Music Therapy Schools
October 11th, 2011
What is the difference between normal music schools and music therapy schools?
Usually starting at an early age, musical education is considered to be very useful tool that can give shape to the human spirit .We all heard about the importance music has in our life .For most people music remains a way of relaxation but for some music becomes a way of life. Studding music can help you become a better and more sensitive human bean. Musical language is a more intimate and profound way of expressing ourselves .Speaking about music and the message it contains Wagner said:”Where the power of word ends, music begins”. Learning how to play a musical instrument helps students to better understand music and its power.
Music therapy schools come as a response to the gifted musicians who want to learn more about music’s therapeutic effect and find an efficient way of using music’s healing force to help other people improve there life style or recover from traumatic experience. Unlike a normal music school, here musicians are trained in special techniques of channeling musical positive energy to where it is needed the most. This is a special place where musicians become doctors for something that conventional medicine couldn’t find a cure: the human soul. “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life”. ~Berthold Auerbach
But this knowledge doesn’t come easy. Finding the path to the human soul is definitely one of the greatest challenges ever, and this is why the teachers from music therapy schools have an essential role. First they need to identify in a student the potential future music therapist and then offer their professional guidance, and their full support meant to help the student decipher and assimilate a totally knew information, so that at the end of his training he’ll be able to give his patients the cure they need. Teaching a relatively knew discipline music therapy schools emphasize on the importance of interaction between the therapist and his patient. Music gives strength and brightens the human spirit. Once activated this positive interior change brings obvious improvement that can be observed in both mental and physical state of the patient. In order to help his client begin the healing process the music therapist has to understand his patient’s special needs. Then, the therapist has to develop a certain strategy and by using music improvisation, he has to encourage his subject to participate in the process of self healing by creating, together, the music that contains the needed positive energy.
The Michigan State University founded in 1944 can be considered the first among the music therapy schools .There, the musicians, started learning and experiencing this new method of helping people to find health and balance by using music therapy. Since then it has been a continuous and amazing process of discovering not only the therapeutic effects of music but the extraordinary power of the human spirit.
In a few years time the music therapy schools found their place on the European continent also. Because of the powerful music tradition in the European countries music therapy got a very strong support from the both doctors and musicians interested in this new science. Austria was the first among European countries that showed interest for the musical therapeutic benefits. Founded in 1958 in Vienna the Music Therapy Research Group started training talented musicians in becoming the first European music therapist.
Taking a closer look, the main difference between the American and European music therapy schools is the importance given to the improvisatory element. If the European therapy music centers on improvisation and interacting with the patient in order to create a common musical language, the American therapy music is a more prescriptive one, but obviously improvisatory element is still very important in the process of healing thru music.
Inside music therapy schools students learn to interact with different individuals or a group of clients and to find the best way to approach their physical, mental or emotional needs. Possessing strong musical and psychological attainment the future music therapist’s goal is to bring balance into patient lives, by promoting positive thinking, wellness, and physical rehabilitation. They also encourage patients to freely express their feelings and believes not just by listening or creating experimental sounds but by becoming one with their music.
