USES OF MUSIC THERAPY

Abstract

Patients who are too regressed or confused to respond to the spoken word can be motivated by music because group feeling is engendered on a sub-verbal basis. Sharing emotions on the unspeakable level is more fundamental than sharing ideas. Music, being non-controversial, provides an effective means of unifying heterogeneous groups quickly.

Passive listening to music unifies a group to some extent, but active participation is much more productive, for each is contributing his share, according to his own capacity, no matter how elementary. The one who tinkles a triangle in an orchestra may be gaining more personal satisfaction from the total aesthetic creation than the concert-meister whose years of practice may have made him rather blase to this type of experience. The weakest singer who would never dare to sing a solo can become an integral part of a great chorus, and in blending his voice with the others, will soar on wings of song.