Any comments on the healing effects of music?

34 responses total.

I think it helps you release things... this can be healing.

THere're whole techniques that associate tones with parts of the
body or the psyche.  I don't have any of it memorized, as that's 
not one of my strong points usually (sound, I mean.) I'll lookinto
it.

I agree with gerund.  I have not studied it, but I find different musics
can 1) make me feel different ways and 2) that can help
for instance, if I'm depressed I tend to listen to either TMBG or Pink Floyd
Option 1 alieviates the depression and always leaves me laughing
Option 2 on the other hand, tends to make me more depressed in the short run
but once I stop listening to it and go do something else, I feel much better

I dunno...maybe that's just me

Most people , I think, use music to enhance or alter moods.  It ALSO has
specific theraputic uses- both in conventional terms: stutterers can half-
sing their words and they come out clear, autistic kids seem to respond
to rhythm, psychotics to melody, etc. and also in Eastern medicine: each
chakra has a tone which can be used to open, cleanse and heal that area.

I just listen to feel better.. or to give myself a good
motivator to cry.

Music has a very definite effect on my nervous system, and (on the other
side) I often select music which resonates my current mood.  Kami may
remember an occasion where I showed up at Fox's house ready to kill (not
Fox, just feeling hostile), and the only stimulus was the death metal I'd
been playing to keep myself awake while driving.  It worked, until the
car stopped moving.  :-S  And gentle rhythms like Dead Can Dance or
jazz fusion can generally soothe the savage beast (and the savage breast,
as well).  

I have also found that music can alter or sustain a mood according to its
composition.

        Healing? Do we dare to consider music as being limited in power to
just healing?? Let us never forget that music, being both lyric and song,
is the most powerful expression available to the human soul!
        If a certain piece of poetry can be said to possess magick, then what
could be said when it gets put to a rhythm, scored with notes, and orchistrated
into a driving, compelling piece of soulful art?

I'm not completely sure about music, but sound can be used for
relaxation....and almost anything else.  I've read about a few "behaviour
modification" thingys involving sound waves and I even found a few that mimic
the effects of certain narcotics. <eg> I'm not sure exactly how it works, but
after a little more research, I'm sure I'll find out. 8)

well, i do know that music can affect me emotionally...if i'm a little
depressed, then listening to the living years or wind beneath my wings will
have me instantly in tears...other songs will cheer me up immediatly.  if
i'm sortof in a pilosophical mood, i'll go for pink floyd, or rush.  part
or it i think, is not just the music for me, but also the words...

on the other hand, nothing keeps me moving like playing hooked on classics,
or duke ellington...that is NOT sittin' music!

I think music with words is a way of letting emotions out.
I think that it can be healing because it lets us feel when
we have no other way to express our feelings.

A long time ago, many years in fact...(I feel ancient now) I had a conversation
with someone in which he tried to tell me that musicians were the devil's work.
The devil's work... These people who give us words for what we are feeling when
we cannot, who show us we are not the only ones who feel that way, these 
people who, by giving themselves in their music, give themselves to us and 
really do not ask anything in return. These people are evil. <sigh>
Back to the subject, I have found that I can alter my mood radically simply by
picking up my guitar and playing a song. I can also bring back vivid memories
when I play anything which I have written. I remember what I was thinking 
while I wrote it, what I was looking at, everything. I have found that a 
steady strum on an acoustic/classical guitar can relax me like nothing I have
ever before encountered. I have literally been able to put myself to sleep by
strumming certain chords on my guitar.

That's something I've only like VERY recently been aware of myself.
Usually my music hasn't been very acoustic, but lately I've heard some
extremely emotional acoustic guitar music and singing that just hits
me in a way no other music has ever done.
I can not nor will I EVER believe such music is evil.
Any music that speaks emotion and feelings will never be evil to me.

Melly, let's work with this: when we talk about trance induction techniques,
we'll have to look at ways to induce specific states with music. I'm
curious (and asked Fireball to look at also) how different notes, different
chords, different sets of overtones around a given note, effect the emotions
or body. I think there are standard associations for various harmonics,
but it might be neat to experiment separately first, then look to see how
each of your experiences tally with the books. You might want to get
together with Anne and company and play around a bit.  DOn't forget to
write things down...
On another and related note, the stories tell of the ancient bards having
three magical notes.  With one they brought tears, with one they brought
laughter, and with the third they brought sleep. 

All very interesting.
I actually know quit a bit about some of this, but it's all ancient history
for me, so to speak.   i.e. I haven't actually been learning about music
for years.  I've read a HUGE amount about much of this in the past though.
It has to do a lot with vibrations.  It's much the same idea as why someone
scratching their nails on a chalk board REALLY messes with most people.
It's also why minor scale melodies tend to have what is identified as
a rather 'sad' sound to them.
I've also read a lot about stuff that is QUITE vague in my mind, and
I can't remember most of it but it had to do with 'druid' music and the
use of several 'modes' (modes being something roughly related to today's
scales) used in rituals and various other undertakings.  Note, 'druid'
here may NOT be what quickly springs to mind to you.  It's simply
the term the references I was using made use of.
Really all very fascinating to me, but something that I've been away from
for years.

There are 7 modes (as the music major in me steps forward).
All scales have a sequence of whole and half steps.
Keeping in mind that I don't remember the mode names so I can't link specific
names to each scale I will try in general to explain the difference.
The major scale, which is one of the modes, is a sequence of whole and half
steps as thus:
2 2 1 2 2 2 1   where 2 represents a whole step and 1 represents a half step.
By then rotating this sequence we get the other mode (keeping in mind that
anything that goes off the left comes on the right and vice versa).
For instance if rotated 2 notes to the right we obtain the minor scale:
2 1 2 2 1 2 2

Anyway all modes can be acheived like this...I don't honestly remember the
names (oops) but you can find a music text and look if it is that important.

laters all

Sounds like this might be what I was remembering, or at least
part of it.

Modal music is quite old.  Contemporaneous with the pentatonic scale? What
is the difference between chromatic and diatonic?
I am not aware of any associations between particular modes and specific
healing purposes, but I wouldn't be surprised if the early church had
specified particular modes for different ritual uses: they may well tend
to set up unique feelings/associations/resonances.
As to the druids using modes, we don't know.  A delightul but dense reading
little book called _Ogam The Poets' Secret_ has chapters on "Ogam and music:
the traditional scales of the harp in Ireland" and "The musical interpretation
of certain ogams".  I'm afraid I don't know enough about music to have
made much sense of it. 
Gerald, than you for posting your response.  It has really furthered the
discussion.  Do you have any information on vibratory rates, harmonics, adn
psychology?

Unfortunately I left my music text in Ithaca...when I go back I will get it and
can elaborate more on my post (sorry all)

I DO have imformation, but as you might guess, not handy.
Maybe someday soon.

we'll wait. this is getting to be one of the more interesting items.

well, i'm afraid to say that my musical knowledge is basically nil, but i do
know what works for me...what types will put me to sleep (i've actually found'
that ace of base works best!), and what will help me focus, and  what not.  
i should now try and figure out what they all have in comman.

anybody who can tell me what pink floyd and stravinsky have in comman, please
let me know. :)

Ace of Base does nothing anymorew for me accept make me cry.

Floyd and Stravinsky?  They're classical of course.

don't you meran classic?

that too.

the only thing i know about music nad how it affects people is that
complex rythms in music get the brain moving.

Hmm... Very interesting...

Not that I'm against TMBG er anything, but a while ago a study was done in
which  three equaly cared for plant were placed in three identical rooms, with
idnetical lighting: One with no music playing, one with classical music
playing, and one with rock playing, in the Clasical room, the plants thrived,
in the no music room they grew normally, and in the rock room, they withered
and died.

Hmmm... I've heard about similar studies showing that country music,
but not rock, causes hostility.

Now, could observer bias have an effect?  Mayhap the researcher didn't
take as good a care of the rock plants, because they didn't like rock
music as much... one never knows.  I'd have to see the study.

Obviously, none of the plants were named Robert.

aaaargh!

Re 28 - Yes, I saw that study, and the plants were tended by
an old lady who loved classical and hated rock.  Repeat
the experiment with a rock fan and see if you get the same
results.  I've had plants in my room, played nothing but punk and
weird alternative stuff, and the plants have done fine.  In
fact, I tried moving them outside, and they promptly died.
So my experimental data contradicts yours.

(Yes, robh has a degree - IN SCIENCE!!!)

(if it was winter, then of course they died!)

>8)  It was last spring, actually.  I foolishly thought that they
would appreciate a change of scenery.

re 31:  I didn't need science, just psychology, to make the prediction
of observer/researcher bias.  :)
(No, kids, psychology ISN'T science if it's done irght >8)... how's THAT
for researcher bias?)
/

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