Physical Engagement with Music Therapy
As part of the physical engagement component of the project, the Therapeutic Trio set out to perform live music to the patients of Beth Israel Medical Center. Adorned in our blue coats, we were ready to meet the musical needs of the bedridden patients. We teamed up with another volunteer in the Musical Department who served as the guitar accompaniment to Jennifer Mikhli’s vocalist lead. Before setting out to the patient rooms, we practiced and prepared a queue of about ten songs. After some practice, we were ready to go out and perform. We began on the first floor of the hospital and started entering people’s rooms asking if they wanted to hear some music. After performing for one room, we were more at ease and able to fall into a synchronized pattern as we traveled from one room to the next.
The reactions and emotions that were evoked on those two separate occasions of live performance have impacted us beyond our wildest imaginations. Elderly and foreign patients that were unable to express themselves with words were found humming along to the tunes, as the music spoke to them on a level that no language could. Patients that seemed skeptical upon our first arrival, barely agreeing to our request of performing for them, were thanking us profusely upon our exits. It seemed that we were speaking directly to their souls, as one patient was chanting to herself that we should be blessed for the “joy that we was bringin’ to her.” I even found myself stifling back tears as the same lady went on to pray that the “lord should bless and lift their spirits.” Upon exiting that room and hearing the shouts of gratitude and joy, I could not help but feel my own sense of gratitude for the joy that she had given me.
The music that we performed in each room created this removed shared experience where the patients could simply forget the dire medical situation that they were in and just enjoy themselves. The music was able to drown out the beeps and buzzes of the machines, the cries of pains emanating from other rooms, and the loud noise of their morbid thoughts. Patients that had been staring off into a dreadful abyss upon our entering were left with smiles on their faces and joy in their eyes. Music, had in a way revived them for just that short time and provided them with hope. One lady from Venezuela was so grateful for sharing that experience with her because it had “brought up [her] mood,” as she said. Although very few words were exchanged in these short musical interactions, it felt as if an entire dialogue had transpired throughout.
The live music component played an important role in the interactions, as we were able to modify the music as we saw the reactions it evoked from a patient. For instance, when we saw one patient was not really responding to the slow ballad of “Halleluyah,” we tried a more upbeat song like “Hey soul sister” and found the patient clapping her hands in a wild, enthusiastic way. The patients also liked that a guitar was involved, as this sparked a conversation with them about their prior preoccupation with musical instruments. Many of them had actually been very connected to music, one being a composer, another a professional piano player; thus, this music had brought back a little part of their youthful past.
Ultimately, those musical performances have allowed me to see what powerful impacts music can have on the minds and souls of patients. Although there is a myriad of rich experimental evidence to prove music therapy’s efficacy in the treatment of patients health, this experience allowed for that evidence to be solidified. If those short musical interactions could have such a profound effect upon those elderly patients, certainly a long-term musical treatment plan could bring amazing benefits to those same individuals.
The aforementioned musical therapy sessions could not be recorded, however, here is a clip of a man conducting similar music therapy sessions on the cancer patients of Riverside Methodist Hospital in Ohio.
