Music for mind and body

April 22, 2020 | Blogs and News

By Mireille K. — 2 min. read — 

Music is a combination of lyrics, a melody, and a beat that together can produce beauty of form, harmony and expression of emotion. But Music Therapy is more than what the artist has sung or written. Music Therapy is malleable, and when you listen to it, you can take all those sounds and words and beats and mold it into something that holds meaning to you. Science has proven again and again that music can truly alter the chemicals in your brain, and whether it makes you feel sorrowful or joyful or wistful, music is omnipotent. 

Three Components of Music Listening

The music listening experience is made up of three different components:

  • neural (how our brains respond),
  • physiological (how our bodies respond), and
  • emotional (whether we feel happy or sad as we listen).

It focuses on the 74 musical variables including rhythm, timbre and volume. The changing dynamics and rhymes are picked up by the gyrus area of your brain, which helps in processing your emotional behaviors. This same area also responds very strongly to changes in pulse and beats in the music.

It’s really all about contrast. If a song is loud throughout, there’s not a lot of dynamic variability and the experience will not be as powerful as if the composer uses a change in loudness. – Tim Greer

Our Bodies Respond to Music

According to Tim Greer, the leader of the music-therapy study conducted by Neuroscience News, “It’s really all about contrast. If a song is loud throughout, there’s not a lot of dynamic variability and the experience will not be as powerful as if the composer uses a change in loudness.” Changes in the music’s texture also instigate a response, for example if a new instrument enters an orchestral piece our brain is excited by the development.

Scientists have found that this particular emotion is seen in what is called galvanic skin response – we sweat when instruments exit and enter music and when the piece crescendo or decrescendo. The same study had volunteers listen to happy and sad music while hooked up to an MRI and by using AI, scientists gleaned the volunteers’ moods experienced heavy changes. Greer commented on this saying that, “using this research, we can design musical stimuli for therapy in depression and other mood disorders.” 

Benefits of Music Therapy

In fact, Music Therapy has healing and calming properties that no medically prescribed medication has. It’s proven that Music Therapy can help lower the heart rate and blood pressure of patients, helping lessen their anxiety and fear during their tough stays at hospitals. Listening to music before, during and after a surgery has also dramatically reduced the pain and anxiety that patients experience. Something that was just a few words and a tune has now remarkably become a catalyst for joy and calm in an otherwise stressful situation. 

Children’s Music Fund is all about the biopsychosocial importance of music. We work to implement science and help alleviate the immeasurable physical and emotional pain that children with chronic and life-altering illnesses can experience. We aim to help children improve the quality of their lives and through music therapy find the beauty and peace in even the most unfortunate circumstances.

Our Mission

Our mission began in 2002 when a patient, Justin, had lost all hope of surviving after failing his last round of treatment for bone cancer. Previously a guitar virtuoso, Justin had always held a special place in his heart for music. Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, our founder and president, knew that Music Therapy was the key to helping Justin through his pain and motivating him to find strength and perseverance. Now, board-certified music therapists, Dr. Tachdjian and Children’s Music Fund have helped countless number of patients and their families work through the pain, fear and anxiety associated with medical procedures, hospitalization and diseases. 

To know that no matter how difficult life can be, that there is an emotional outlet for you to feel loved and happy and unburdened is truly noteworthy. Music Therapy is always there for you, and thanks to Children’s Music Fund a child has an opportunity to experience that magic.  

Donate today! Help Children’s Music Fund add a happy beat to a child’s day.

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