Music Monday - Music’s healing power and cultural foundations

On Saturday I listened to The Science Show with Robyn Williams on ABC Radio. It was a fascinating discussion about the effect of music on the brain and on emotion  - very apt for Valentine’s Day.

The speakers were:

Psyche Loui, Associate Professor and Director MIND Lab, Northeastern University, MA, USA

Elizabeth Margulis, Professor of Music, Princeton University, NJ, USA

Daniel Levitin, Dean of Arts and Humanities at the Minerva Schools, San Francisco, USA

At Stagepage we have often referred to the benefits of music to brain development in children, in particular the wonderful work at Bigger Better Brains.

This was more of a look at music affects the brain overall.

I would urge you to have a listen to the whole show – it’s less than 30 minutes. 

Here, in points form, is what resonated most with me:

1. Musical anhedonia, an inability to experience pleasure from music, and the difference in the brains of those who have it – estimated less than 5% of humans. They are not ‘tone deaf’ or ‘worse at music’ – they simply don’t like it.

2. The rewards in the brain from experiencing music is linked to social bonding.

3. Our perception of music is strongly linked to culture and context. The famous Washington Post experiment (where a concert violinist busked in the subway and the majority of passers-by did not recognise his talent) was quoted, as was the perception of atonal music by western cultures with a tradition of tonal centres as opposed to people in say, rural China.

4. The variability in timing and amplitude that musicians use naturally, strongly affect the perception of the listener.

5. The entire brain is involved in music. Recent research seems to indicate that music uses older pathways in the brain – more resistant to transmission difficulty. 

6. Music is a unique stimulus to the brain; different parts of the brain are used for rhythm, melody, harmony, form and expression and different parts again bring them all together.

7. Point 6 may explain the effect of music in Alzheimers patients. Even after the pathways that affect speech and facial recognition have failed, the effect of familiar music can be a way to get at the brain of Alzheimers patients and help them recognise themselves.

8. The as yet underexplored area of the possible effect of music on health. For the past 2 decades there has been research but not empirical or rigorous. That is apparently changing.

9. The systemic interplay between prediction and reward when you listen to music that you enjoy.

10. Preliminary research into how music could help wounds heal faster. Music enhances mood. We have about 100 neurochemicals in our brains but scientists know only 8 of them so far. One of the famous ones – serotonin – is activated by music. Boosting levels of serotonin increases the T and K cells, the ‘James Bond’ of the immune system. Inflammation is a significant issue in wound healing and in some situations music can reduce inflammation.

I could go on, but you really need to listen for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Like all music lovers, I have from a very young age, found certain pieces of music so achingly beautiful that they are almost too painfully beautiful. Many piano concerto slow movements fall into that category for me. I think I was drawn to this podcast because it explains some of this addiction to music.

Music Monday - Thinking about friends and colleagues in Melbourne and Victoria

Of all aspects of my teaching and arts practice, vocal coaching is the one that gives me the greatest satisfaction – the biggest buzz. Over many years I think I have got better at it; mainly due to working with some outstanding singing teachers in my own training and also being lucky enough to work alongside a number of stellar speaking voice teachers in my tertiary teaching. There is nothing quite like the buzz of being part of a team putting on a show.

For the past weeks since being allowed to return onto campuses in Western Australia, I have relished being back in the rehearsal room for a performing arts high school production of Chicago. Our director was herself in the West End show for 5 years, so our lucky music theatre students are getting a genuine experience of Bob Fosse’s style as well as invaluable personal insights into Kander’s intentions. I have tried to replicate the precision of the Fosse choreography in the vocal calls and have been impressed by the performers’ willingness to engage in very detailed work on the music. These are specialist and highly motivated kids but some of their focus this time seems to come from our shared relief to be back in the rehearsal room.

And so this Monday, as Melbourne goes back to a stage 4 lockdown and regional Victoria faces stage 3 restrictions as well as mandatory mask wearing, I am musing on how easily our return to normal could backfire here in the West. 

In Australia we have been lucky that government responses to the pandemic have been based on expert medical advice, rather than politicised. However, in all communities across the world there exist minority groups of science deniers, conspiracy theorists and humans who believe that their own rights and immediate convenience surpasses the common good. Victoria was unlucky enough to cop a rise in Covid-19 cases as a result of selfishness or ignorance, but it could so easily be any other state of Australia. 

As our family, friends and colleagues in Victoria tough it out for the next 6 weeks for the greater good of the rest of Australia, please let arts teachers and practitioners across the country go to work with even greater resolve it order to make it all worth their while.

Victoria – we stand for you and with you.

Music Monday - COVID 19 + Singing

This report was brought to my attention a few days ago. It is definitely worth a read. (NATS is the highly respected professional association of singing teachers in the USA; the American equivalent of ANATS in Australia.)

Now while it must be remembered that the viral load is very much larger in the USA than here in Australia, the report gives us much food for thought:

Adequate spacing and distancing between singers in any ensemble, choir, class or individual voice lesson will be the only safe way to teach and rehearse for the foreseeable future.

Some of our traditional singing warmup practices of touching our faces and feeling for vibration will be only possible within the most stringent of hygienic practice.

We singing teachers need to be vigilant in watching for and calling out students touching mouths, noses and eyes during our lessons.

As Australia moves towards easing the Covid-19 restrictions over the coming months, we face a challenging time ahead as we all work together to find ways to continue making music safely and with artistic integrity.

Music Monday

With so many of our music teachers preoccupied with end of year report-writing, concerts, assemblies, preparing students for university auditions and a myriad of other tasks, it seemed like a good Monday to share a laugh – and also a reminder of how important the proof-reading and editing process is in everything we do.

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