Fun With The Band

Fun with the band

Music enrichment overview

Music enrichment differs from music therapy; it is not overseen by a board-certified music therapist. It utilizes music for therapeutic intent, but is not considered actual music therapy. Examples of music enrichment would include local symphony musicians playing a free concert in a medical facility, providing an organized playlist on an iPad for a person with dementia, or giving free music lessons to children in a poor neighborhood. All of this is extremely valuable and can help achieve therapeutic outcomes in the enjoyment of an aesthetic experience. However, it is not considered science-based “music therapy,” based on the classical definition quoted on the Music Therapy Protocols page. With that caveat, here are some wonderful ways that are also mentioned in Trevor the Noteable GOAT that music can enrich the lives of those with neurodevelopmental or neuro-rehabilitation needs, as well as those who are neurotypical.

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"The fact that children can make beautiful music is less significant than the fact that music can make
beautiful children." -- Cheryl Lavender --

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Practice

Individual and group practice

Trevor learns to play the piano in this book. This wonderful initiative utilizes music and achieves therapeutic results for him in the process. Learning how to play a musical instrument, especially one as cognitively demanding as the piano, fires off a multitude of activity in the brain, with auditory, motor, and cognition skillsets all being developed simultaneously.

Positive brain plasticity develops from learning to play an instrument, especially a keyboard instrument, which must be played with two hands. The practicing musician reads music, which is treated as a language in the structure of the brain. Research shows that permanent growth results in a neurotypical child who learns to play a keyboard instrument at an early age. For example, one study in the parallel quotation to this paragraph shows that if the child begins the process before the age of seven, the corpus callosum, a nerve track that connects the left and right hemispheres of the brain, can grow significantly larger than in a control child lacking keyboard experience. Since the corpus callosum communicates motor, sensory, and cognitive information between the two hemispheres, there is a huge benefit to this growth.

Practicing in a group situation, such as a band is also wonderful for learning focus concentration as well as multi-tasking (both playing and listening at the same time). It's also great fun to play with other musicians, which is the most important reason of all for groups to play together.

Link - Early Musical Training and White-Matter Plasticity in the Corpus Callosum: Evidence for a Sensitive Period

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"We found that early-trained musicians had greater connectivity in the posterior midbody/isthmus of the corpus callosum and that fractional anisotrophy in this region was related to age of onset of training and sensorimotor synchronization performance."

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Camraderie

Social interaction

A child (or adult) who plays or sings music can then interact socially with other musicians in choirs, bands, or orchestras. Noteable Einstein and the Rhythm Tramps is a wonderful musical outlet for Trevor, and the band members become his primary social support group. When playing in the band together, the kids are learning cognitive and musical skills such as focusing and memorization; they are also learning to work together as a group or team. When playing an instrument in collaboration with others, each person must learn to listen and cooperate with everyone in the group. They also learn multitasking skills, since they are focused on their own part as well as the entire unit as a whole. And they are having great fun in the time of their lives as they are doing so.

Link - Four Ways Music Strengthens Social Bonds

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"Music psychologists described several mechanisms through which music impacts our ability to connect with one another - by impacting brain circuits involved in empathy, trust, and cooperation - perhaps explaining how it survived in every culture of the world."

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Creating music

Fun with composition

Bijan’s skills as an arranger and creator of music help him adapt to new surroundings and also attract friends. Not all of the “new” music described in the book is original (“Rhythm Rocks You” and “My Diploma” are based on 70s rock music), but Bijan’s abilities to create new compositions lead to the exact musical nuance needed for the musical mneumonic song to memorize the circulatory system.

Creation of a new song or musical sample is also a wonderful way of working out emotional residue that may be left from a bad experience. Soldiers with PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) can benefit from writing songs about their experience, thus helping to alleviate some of the emotional pain left with the PTSD.

Link - Music Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress in Adults: A Theoretical Review

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"There is evidence to suggest that individuals with trauma exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a condition characterized by enduring symptoms of distressing memory intrusion, avoidance, emotional disturbance, and hyperarousal, may derive benefits from music therapy."

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Helping others

Sharing the gift of music

This book focuses on Trevor as a young boy with Asperger’s syndrome who is helped with music, but music therapy is universally applicable to all ages, as seen in the older adult population at Orchard Hill, where Bijan’s grandfather lives. There can also be great benefits for older adults as cognition skills start to decline or balance issues develop in the motor systems. Many adults who need MT may battle depression. They have lost a skill or muscular usage that they took for granted. An adult learning to walk or talk again is not like an excited toddler learning how to do it for the first time. The adult has lost one or more important skills and may be prone to depression as a result.

When Grandfather Hakeem hears Noteable Einstein and the Rhythm Tramps playing, he instantly knows that his body feels more "organized" from hearing the beat. Having the band play at Orchard hills was a huge gift to those there and to the whole community.

Link - Elder Care Alliance: How Can Music Benefit Seniors in Assisted Living

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"Research has found that music can promote relaxation, improve productivity and lower stress. For seniors, pleasing melodies can deliver even more benefits for physical and mental health, memory and important social connections."

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