Music Therapy?

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Hey everyone!

This is actually my very first post on this site. So a little introduction about myself- I'm an NT and I am studying at UCLA. I want to work with people with autism. I was first introduced to autism in class, but I got to know a really great family who had a little boy with autism (i believe Asperger).

Recently I have been attracted to the idea and concept behind music therapy or music in general and how it effects people. I myself have been playing the piano for about 13 years and I enjoy it very much! Has anyone here been to any type of music therapy? Or has music been a different way for you to communicate and express your emotions? I know that music, for me, has been a great medium to relieve my stress.

~ani

I have music-color synthethesia and some savant skills centered around music (I can hear songs when I see the sheet music, perfect pitch and can easily transcribe song I hear to sheet music)

Music was first major outlet for my emotion, though nowadays I also paint and write music will always have a special place in my heart. I play the Violin (Since 9) Guitar (Since 12) and Saxophone (6 Months)

you're in luck!


you my sister majored in music therapy, and we both live in LA, and i have asperger's!


i will ask her and be right back.

I got some music therapy during a Day Program at the hospital. I enjoyed it. Everybody was happy and free during that time. There was a table with all kinds of instruments on it - a lot of percussion, a recorder, a couple of guitars. Everybody would grab something on the way in. By way of warm up, we were encouraged to make all the noise we possibly could, which was a great release in a hospital setting. Then if somebody could play and wanted to, we listened to them. Then we used our instrument to help us tell something about ourselves, anything at all.

It was blame free, and so expressive! Music therapy is under-rated.

The wife of our ex-PM took up visiting the schools and getting students to sing together. She said that researched proved that singing reduces crime rates. I don't doubt it.

also, i'm a musician as well. can't really say if that's therapy or not...but definately cheaper than a psychologist!

Any sort of art is amazing therapy.

my sister says you should talk to your counselor about music therapy classes.

as far as if it works, generally, it does help but it's a process and there are certain techniques. and my sis also notes that you need to study music therapy before you practice it on anyone....but i'm sure you're already ahead on that.


as far as personal experience...playing music helped me make friends i wouldn't have otherwise made or met and those friends helped me learn more about fitting in and adjusting to the world than any guide. never had any actual music therapy...but music most definately helped me.


flagg: i have synesthesia too but for me, music produces shapes and layers. kinda like looking at a really cool screen saver.

my sis adds "I have a 200 pg text book called "defining music therapy""

No, and if I tried it I'm pretty sure I'd feel like an idiot. But it is good for expressing myself, like when the Dogs are barking (Which is like someone repeatedly bashing my head in with a hammer), I can just put on Strapping Young Lad, or diSEMBOWELMENT, and turn it up really loud.

People tend to pay attention when I do that.

I looked into music therapy for a while during my first year of college, when I thought I wanted to do something with music for a living (I'd still love to, but it seems as though I'll be better off with computer stuff). I've played piano by ear since I was 3 years old. After some of my worst days in junior high and high school, the only thing that made me feel comfortable again (other than falling asleep, I suppose) was shutting myself in my bedroom and spending hours at my Yamaha keyboard, sometimes forgetting about dinner. On occasion and still to this day, softly playing my keyboard with the lights off has also helped me through some pretty bad headaches.

For about a year I volunteered at the nearest hospital, playing the baby grand piano in their lobby for an hour or so at least a few times every week. Patients and relatives of patients seemed to enjoy the music. Most listened from the second floor but every now and then someone would come sit on the couch behind me. I'm guessing it helped take their mind off of whatever was wrong.

Also, my grandmother and great-aunt both suffered from Alzheimer's. Over several years they became extremely confused, frustrated, agitated, scared, and eventually they lost the ability to talk and then to swallow. But every now and then I thought I caught a glimpse of their old selves -- my great-aunt smiling and my grandma doing her best to tap her foot -- when they were listening to music.

wow! I got so many replies!

Unfortunately my school doesn't have any form of music therapy major. They only have majors for people interested in majoring in an instrument (like pinao or guitar). And there is so little research done on music therapy too---its quite a new field-started in the 60's/70's.

So i guess my next question would be, what type of music do you enjoy or use as a form of expression? I know a lot of people would say classical music, but are there any other genres you like to listen to or play?

I play mostly metal and rock and I listen to everything besides "Rap" and religious music.

Pretty much anything, all kinds of Metal, Electronica, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Folk, Noise, Industrial, and everything in between. I have over 2500 songs, and alot of the bands I listen to I don't even have full albums of, I just have a bunch of songs from each album.

My favourite style is Gothic Rock, I listen to alot of bands of that style and I tend to like them more and more often

The music therapy that I got was in a group of non-musicians. The therapist seemed to do nothing much, but we were somehow liberated. You know in music depts, how everybody is kind of blissed out? Compared to science, for example. I recognized the same kind of bliss-out in our group. That was healing. It didn't seem to be about any particular type of music.

loyola university in new orleans offers a major for music therapy....i'm not sure of where else the course is offered as a major....but yeah. the courses pretty much entailed the specific classes for music therapy, performance, and psychology.


and actually i consider classical one of the least expressive....mainly because the person is just performing and not creating. there's a lot of expression that can be done in performing....but ultimately, you're saying someone else's thoughts.

my tastes go all over the board. see the music video thread for that.


but yeah, i do listen to and had performed classical music as well as everything else i listen to.

When I first started thinking about what i wanted to major in college i had this whole plan about how I was gonna major in Special Education and minor in Music Therapy because I wanted to be able to give a little extra help to the students. That fell through, but i'm thinking of going back to that root. Just recently, my mom called and told me that my sister was majoring in Music performance or something and that she was looking into becoming a music therapist. I hope she does, because i think it is a great field.