Nigel Osborne, renown composer, musician, music therapist and University of Edinburgh Reid Professor, as well as long-time collaborator of Ulysses Theatre, is the head of 2nd International Summer School of Music Therapy for Children with Special Needs. From July 9th until July 20th, students from universities of Edinburgh, Rijeka and Pula and members of Youth […]
Nigel Osborne, renown composer, musician, music therapist and University of Edinburgh Reid Professor, as well as long-time collaborator of Ulysses Theatre, is the head of 2nd International Summer School of Music Therapy for Children with Special Needs.
From July 9th until July 20th, students from universities of Edinburgh, Rijeka and Pula and members of Youth Theatre Srebrenica (through Musicians without Borders project), together with field specialists, will volunteer their work first in Home for Children with Cerebral Palsy Pula and in Our Children Association Vodnjan, and later with Mostar “Los Rosales” Centre for Children and Youth.
Music therapy – a short overview of basic concepts and effects
The central thought of music therapy is that a man needs the music and its effects on individuals, and that they can help human health. A child can have speech difficulties, an adult can be shy, but they both have an equal opportunity to become a part of music in a way that suits their needs specifically. Music is much more adaptive than any other type of communication and it allows us to reach all age groups of different developmental, emotional, physical and social issues.
Music therapy is a relatively new scientific discipline. The real definition of the term is not self-evident. In other words, even though a speech therapist teaches his or her students to speak, a music therapist does not teach his or her students music. In fact, he tries to make contact with another person using music as an aid. A music therapist uses observation to notice problems and issues which the patient might have with experiencing music and approaches the patient in this interactive communication.
For many years a standard definition of music therapy in the UK was Alvin’s definition which states that “music therapy is the controlled use of music in the treatment, rehabilitation, education and training of children and adults suffering from physical, mental or emotional disorder.”
Words controlled and suffering sound harsh in this definition and they do not have the same meaning as they had at the time when this definition was made, whichis why we must also give the definition of the Australian Music Therapy Association: “Music therapy is the planned use ofmusic with the therapeutic aims, with both children and adults who have got specific needs due to social, emotional, physicaland intellectual issues.” The importance of therapeutic aim is also emphasized in the definition given by the American MusicTherapy Association: “The music therapy is the use of music with the aim of reaching therapeutic aims: rehabilitation,maintaining and approving
both mental and physical health.”
From the given definitions it can be concluded that the music therapy implies the use of instruments, organized sounds and music which develop a bond between a client (users/patient) and a therapist and thus support and strengthen physical, mental, social and emotional health of a client.
The music therapy consists of two basic phases:
1) listening to music as a means of stimulating imagination and guiding visualization, and 2) application of music as an active means of self-expression through improvisation.
It is emphasized that by singing children practice controlling themselves as well as events in their surroundings and that the music itself carries the healing strength, particularly for traumatized children because it does not require physical contact, opening up in front of others or any kind of competition with others.
The music therapy will demonstrate that there are no two people who will react to the same music in the same way, or two people who will play the same music exactly the same, thus music reveals the psyche of each person, the most individual part of us. When they improvise, the players play music exactly the way they feel they should play it at the given moment. They become one body and each of them plays their part in their own way, lengthening the tones, changing harmonies in a way they want to so they can express their deepest feelings which they could not interpret with any other kind of analysis. This is the real indicator of the level at which music can affect people, their understanding and ability to analyze various difficulties they encounter. One of the foundations for any kind of work is finding the appropriate music which will satisfy the person the therapist works with. For instance, when therapists work with children who do not concentrate easily, they will provide shorter music segments and observe the reaction to each one. Some of these segments will hold children’s attention for a longer time, and that will be the first step in achieving the goal.
Music can express both individual and psychological state of mind of the group.
Musical therapy is being frequently used for working with children who have got learning difficulties, including speech and language problems, children with cognitive and emotional difficulties, children with hearing and seeing impairments, children with post-traumatic syndrome, etc. This is the result of the series of advantages that music therapy has for individuals, regardless of therapy being individual or group.
Ulysses Theatre