Inspiration

Emmanuel Jal was child soldier in Sudan, and he shares his story in this talk.  He states that music was his therapy, and this clip includes a poem reading and a performance.  As I was watching this, I thought about other refugees and former child soldiers, and how they may be great candidates for music therapy.  I speculate that many suffer from post traumatic stress disorder or acute stress disorder.  Because of their age, I also speculate that music is very important to them, and might be an ideal path…

This intriguing video begs the question, "how do you listen?"  Evelyn Glennie suggests that listening has to do with much more than just one's ears.  The entire body is involved in listening, and Glennie demonstrates this with her world-class percussion abilities.  This video made me think hard about how I perceive music, and also about how others perceive music I create.  Glennie focuses on the entire sound experience, rather than just the notes that appear on a written piece of music.  Also discussed is the perception of sound by those…

This is a fairly short talk, but very interesting nonetheless.  Julian Treasure observes how sound affects us physiologically, psychologically, cognitively, and behaviorally.  This week, observe how environmental sounds influence these different areas.  How might one respond if he or she has no control over these sounds?  Walking away is not an option, and making a change in the environment is equally impossible.  Some specific populations come to mind when I think about inadvertent, yet deleterious, environmental sounds.  Neonatal Intensive Care is the first to come to my mind, likely due…

Benjamin Zander is highly comedic in this internet talk, yet very inspiring.  He discusses the presentation of classical music, as well as the passion and intention behind much of the music.  There are two things he mentions that I would like to discuss and apply to music therapy.  The first is Zander's assertion that no one is tone deaf, and the second is the quote that is the title of this post. How often during sessions do we hear, "Oh, I can't sing," or "I'm tone deaf."  We hear this…