by
Dr. David Akombo
The practice of using music for healing diseases in humans has been an ongoing phenomena for thousands of years. Music was regarded as a special force over thought, emotion, and physical health in ancient Greece. Earlier studies have observed that in the year 600 BC, Thales was credited with curing plague in Sparta through musical powers. Music was described as an art exerting great power (ethos) over human beings, and certain musical styles came to be associated with particular peoples and specific catharsis.
Many scholars in their treatises recognised the use of music for curative purposes. The practice is almost as old as music itself. Using music to treat injury or disease is as old as civilisation. The liturgical religious mythologies attribute a report of music therapy to David who played his harp to Saul for curative purpose. Pythagoras is credited for being able to calm an agitated youth bent on violence by having the piper change from one mode to another.
The power of music to help humans has continued throughout the timeline. Since the inception of the music therapy in 1950s in the United States, many nations have been slow at implementing this worthy discipline in their social and cultural spheres for healthy life for citizens. Now in many parts of the world, we find that even in our current times and in the lives of many people, we are again turning to music as a means to heal and revitalise our lives.
People in all walks of life, and of all ages, listen to music specifically designed to harmonise the human body, mind, and soul in order to bring the human entity into its own balance and self-healing. The kind of music that heals has something to do with the state of the mind and spiritual mood which all predetermine musical preferences. In this case the music may be decontextualised. That suggests that the meaning of the text of the music may sometimes be
disregarded in favour of the melodies, rhythms, and harmonies. For example, someone in the Caribbean might prefer to listen to calypso, reggae or soca, while others might prefer Western classical, or jazz etc.
Some people might simply prefer the sound of the drum. Throughout the world, the drum has been used for healing purposes. The drum has also been used in tribal societies with shamanistic traditions while communicating with the orisha gods; for example, in West-African wisdom teachings, emotional disturbance manifests itself as an irregular rhythm that blocks the vital physical energy flow.
From a medical standpoint, recent biofeedback studies show that drumming alone alters brainwave patterns and increases alpha waves in the brain, and by so doing, the drumming reduces stress. In traditional African and Caribbean cultures for example, drumming is also a conduit to goodness for the spirit. The drummer provides an expressively emotional pattern at the healing dance ritual and provides a functional significance to the healing process because the drummer causes healing spirits to descend heal the sick by controlling the emotions of the patients while the patient unlocks his or her subconscious mind. As the patients delve into subconscious worlds, the healer plays through the healing ritual.
I have also carried out research in a hospital environment. In my study approved by the Institutional Review Board, was conducted at an intensive care unit of a central Florida hospital in the United States. In this study, I sought to examine how drumming affects anxiety and pain in patients receiving bone marrow transplants due to cancer.
I went round the hospital rooms playing the drum. In one instance, my drumming was instrumental in helping the nurse give routine injections to the patients.
Although my drumming temporarily reduced stress and fear associated with cancer, the drumming intervention greatly helped the patients. One patient even states that he had not spoken a word to any nurses or doctors for a week but after the drumming, he felt so relaxed and was able to speak with caregivers.
As evidence shows, whichever musical preference patients may choose, the music will in some way have an effect on the person. Evidence shows that listening to appropriate music whether Calypso, Reggae or Soca, while others might prefer Western classical, or Jazz, or drumming etc., lowers blood pressure, stabilizes heart rate, relieves depression, reduces pre-treatment anxiety, enhances concentration and creativity, lessens the need for sedatives and painkillers (during and after surgery), reduces nausea after chemotherapy, manages pain and also improves stability of people with cancer. Other areas of concern in research in music therapy have included those with Parkinson’s disease. Music soothes the heart and mind. Music can influence how we feel. Scientific research has shown that the cells in our body usually react to musical sound vibrations. The reaction is so automatic that even those muted sounds that we cannot probably hear with our human ear, the body will still respond to those sounds.
In the hospitals, when the rate of energy production in the body is low, vibrating tuning forks have been used to trigger the energy production in the body. In other research, high pitched sounds such as those on our percussive musical instruments have been used to shatter kidney and gall bladder stones. Research has proved that the high water content of the body produces massages of molecules when sound is transmitted through the body.
Studies have also proved that the vibratory energies of different notes frequencies of the European tuning system such as ABCDEF and ‘G’, have an effect on different parts of the body. For instance note ‘C’ affects the bones of the lower back. It also affects the bones of legs and feet. Note ‘D’ transmits energy waves to the kidneys, the bladder, the reproductive system and the skin. Note ‘A’ is related to pain and pain control. Similar studies have been found with the use of Indian ragas and Chinese scales. Pain sufferers are taught how to control pain by singing in a certain way.
This is because the sounds one makes are effective in their own right. Certain songs or pieces of music have special features that can bring peace and relaxation to an individual.
In summary, extensive review of the literature increasingly shows the health and psycho-social benefit that music brings to the human body, mind, and soul as a prerequisite for meaningful sustainable development for the human health care and welfare. The use of
music for the well-being of humans is of primary importance. Today’s musicians continue to combine a broad knowledge of ancient world musical traditions with contemporary creativity industries to incorporate knowledge from a more scientific understanding of how music and sound affect the body, the brain and the consciousness. Current creatives and cultural thinkers who are constantly engaged in the wellness of humans also predict that the vibrations of music and sound will be a primary healing modality for all humanity in the future.
Dr. David O. Akombo is Professor of Music and Dean of the Faculty of Culture, Creative and Performing Arts at The University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus.
