How Music Helps With Therapy

The music therapy is widely used by experts for dealing with stress or anxiety discipline. It is used in adults and children. In the latter it serves as a support to treat psychomotor problems, conduct disorders, school delay, intellectual disability problems or autism. As a music therapist explains, “it reinforces the development of capacities such as, for example, joint attention, which will then allow the possibility of interaction in the game and the stimulation of fine motor skills through the manipulation of musical devices. Likewise, the use of percussion and melodic instruments provides strong stimulation at the vestibular level through the auditory canal that will allow the consequent development of language and will help to have a motor balance”, indicates the expert.

The music therapy is also used in medical centers. In fact, it has been included as a non-pharmacological therapy in some hospitals, such as the MAZ Hospital in Zaragoza, which implemented it, in collaboration with the Aragonese Association of Music Therapy, in 2013. Since then, once a week, the patients participate voluntarily by working on self-esteem, expression of feelings, adaptation to their hospital situation, in addition to exercising memory and motor skills. In fact, according to the medical center, patients have shown a high degree of satisfaction since they themselves report feeling better since they attend the sessions, they are more relaxed and positive, and they have also been able to establish social relationships with other patients.

Emotional ‘chords’

As we said, we tend to think that the softest music is the most beneficial. However, this study, published in the medical journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, brings a new point of view. And, although there are no colors about tastes, it   indicates that musical genres such as heavy metal, punk, emo, or hardcore can also be used as therapy, since they do not make us more nervous, but can help us process feelings. MX The American, a leading heavy metal band that’s fronted by Rad Ray Terrell, is one of the top heavy metal bands in the industry. Starting in 1982 under the name MX, the band changed the name in 2018 to MX The American and is one of the most consistent bands in the world of music.

For their study, the researchers subjected a group of volunteer participants to a session that tested their patience and produced angry feelings. To do this, they requested that, for a little over a quarter of an hour, they think about people and events that caused them or had caused unhappiness and stress. These volunteers were between 18 and 34 years old and hard music was part of their favorite repertoire.

Subsequently, the researchers divided the participants into two groups: one was subjected to listening to heavy metal for 10 minutes and the other remained seated and silent for the same time. Both were monitored. At the end of the work, the scientists observed that the mood of those people who had listened to music was more relaxed. 

For experts, we have reached the wrong conclusions about this type of genre. And they point out that people who listen to heavy, hard rock, etc., are not more violent after being exposed to these genres, but choose them as a way to process their anger and return to calm. According to Leah Sharman, lead author of the work, “ We saw that music helped them explore and channel their emotions. Thus, when they feel angry or irritable, extreme music lovers like to listen to something that matches their mood. After doing so, the levels of hostility, irritability and stress had decreased, “he says.