Understanding music’s therapeutic efficacy: Implications for music education
Abstract
In the current era of electronic domination of human experience, be it via cell phone
and/or computer addiction, or the ubiquitous television, actual participation in musicmaking
is less and less common for the average person, child or adult. Passive
participation through listening is most often cited by people as their major experience
with music in their lives. When asked if listening has therapeutic effects, it is rare for
anyone to respond in the negative. Likewise, for performers/active participants in musicmaking,
be it solitary or as part of a group, invariably an enhanced sense of well-being
from the act of making music is reported.
This paper addresses therapeutic aspects of musical participation (singing, clapping,
playing an instrument, dancing, listening) by providing a historical overview (12thc to
present) of attitudes toward music’s therapeutic effects. It argues that music exists
through the interaction of our biological capacity to make music with our cultural
circumstances. How individuals benefit in all aspects their being – physical, mental and
emotional – from engaging in the act of making music is illustrated with examples from
field research in southern Africa. Finally implications for Music Education are explored
which emphasize how more comprehensive integration of music into the curriculum can
serve as an antidote to the increasing isolation and alienation of modern life.