We Can All Make Music.
Group singing and music therapy
Once
upon a time, “community music” was perceived as mounting concerts of
amateur musicians and training aspiring individuals to enter the “music
industry”. Once upon a time, music therapy was perceived as the use of
music in the recuperation of afflicted individuals.
We have
all moved on since then, and in so doing, these two ways of music have moved
much closer together; the community music world has recognised that
music-making is a health issue, and the music therapy world has recognised that
therapy is a community issue.
In
2005, Mercedes Pavlicevic, one of music therapy's key thinkers said, “community music therapy [can] become an agent for social
health and social change”. This
sums-up the way music therapy has moved from thinking of its function as
remedial to thinking of it as (also) preventative, and of moving its focus from
the individual (only) to its social implications.
At CMV,
we have been declaring for some time that making music together (along with
dancing, eating and playing) is a fundamental process through which people can
enjoy “being and doing together”, and that this enjoyment is an
essential element in our sense of connection with others and our well-being.
It
appears that both perspectives are now coming to similar conclusions.
So in
answer to the question which is usually intended as a put-down, “Isn't
what you're doing just therapy?”, we reply:
A
society that doesn't sing, isn't well. Attempts to re-introduce
singing as an everyday community activity obviously has therapeutic
intent. Traditionally, music therapy was
perceived as a way of facilitating individual recovery from illness and
injury. We know that the singing circle
movement we support and promote assists individual healing among participants,
but we're hoping for social repercussions which extend beyond the personal
experience. We also know that there are
many music therapists who see their work being most usefully practiced - and
considered - in a community context.
What they do and what we do is not very different. So yes, what we do is a form of (community)
therapy, and it's also about empowerment, validation, confidence-building,
beauty, joy and sharing, but we figure that community music therapists would
probably say exactly the same thing about their work…
As is
the case with more visionary community music therapists among us, we are as
much (if not more) into uncovery as
we are into recovery, especially if
one thinks of recovery as repairing the protective shell which shields us from
external threats.
In
contrast, uncovery would be about exploring
other worlds and states of consciousness, liberating forgotten capacities, and
encouraging social engagement.
There's
no doubt that travelling these paths also leads to wellness, but it is the joy
inherent in music which creates the fundamental purpose of our work, and our
belief that this joy should be shared.
We are
therefore happy to be perceived as stimulating community therapy, not by
“treating” a community, but by enhancing skills already embedded
within that community.
CMV - making a sound world together.
© Community Music Victoria Inc.