Music Therapy and Sound Therapy
Sound therapy and music therapy are fields that sometimes overlap or borrow ideas from each other. Sound therapy techniques are as ancient as the shaman’s drum, or the ancient Greek Pythagoras’ notion of the Music of the Spheres. Pythagoras was the discoverer of intervals of sound that we base our musical scales upon. He noticed how some intervals sounded better than others, and found mathematical equations to explain and predict this. He also believed that certain sounds and intervals had healing properties for different afflictions.
Today the field of sound therapy includes many ideas from cultures all over the world. Breath and sound mingle together in toning, where vocal tones help induce a meditative state and resonate the body and the brain with self-created sounds. Other sound therapy techniques for inducing a meditative state are Tibetan brass bowls, as well as modern bowls made of glass that vibrate at different frequencies and tones. Some are experimenting with large chimes as big as a person, whose vibrations are felt as much as heard.
Music therapy has applied some of the ancient and modern sound therapy techniques. Music therapy uses tried and tested methods of healing with the aid of sound. As more techniques are tested and found to be beneficial, we can expect the use of sound therapy in music therapy to continue growing.
For more information about sound therapy and music therapy get a copy of the book Still a Minstrel.
"Readers will enjoy the struggles of a garage band to the bandstand with local and world-renowned legends. Suess guides us through those years as the music changed us and we reflected those changes in our music"
- Doug Spartz, Founder,
Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame