Music Therapy Articles

A great deal of music – particularly Indian ragas – are expressive of emotion. We know that emotion is a pleasant or unpleasant mental state organized in the limbic system of the mammalian brain. Specifically, these states are manifestations of non-verbally expressed feel­ings, which include fear, dislike, disgust, shame, sadness, surprise, anger, joy, etc. The […]

Ethnomusicology is a subject documenting and researching musical knowledge and training in ancient communities. It recognizes the important role played by music not only in binding such communities, but also making them vibrant as music is known to provide strength to cope up with unfavourable situations encountered in one’s life. In India, bhagats and shamans

Music is an intrinsic part of every one of us irrespective of the fact whether we are singers or listeners. Rhythm is the first organizing structure in the infant’s experience. Science acknowledges that pulse and rhythmic patterns found in our heart beats, in our breathing and in our body movements are just a few indicators

Energy depletion leads to fatigue, which gradually leads to diseases or even death, if it is not restored through nutrition.  While food nourishes the body, music nourishes the mind. Music nourishes through a regular pattern which when synchronised with the irregular pattern of our mind gets nourished and rejuvenated. In order to find greater energy

“Music is capable of amazing journeys and meanings.”  -SIR HARRISON BIRTWISTLE, British Composer It is a long- recognized fact that music has beneficial effects on living beings. A state of peace, tranquillity or emotional ecstasy is a common experience which accompanies music. As the impact of music could be easily gauged by a listener, music

Imagine that you can just play any music that occurs in your mind by simply thinking, be it A. R. Rahman or Bach, a folk song or a lullaby you heard in your childhood and that too without any practice on your part on any instrument whatsoever…! Making music by thinking may appear to be

Creative Art Therapies which includes music therapy has gained neuro-scientists attention in recent years. Dance, music, art, creative writing or speaking and other means of imaginative expressions are increasingly found to have therapeutic impact in the overall development of personality and behaviour norms, quite useful in the human social milieu. They are also known for

‘Dear Sir’, wrote a friend of mine, ‘My mother passed away on Feb.18. She first lost consciousness – after three days of very poor intake of food – at 4 p.m. on 17th and continued breathing through mouth till 8.30 a.m. the next day. She must have been aware of what was happening around her.

Long before acoustics came to be understood in Europe, the ancient Arab, Greek and Indian civilisations were already familiar with the therapeutic role of sounds and vibrations and the latter day concepts pertaining to them. While music as a whole is well recognised for its entertainment value, the Indian civilisation had gone a step forward

“You are the music while the music lasts” – T. S. Eliot  In India we have at least a million people who are initiated to music in a formal way, of whom several thousand possess degrees and diplomas in musicology.  As music is used in India generally as a means for entertaining listeners, their role

“Music has charms to soothe a savage breast, to soften rocks, or to bend a knotted oak.” It’s also a healer that soothes and relaxes troubled minds, reveals T V Sairam, a well-known author on varied subjects and an authority on the therapeutic effects of music.” Indian music is both emotional and intellectual. The unique

Music therapy – like music – is as old as the human civilization itself. All the philosophers of ancient Greece believed in the healing role of music as did the ancient Native Americans, who used chanting and other musical practices as part of their healing rituals. However, music therapy came to be regarded as a

A Key Note Presentation  Esteemed friends,  I am very happy to be amidst the most distinguished Music Therapists of the Country in the Conference, first of its kind opening in this dimension in India organised by Nada Centre for Music Therapy, Chennai.  Go for Music, when Lifestyle gets Affected! When life-style feels affected, we feel

The Sanskrit word ‘laya’ refers to a state of mental quietude in which we get absorbed in the object of meditation. The word conveys several meanings depending on the context in which it is employed: sticking, adherence, fusion, solution, disappearance, dissolution, destruction, absorption, deep concentration, exclusive devotion, rest, response, swoon, making the mind inactive or

Music therapy holds promise for many of those who are affected by age-related disorders. It is being recommended as an effective cure not only for memory loss, but also for working with people who have movement disorders, especially Parkinson’s.  Research at Beth Abraham Hospital shows Parkinson’s patients regained some ability to organise and perform movements

Music is a subject about which we understand very little. As we tend to analyze it, we miss its beauty; and when we enjoy it, we hardly know how it all happens. Igor Stravinsky, the Russia-born composer once remarked: “I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it”. Music

It is heartening to note that India, which had been the cradle for music (raga), having employed it as a workable therapy (chikitsa) in everyday life-situation viz., religious rituals, festivities and celebrations, child-birth, illness, death etc., has now woken up to establish her rightful place in the field of music therapy. Though music therapy appears

Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual – Beethoven. For a physical scientist, a sound is at best, a mechanical disturbance from a state of equilibrium that propagates through an elastic medium, produced by longitudinal compression waves: vibrations that manage to reach our ears, through a medium (say, air) at a frequency

Though the therapeutic value of ragas is historically recognized in India, very little work has been done for a scientific evaluation of the raga system, especially their role in affecting the mental and emotional states and in producing multiple physiological changes in the body. It is high time that universities and research organizations take up

The human brain consists of two hemispheres, concerned basically with one’s emotions and analysis. If emotions overtake analysis, the person becomes a fool.  If analysis predominates emotions, then he becomes a ‘heartless’ robot infesting the earth! The value systems of contemporary civilisation, unlike the ancient-ones, give credence more to reason-based analysis, ignoring the intuitive and