we can all make music

well, well, well

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'. And once upon a time, music therapy was perceived as the use of music in the recuperation of afflicted individuals.

We have all moved on, and in so doing, these two ways of music have moved much closer. 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 that music therapy has moved from thinking of its function as remedial to thinking of it as (also) preventative, and of moving from focusing on the individual to (also) focusing on the social.

At CMV, we have been declaring for some time that making music together (along with dancing, eating and play) is a fundamental process through which people can enjoy being and doing together. And that this enjoyment is an essential element in their sense of connection with others, and hence their wellbeing.

It appears that both perspectives are now coming to similar conclusions.

So in answer to the question (usually intended as a put-down), 'Isn't what you're doing just therapy?', we would reply:

A society that doesn't sing, isn't well. Attempts to reintroduce singing as an everyday community activity obviously have at least a 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 that extend beyond the personal. We also know that there are many music therapists that see their work being most usefully practiced, and thought of, in a community context. What they do and what we do is not that much different. So, yes, what we do is (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.

Along with the more visionary community music therapists, we are as much, if not more, into UN-covery as into RE-covery. Especially if one thinks of re-covery as repairing the protective shell that shields us from external threats.

In contrast, UN-covery would be about exploring other worlds and states of consciousnesses, liberating forgotten capacities, engagement.

There's no doubt that travelling these paths also leads to wellness, but it is the joy inherent in the music that creates the fundamental purpose of our work. And that purpose is that this joy be SHARED.

So we would happily be seen to be stimulating community therapy - not by 'treating' a community, but by enhancing the skills already embedded in that community.

we can all make music

well, well, well

Group singing and music therapy

making a sound world together