h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Playing uke and singing with the old folks has piqued my interest in Music Therapy so I booked myself on an introductory session at the RNCM to hear more. Presentations and discussions followed, a recommended reading list was handed round. Some demonstrations were given of musical techniques used and we had a hands on practice at improvising together and responding to each other.

Some short videos of actual therapy sessions were shown, demonstrating what happens in a one-to-one session and how clients can benefit.

One was very familiar to me, a lady with dementia suddenly coming back to herself and singing a favourite song, full of animated musicality and briefly recovering her exuberant personality.

Others were young clients with severe physical problems. One young girl initially just made frustrated table banging noises which were used by the therapist as prompts ie he played a chord on the piano every time she banged, responding to the intensity of her noises. The astounded look on her face when she realised she was in control of something was a delight. The video from another session some months later showed her transformed into a confident, happy little girl pecking at the keyboard with the therapist weaving music around her contributions. The rest of her life was no doubt just as frustrating but for these sessions she was a fully integrated and active participant.

It sounds like music therapy is an infinitely rewarding thing to do. Go for it!

However, not all the world is like us and there is a small minority who do not get joy out of music, but find it annoying or jarring, or are even allergic to it (that must be an infinitesimally tiny proportion, though)

I, for example, find absolutely no solace in drawing or painting something. If asked to draw what is worrying me or "paint" my "feelings" I think I would jump out of the nearest window, screaming.

Give me a blank sheet of paper and I might write a story or a tune, but please don't force me to draw.

I know what you mean. My own father was completely tone deaf and claimed that any music was just 'noise' to him.

The trouble with pursuing the music therapy idea for me is that it takes a 2 year full time masters course to get qualified, which is a bit of an obstacle in time and funding. It's still a fascinating subject area as are the various other creative therapies which when carefully used by qualified personnel for the appropriate client really can have demonstrably good results.

[Amy P]