Hitting The High Note: How Music Can Boost Your Mood
Music therapist playing guitar
Have you been feeling the blues lately? Did you know that music can boost mood and help you physically recover too?
Music therapist, Alexandra Lowman said, “When you’re born and learn to speak, you learn to sing first. You might never be able to speak but you can still sing, as it’s a different part of the brain. Listening to and playing music fires neurons into the brain, which changes brain activity.”
Alexandra Lowman is an NHS music therapist for Windmill Point in Coventry.
She has worked there for the last 23 years and specialises in children with learning disabilities.
Music therapy is a type of counselling that primarily uses music to communicate. Elements of it (like sound, rhythm, and harmony) are also used to achieve goals like improving quality of life or reducing stress.
According to the British Association for Music Therapy, there are only 800 registered music therapists in the UK. These therapists are found in many places, including prisons, schools, rehabilitation centres, and hospitals.
It helps people whose lives have been affected by an injury, illness, or disability. This supports their cognitive, emotional, social, and physical needs.
It was introduced in Columbia in 1789, but the UK’s first training program was established at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama in 1968.
Different genres of music produce different results. Scientists say that upbeat, happy music can boost mood, while sad music aids in processing emotions for people who are already sad.
Different types of music affects your mood differently
This works similarly to playing specific instruments, as it helps to reduce stress. For example, drums are good for releasing anger while playing the piano reduces depression and anxiety.
At Windmill Point, Alexandra holds private and corporate drumming classes. This is where people with learning disabilities can come and spend an hour drumming away. She said, “Some people might come in and be very angry but are unable to express their feelings in words, so they’ll play the drums until their session is over and leave feeling much calmer than before.”
Apple Music & Spotify have both generated billions of pounds through their streams.
A study from Stanford University shows that it also helps with concentration. Popular streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music have generated billions of pounds from streaming music and adding subscriptions. Statista says 54% of digital music users use Spotify. Some of these are students, and many use music to focus on their studies.
Music contributes over £ 6 billion to the British economy. Ewan Samways, a final-year Music and Performance student at Coventry University, said he wants to be a professional musician when he graduates.
His favourite genre is emo-rap. Even though he had been interested in music from a young age, joining his school choir, he had never considered music therapy or knew what it was. But he did discover its therapeutic benefits.
He said, “The things that make music therapeutic are the lyrics, how artists can tell their whole life in a song, it’s quite magical. In classical music, the chords are therapeutic because there aren’t any lyrics that we can understand but we can tell the mood of the song by how it’s played.”
“I used to be part of a choir when I was younger, and it was my dad who inspired me because he would always have music playing in our house and he sang quite a lot too. So I guess my taste for music really developed from then.”
Outside of the UK, music therapy has been recognised in other parts of the world as a way of reducing stress and lightening mood. Cleaveland Clinic’s website highlights the physical benefits that it brings:
Regulates your mood.
Strengthens your communication skills.
Improves speaking and language skills.
Strengthens your self-confidence.
It helps you form healthy coping skills.
It develops your problem-solving skills.
Reduces perceived levels of pain.
Improves your physical coordination, motor functions and movement.
Improves your quality of life.
The list goes on, but another benefit of using music as a therapy is that it builds social skills by bringing people together. Whether it’s singing in a choir or joining a music class with little experience, it’s available for many who are struggling, or for others who need a mental boost.
Youtubers have also used it as a way of promotion, to help other people decide whether they want to consider it as a career choice.
CreativeVibesMT is an example of a music therapist, promoting it on her Youtube channel
Even though music therapy has been increasing in popularity over the last few years, most people listen to and play music for fun.
Coventry Music Hub offers classes for both individuals and groups, for young people, so they can learn an instrument while reaping its therapeutic advantages.
It is also beneficial to people with dementia, as the Alzheimer’s Society in Coventry has been running “Singing for the Brain” workshops that help to stimulate the brain, increasing its activity and well-being. Music can help alleviate dementia’s effects.
Alexandra Lowman said, “At the end of life, people with dementia can sing for a while even after they’ve lost the ability to speak, and it can encourage language back, which is a gift for their family, friends, as well as the people with themselves.”
Like many of us, we feel nostalgic when we hear certain songs, it brings us sensory memories of a place or situation in our past and the strong emotions connected to them as well. This could be the reason why you hear a song from your childhood and instantly feel happy and start smelling your favourite food from when you were young! This is called the “reminiscence bump”.
This proves that music therapy is effective for all people regardless of age, and helps both physically and mentally.
If you need more information about this, look at the Coventry and Warwickshire University Hospital website for more.