[Dixielandjazz] Using Music Therapy Principles

[Gluetje1 at aol.com]

Have had a couple of interesting exchanges re music therapy off-list.   
Thought I would post a few general principles of music therapy that you might  like 
to think about in terms of programming.  I watch the expert bands  apply 
these ideas all the time because they are audience savvy -- audience and  
entertainment value matter to them.
 
1.  Music preference is everything when you are trying to be  therapeutic.  
Use the rest of the principles below within the genre of  music which the 
individual prefers.  This is one reason why it is  impossible to be simultaneously 
therapeutic with groups of divergent  people.  This has been a problem in some 
ORs where the senior doc gets  the music of his preference and the assisting 
staff hate it.  I know of at  least one OR where the assisting staff get to 
pick the music.  ( I do not  know of any research into how this may be affecting 
the sedated patient who  indeed may be hearing the music.)  
 
2.  Culture matters.  We respond more therapeutically to  more familiar music 
and less so to music that feels "alien" to our sense of  self.
 
(Relative to 1 & 2 above, how do you make your genre more attractive to  new 
audiences?  By figuring out how you can relate it to their preferences  and 
culture.  By relating to the audience and asking them to give a listen  and let 
you know what they like/dislike about it.
 
3.  Rhythm matters, especially pulse.  I'm recalling a sweet  little nun 
purporting to do music "therapy" with a group I once attended.   She was playing 
Grieg's "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and telling us that  our pulse was 
racing as we listened via a recording to increased  agitation in the strings, 
etc.  Well, nope, my pulse was nice and steady  just like that of the bass beat.
 
When you lock in your beat and pull off any increases as "one" you can  
electrify an audience.  I have read that Hitler ordered march music to be  started 
at a certain tempo say an hour or so before his appearance, then to be  
increasing every bit or so--to be at it's greatest tempo when he stepped before  the 
crowd making sure that the setting sun was behind his head.
 
4.  Use the theory of "entrainment".  No that's not a typo.   I did not mean 
entertainment.  To entrain is to bring someone along from  where they are to 
where you would like to assist them to be.  If someone is  major down in the 
dumps, coming at them right away with something bombastic  further isolates 
them.  Instead start with something in minor key, but  maybe more "dreamy" than 
downright morose.  Stay with that long enough to  let them "lift" a bit.  Then 
make the next selection just a little more  lyrical, the next a bit more 
upbeat, etc.
 
By the same token with a very agitated person or crowd:  fer godsake  don't 
start with "Amazing Grace" unless you want to get tomatoed.  Start at  160 
beats a minute and up.  Under such stimulation, chaotic behavior often  becomes 
more organized.  Slightly slower on the next number.
 
Opening number should always be "bright", but not your end point.  In  most 
live concerts, audiences like several cycles of moments that are  "revving it 
up" and calming it down.  There's an exception to everything,  but I know most 
of you know that you want your closing to be a real  rouser.
 
It's interesting to me to notice how a program that works great with a live  
audience is sometimes not the best CD/recording programming.  Some CDs  really 
bug me if a tune has taken me to some sweet dreamy moment and the  following 
tune opens like a boilermaker.
 
See, I told you that the expert band leaders were already using these  
principles!  I'm tired of typing.  End of lecture 1.
Ginny