Music, Health and Wellbeing
Raymond MacDonald
Context
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We are all musical
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Every human being has a biological and
social guarantee of musicianship.
Hodges, 1995; Trevarthen, 2002; Hargreaves, MacDonald and Miell, 2002
Why Music?
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Music is emotional
Music is engaging
Music is distracting
Music is physical
Music is ambiguous
Music is social
Music is communicative
Music is ubiquitous
Music plays a key role in identity
Music affects behaviour
Music & Health
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Music Therapy
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Community Music playing, teaching and learning music
(Sabatella, 2004, Standley, 2006; Wigram 2008)
outside traditional educational or therapeutic contexts
(Hallam &
MacDonald, 2008; De Simone & MacDonald, 2007)
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Music Education
(Costa Giomi, 2004, in press, Piro and Ortiz, in press;
MacDonald et al 1999)
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Music and everyday life (Sloboda et al, 2005)
Music listening / Music participation
Context
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Well established literature highlighting
the effects of music listening
emotional effects (Juslin & Sloboda, 2001, Carlton and MacDonald 2005),
physiological effects (Thault 2006), therapeutic effects (Wigram 2006),
Mozart effect (Rauscher 1993), consumer effects (North and Hargreaves
et al 1997)
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The effects of specific pieces or genres
The Language of Music (Cook, 1959)
The Effects of Music
Music is not a “magic bullet” or the “ultimate panacea”
But when utilised in a knowledgeable way evidence suggests it can
have positive effects
Currently significant interest in the relationship between the arts and
health
Musical identities
We all have a musical identity
•Infant communication (Trevarthen, 1998)
•Musical taste (Zillman & Gan, 1997)
•Musical ability (MacDonald, O’Donnell & Davies, 1999)
These phenomena are crucially
influenced by preference
Identities in Music
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Individuals who are involved in musical
participation develop personal identities
that are intrinsically musical
The Identity of a “musician” is a
Socially/Culturally defined concept
Identities in Music
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Influenced by certain non-musical factors
Identity paradoxes
• The family
• The school
• Jazz identities
(Borthwick & Davidson, 2002)
(Lamont, 2002)
(Mac Donald and Wilson, 2006)
Music is a fundamental channel
of communication
Music can facilitate:
•A lifeline to human interaction
•Powerful therapeutic effects
•Intensely emotional experiences
•Remembering of specific events
•Music is semantically ambiguous
•It has a “floating intentionality” (Cross, 2005)
Sounds of Progress
Aims and objectives
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To provide access to creative music and
theatre activities
To facilitate integration between
disadvantaged and non disadvantaged
groups
To challenge stereotypes of disability
To create employment opportunities
Design
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60 participants
20 participants in each of 3 groups:
• Experimental group
• Intervention control group
• Non-intervention control group
Measures
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Participants in all groups assessed
before and after sessions on:
• Musical ability
• Communication skills
• Self perception of musical ability
Results
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Significant Improvements in:
• Musical ability
• Communication skills
• Self perception of musical ability
• Video analysis revealed
developments in joint attention
A Qualitative Study
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Experimental and observational research does
not shed light upon more general beliefs,
thoughts and feelings of the people who
participate in music activities.
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The social model of disability
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Talking about music is a crucially important aspect of
the overall process of musical communication
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Semi-Structured Interviews
Theme 1 - Other people’s
expectations
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“I remember I used to go up in the ambulance up to the
hospital years ago (.) and there was this old woman she
was always complaining about her illness (.) we used to
call her 57 varieties! (both laugh) She used to always say
about me, ‘you know, he’s in a wee world of his own
there’ (.) and you’re sitting listening! (both laugh) and
you’re sitting listening ‘oh aye, I’m in a wee world of my
own here!’ (laughs) (.) but there again, (.) that same old
woman, I started a sing-song in the ambulance one time
and she started to talk (.) she started to talk to me
normally! (laughs) you know what I mean? (both laugh)
so there you go […] she forgot about the ‘wee world of my
own’ when I started the sing-song! […] The attitude
changed.”
Theme 2 - Professionalism
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like when folk came up and spoke to you, they
weren’t giving you the sympathy vote any
more, you know, you thought, (.) well (.) I must
be, (.) I must be doing all right! You know! you
didn’t get all that pat on the head and that ‘oh,
that’s very good son’ […] maybe some would
think (.) ‘oh, these disabled folk what can they,
you know, what can they do?’ you know
(laughs) …. but, I think (.) think they get rather
a shock when they (.) when they hear us! ……
then when things started to get a wee bit
professional I thought ‘this can’t be bad!’
Polyphony
Gartnavel Royal Hospital
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Polyphony provides access to music
activities for mental health inpatients at
Gartnavel Royal Hospital working with
adolescent, adult and care of the elderly
wards. It also works in four residential
nursing home for patients with dementia.
Care of the Elderly Project
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Polyphony has been running
participatory music sessions with
groups of elderly people since 2004.
Activities are tailored to include a range
of interests, abilities and needs
Composition and improvisation singing,
listening to live and recorded music,
Care of the elderly: Method
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The research took place over 36 weeks
divided into 3 blocks of twelve weeks.
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Musical activities included
• Rhythmic exercises
• Improvisational activities
• Singing
• Listening
• Composing
Results:
Mini Mental State Examination
20
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
Experimental
Control
Pre test
Mid test Post test
Results:
The Communication Assessment Profile
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Experimental
Control
Pre
test
Mid
test
Post
test
Improvisation
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Improvisation is an under used musical
resource (MacDonald and Wilson 2006)
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Evidence that teachers have significant
concerns about how to teach creativity in
general and improvisation in particular
(MacDonald and Byrne, 2003)
Current conceptions of
improvisation
“Improvisation is the highest form of art”
(Daniel Barenboim - BBC Reith lectures 2006)
“improvisation is a parlour trick; anyone
can do it” (Willie Wonker - Charlie and the Chocolate Factory)
The fundamental mastery misconception
Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra
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Rehearse & perform
regularly in Glasgow and
abroad
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Large ensemble of 20+
musicians from jazz,
classical, pop & avant-garde
backgrounds.
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Commitment to free or
experimental improvisation.
Music Listening / Musical
Participation
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Music listening examples
Popular music: a pervasive and neglected art form?
An investigation of the therapeutic
effects of music listening (MacDonald et al 2003)
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Interested in subjective responses to
particular pieces of music and not
responses to pre-selected music.
In many experimental studies the precise
nature of the music is not specified and
music is pre-selected with an
assumption that playing this preselected music will be relaxing for all
participants.
An investigation of the therapeutic
effects of music listening in hospital
45
3 X 2 ANOVA F(2,76)=65.36,p<.01
40
Mean
Score on
SSAI
35
30
25
Experim ental
Control
20
Tim e 1
Tim e 2
Tim e 3
Music and pain perception:
Study 2 (Mitchell and MacDonald 2006)
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54 participants
3 trials:
White noise
Anxiolytic music
Preferred music
Dependent variables:
Tolerance time
Intensity rating of pain
Perceived control rating
Tolerance times
180
160
140
Seconds
120
100
Female
Male
80
60
40
20
0
White noise
Anxiolytic
Preferred
Significant differences:
Preferred music greater than white noise p<.001and
anxiolytic music p<.001
Pain rating on visual analogue scale
80
70
60
Rating
50
Female
40
Male
30
20
10
0
White noise
Anxiolytic
Preferred
Significant differences in females:
Preferred music lower than white noise p<.001 and anxiolytic music p<.05
Anxiolytic music lower than white noise p<.001
Perceived control rating
140
120
Rating
100
80
Female
60
Male
40
20
0
White noise
Anxiolytic
Preferred
Significant differences:
Preferred music greater than white noise p<.001 and anxiolytic music p<.001
Anxiolytic music greater than white noise p<.05
Preferred music
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Findings replicated in similar studies Mitchell
& MacDonald, 2007; Mitchell, MacDonald and Knussen 2008
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Current work – empathisers/systemisers
Findings replicated in other contexts:
• Kidney dialysis (Pothulaki et al, 2008)
• During exercise (Natsume et al, 2006)
• Computer game play (Cassidy et al, in press)
• The role of technology
- wii fit, rock star,
Why should music listening reduce
pain perception?
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Possible theoretical mechanisms
• Distraction effect
• When listening to the music distracted from pain.
Listening utilises cognitive resources
• When listening we are emotionally engaged
• Control
Key Themes
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Music can have intense subjective meanings.
These meanings may not relate to structural
aspects of the music (eg tempo or mode).
Preferred music is an important variable.
Listening to our preferred music may make
compositions with intensely varying structural
features “functionally equivalent”.
The relationship between structure and
preference – current work.
Implications
Music and Health
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Music is not a “magic bullet” or the “ultimate
panacea”
But when utilised in a knowledgeable way it
can have significant positive effects
Western society constructs an elitist image
of “musicians” and this inhibits individuals’
innate musicality
This diminishes the potential of music
Music, Health and Wellbeing (MacDonald, Kreutz and
Mitchell Eds)
Summary
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Why Music
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Research Contexts: therapy, community, education experimental, survey
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Methodological issues: quantitative and qualitative approaches to
assessing “health” and developing causality
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Theoretical overview: musical identities & musical communication
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Musical Participation
• Behavioral improvements, Self-perception, Motor coordination,
Communication skills, Cognitive functioning
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Music listening
• Effects of Music on Pain Perception
• Distraction, emotion and control
• Preference and functional equivalence