and Brain, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 231-237. Available from: 10.1037/pmu0000058.

Pavlicevic, M. (1999) Music therapy: intimate notes. United Kingdom: Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

Sacks, O. (2008). Musicophilia: tales of music and the brain. 2^nd Edition. United Kingdom: Vintage Books.

Silverman, M. (2009) ‘A descriptive analysis of music therapists working with consumers in substance abuse rehabilitation: Current clinical practice to guide future research’, The Arts in Psychotherapy, Vol. 36, pp. 123-130. Available from: 10.1016/j.aip.2008.10.005.

Stige, B., Ansdell, G., Elefant, C. & Pavlicevic, M. (2010) Where music helps: community music therapy in action and reflection. Great Britain: Ashgate.

Stige, B. & Aarø, L. (2012) Invitation to community music therapy. United Kingdom: Routledge.

Thaut, M. (2005) ‘Rhythm, human temporality, and brain function’, in Miell, D., MacDonald, R. & Hargreaves, D. (Eds.) Musical communication. United States: Oxford University Press, pp. 171-191.

Therapy Today (2011) ‘NHS urged to pay for music therapy to cure depression’, 2011, Therapy Today, Vol. 22 (No. 7), p.5.

Therapy Today (2014) ‘Music therapy helps beat depression’, (2014) Therapy Today, Vol. 25, No. 9, p. 6.

Venkatapuram, S. (2013) ‘Subjective wellbeing: a primer for poverty analysts’, Journal of Poverty & Social Justice, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 5-17. Available from: 10.1332/175982713X664029.

Williams, T. (2014) ‘A journey to music therapy’, Exceptional Parent, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 30-32.

Music & Wellbeing (Part 2). I feel good: Music and feelings of pleasure

Music Therapy

Continuing this mini-series on the the value of music in our wellbeing, today’s post examines how and why we feel pleasure upon hearing music.

I feel good: Music and feelings of pleasure

A number of studies on the human brain have noticed our ability to differentiate between ‘noise’ and ‘music’. Listening to music uses the same areas of the brain as when processing speech. (Schön et al, 2010). Music also activates sections of the brain responsible for pleasurable feeling (Salimpoor et al, 2015), known colloquially as the ‘reward centres’ of the brain (Icahn School of Medicine, 2015). Salimpoor et al’s (2015) report confirmed:

Not only is dopamine released when desirable sound events are heard, but also suggest that musical events leading up to peak pleasure moments may generate a sense of anticipation and lead to dopamine release when individuals listen to familiar music (Salimpoor et al, 2015)

Levitin goes on to explain activity in the cerebellum during his studies:

In my laboratory we found strong activations in the cerebellum when we asked people to listen to music, but not when we asked them to listen to noise. The cerebellum appears to be involved in tracking the beat. And the cerebellum has shown up in our studies in another context: when we ask people to listen to music they like versus music they don’t like, or familiar music versus unfamiliar music (Levitin, 2006, pp. 174-175)

Is timing the key difference between what makes the sounds we hear ‘noise’ and ‘music’? Schaffer (1977) reasons that the modern human, having grown up in an industrialised world, has what he refers to as ‘lo-fi hearing’. In effect, we are tuning out all of the everyday noise our environment bombards out ears with on a daily basis. A person from a time before the growth of large cities and the industrial revolution had higher definition hearing. This may also be in part due to our earlier need to rely on bird and animal calls as a means of hunting for food or for our own safety – in both cases, essential to our survival:

It can be argued that the survival of our ancient ancestors depended on their ability to detect patterns in sounds, derive meaning from them, and adjust their behaviour [sic] accordingly (Juslin, 2013)

Furthermore, Keil (1994, p. 97) refers to the social aspect of music utilised by our ancestors, stating that everyone would have been a full participant in music rituals staged by early civilisations. These participatory rituals promoted a greater interconnectedness with nature, society and an ‘ever deeper and more satisfying knowledge of who we are’ (Keil, 1994, p. 98).

Kania (2013) discusses the ‘aesthetic’ definition of music put forward by Jerrold Levinson (1990), who asserts that music is a collection of sounds, deliberately organised, with the aim of ‘eliciting a certain kind of heightened experience’ (Kania, 2013, p. 639). However, Kania believes music is more than this, finding one hole in Levinson’s argument in particular:

If you think, however, that a lullaby sung to put a baby to sleep is an example of music, then it is a counterexample to this definition, since the singer intends precisely the opposite of active engagement on the baby’s part (Kania, 2013, p. 639).

The research of Salimpoor et al (2011) found that ‘Music, an abstract stimulus, can arouse feelings of euphoria and craving’ and that during their tests, ‘we found endogenous dopamine release in the striatum at peak emotional arousal during music listening’. This illustrates the positive effect music has on the human mind’s neural pathways, resulting in a general feeling of wellbeing (Salimoor et al, 2011). However I argue that such studies don’t take into account the huge array of external factors our brains process at the same time as listening to music. Previous existing research also states the need to consider external factors and the wider social context of the subjects (Anders et al, 2012;North & Hargreaves, 2008; Mitchell et al, 2007), or, as Kieran (2013) puts it:

The pleasures afforded by sport, coffee drinking and good conversation are not wholly specifiable independently of the nature of the objects or activity involved…So too with good art generally. (Kieran, 2013, p. 290)

(This article was first published in June 2015)

REFERENCES

Icahn School of Medicine (2015). Brain reward pathways. Available at: http://neuroscience.mssm.edu/nestler/brainRewardpathways.html (Last accessed: 24/04/2015).

Juslin, P.N. (2013) ‘Review: From everyday emotions to aesthetic emotions: Towards a unified theory of musical emotions’, Physics of Life Reviews, vol. 10, pp. 235-266. Available from: 10.1016/j.plrev.2013.05.008.

Kania, A. (2013) ‘Music’, in Gaut, B. & McIver Lopes, D. (eds.) The routledge companion to aesthetics. 3^rd Edition. USA & Canada: Routledge, pp. 639-648.

Keil, C. (1994) ‘Participatory discrepancies and the power of music’, in Keil, C. & Feld, S. (eds.) Music grooves: essays and dialogues. United States of America: The University of Chicago Press, pp. 96-108.

Kieran, M. (2013) ‘Value of art’, in Gaut, B. & McIver Lopes, D. (eds.) The routledge companion to aesthetics. 3^rd Edition. USA & Canada: Routledge, pp. 289-298.

Levitin, D. (2006). This is your brain on music: understanding a human obsession. Great Britain: Atlantic Books.

North, A. & Hargreaves, D. (2008) The social and applied psychology of music. United States: Oxford University Press.

Salimpoor, V., Benovoy, M., Larcher, K., Dagher, A. & Zatorre, R. (2011) ‘Anatomically distinct dopamine release during anticipation and experience of peak emotion to music’. Nature Neuroscience. Vol. 14 (No. 2, February), pp. 257-264.

Schafer, R. (1977) The soundscape: our sonic environment and the tuning of the world. USA: Destiny Books.

Schön, D., Gordon, R., Campagne, A., Magne, C., Astésano, C., Anton, J., & Besson, M. (2010) ‘Similar cerebral networks in language, music and song perception’, Neuroimage, vol. 51, pp. 450-461. Available from: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.02.023.

Music & Wellbeing (Part 1): The intrinsic value of music

Music Therapy

This mini series is a collection of essays on the benefits of music on wellbeing. Over the next few ‘chapters’, I shall investigate the aesthetic, holistic, physical and education angles of music as an aid to improving wellbeing.

But first, an introduction into the value of music within itself, or rather, the value we humans place upon it. I hope you enjoy reading this and the installments to follow. If you have any comments, please do not hesitate to contact me.

The intrinsic value of music

‘For humans, music is a means of expressing and experiencing ‘love, excitement, joy, sadness and even spiritual fulfillment’ (Green, 1986, p. 69). John Cage (1952) famously stated that ‘everything is music’. By contrast, Claude Debussy remarked that ‘music is the space between the notes’ (quoted in Green, 1986, p. 70). This does, however, imply that some organisation of notes is required, if only to determine the length and perceived colours of these spaces, and the impact they may have upon hearing them.

Nicholas Cook (1998) elaborates further on the meaning of music, maintaining that music’s value is paramount due to its presence at the heart of everything we are and do as a species:

Rather than being something apart, music is in the very midst of things. In fact it’s less a ‘something’ than a way of knowing the world, a way of being ourselves. (Cook, 1998, p. vii)

Some believe the meanings we take away from music will always be unique to us; that everything we feel from music, good and bad, exists solely ‘in the audience’ (Cage, 1968, p. 97). This further demonstrates a need for contextualisation or interpretation on the part of the listener. However, I believe it carries the same underlying message as Cook (1998): music is not only important to us, but the listener will apply some means of interpretation to it, whether by concentrated thought or subconsciously. What the listener may discern from these sounds is effectively up to the listener alone.

Of course, what music we chose to consume is in part formed and shaped by our social conditions, with some allowances for personal taste (Shuker, 2008, p. 173). Martin (1995, pp. 75-76) even suggested that some forms of music can be shaped based on the traits and characteristics of the society from with it originates. This sentiment is, to some degree, rebuffed by Matthew Kieran (2013), who believed certain pieces had more relevance to an individual than another might:

To value Bach’s Cello Suites just because they cheer me up implies that they are replaceable by something that performs the same function as well or better, whether it be a feel-good movie or a night out. However, to find intrinsic value in a work is to appreciate the imaginative experience it properly affords, which may be beautiful, moving uplifting, pleasurable, insightful or profound. But it is the particular nature of the work that guides our active mental engagement and responses to it. Hence there is something about the experience of a particular work, if it is intrinsically valuable, that cannot be replaced by another. (Kieran, 2013, p. 289)

Citing Barber’s Adagio for Strings as another example, Kieran (2013) made further interesting observations on the nature of music’s value to the individual as art:

In terms of technical musical complexity the piece is relatively simple and yet in terms of expressivity it is a great piece of music…It is no coincidence that the Adagio for Strings has been used for state funerals and as the thematic music for Oliver Stone’s Platoon. The piece of music may not be about anything in the strict representational sense, yet its expressive development moves between melancholy, grief and reconciliation. (Kieran, 2013, p. 289)

Kieran’s (2013) argues that while other pieces of music may express similar sentiments to Barber’s Adagio, due to subtle differences, they can never do so in exactly the same way. This implies the listener is investing emotions onto the music, rather than the other way around. This poses some difficulties in using specific musical pieces as therapy. While drugs have an overall blanket effect on the body, whether our minds will them to or not, ‘good artworks are not dispensable in the way drugs are…in the case of art the experience is a result of our active mental engagement with the work’ (Kieran, 2013, p. 290).

Stecker (1997, 2010), on the other hand, holds the view that art is instrumental in value. We value music because of the experience it affords; the ends it realizes. Kieran (2013, p. 290) differentiates between Stecker’s (1997, 2010) viewpoint that art is instrumental in value, and his own belief that art has an inherent value. He argues that money, for example, has no value in itself, and is purely of instrumental value to gain materials or realize certain situations. However, the relationship of money to the ends it can supply is entirely external. The only way by which the outcome is affected by money is as means of its attainment. Meanwhile music, to paraphrase Lynn H. Hough (1920), is more about the journey than the destination. So to find inherent value in music, it can’t merely ‘be the means to a valuable end, but also the means must partly constitute and thus be internal to the ends involved’ (Kieran, 2013, p. 290).

To that end, Rycenga (1994) described how music, and her own compositional process, gave her the confidence and freedom to be comfortable and active in her own sexuality, thus highlighting the human value of music on an emotional level:

All of these summoned a strongly physical response from me. If it had not been for the ways in which music acted upon me, music acted in me, music touched me, it is unlikely that I would have been able to act as decisively in a physical sense as I did. (Rycenga, 1994, p. 276)

To be free to be yourself, comfortable in who you are, implies an improved state of wellbeing compared to a repressed individual. This is especially true in coming to terms with your sexuality (Tasker & McCann, 1999, p. 34).

So what is the value of music in relation to our own wellbeing? Can music, the planned organisation of pitch and rhythm be beneficial as an aid to our overall physical condition or improved mental health? In attempting to find the value of music in human wellbeing, I will look across three main areas. In chapter one, I will examine music’s effect on feelings of pleasure, followed by an overview of how music therapy is being used to improve mental health.

The following installments in this series will focus on the use of music to improve physical health. This will include studies evaluating its application as a means of pain relief. Finally, following Merriam & Kee’s (2014) view that better educational wellbeing leads to an improved adult life, the following chapters will look at the application of music therapy in schools. This will include a case study, undertaken by myself, examining the benefits of music-based interventions for literacy improvement in children with special education needs (SEN). Relying on current thinking by the best practitioners and writers in this relatively new field of study, the following installments will attempt to determine the value of music in our lives, beyond the ephemeral, beyond existing objectively as art.

(This article was originally published in June 2015)

REFERENCES

Cage, J. (1952) 4’33’’. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4 (Last Accessed: 12/05/2012).

Cook, N. (1998) Music: a very short introduction. Great Britain: Oxford University Press.

Green, B. (1986) The inner game of music. United States: Pan Books.

Kieran, M. (2013) ‘Value of art’, in Gaut, B. & McIver Lopes, D. (eds.) The routledge companion to aesthetics. 3^rd Edition. USA & Canada: Routledge, pp. 289-298.

Martin, P. (1995) Sounds and society: themes in the sociology of music. Great Britain: Manchester University Press.

Rycenga, J. (1994) ‘Lesbian compositional process: one lover-composer’s perspective’, in Brett, P., Wood, E. & Thomas, G.C. (eds.) Queering the pitch: the new gay and lesbian musicology. Great Britain: Routledge, pp. 275-296.

Shuker, R. (2008) Understanding popular music culture. Third edition. USA & Canada: Routledge.

Tasker, F., & McCann, D. (1999) ‘Affirming patterns of adolescent sexual identity: the challenge’, Journal of Family Therapy, Vol. 21, No. 1, pp. 30-54.

Tim Higgins, Guitarist

Composer, Guitarist, Writer & Music Therapist

Author: timguitar

Recent goings on and upcoming projects

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Music & Wellbeing (Part 6): Music Therapy & Educational Wellbeing

Music & Wellbeing (Part 5): Music & Pain Relief

Music & Wellbeing (Part 4): Music & Movement

Music & Wellbeing (Part 3): Music Therapy – a brief introduction

Music & Wellbeing (Part 2). I feel good: Music and feelings of pleasure

Music & Wellbeing (Part 1): The intrinsic value of music