Part Art & Part Science: Musical Therapy is Medicine That Works!

By now its a well documented fact that music therapy is a profession whose time to shine has come. Although utilized for many years, helping patients recover and heal by playing various styles and forms of music is finally beginning to get the recognition it deserves. The needs and situations vary but some examples include:

• Helping a pre-mature baby who is not growing fast enough
• Helping a young child with a debilitating disease who needs motivation to help regain or maintain movement
• Helping an elderly patient with advanced dementia or other ailments who can only physically or verbally respond when there is music involved.

The list of patients who may benefit from some form of music therapy is as long as our imagination.

We recently came across an excellent article by professionally licensed Music Therapist Julie Avirett who spends a lot of time at Golisano Children's Hospital of Southwest Florida helping babies, young children and teenagers in their healing process. Ms. Avirett puts its best when she says:

"Music therapy may appear simply as a thoughtful service used for entertainment in a clinical setting, but it's actually an evidenced-based form of therapy. As an established health profession, it creates a therapeutic relationship that addresses physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of patients and their families through music in a fun, interactive way"

I encourage you to check out the full article where she really helps us understand the value of music therapy and how it has become such an important tool in helping children and adults to heal: www.News-Press.com - "Music is an Established Form of Therapy"

I also came across this very interesting 6 minute video by Music Therapist Ryan Judd which shows him actively helping several patients using music as a tool. It's so fascinating and heartwarming to see and hear music therapy in action seeing children respond to the music. For more information on Ryan you can visit him at www.TheRhythmTree.com

In future posts, we'll be covering more about music therapy and the various types of patients that its helping both here in the US and all around the world. Until our next post please have a great week - December and the Holiday Season is now in fullll swing!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com www.facebook.com/KeepMusicAliveMission

Music helps teacher speak again after brain surgery

Allison Woyiwada is a music teacher from Ottawa, Canada, and had literally taught thousands of elementary school students in her 28 year career. In 2012, she was diagnosed with an brain aneurysm which required a very delicate and risky surgery. When she emerged from the surgery, her family quickly realized that she had lost most of her motor and speech skills. Two months after the surgery she basically had the skills of toddler, unable to even put two words together.

Then a miracle happened. Her daughter was pushing Allison in a wheelchair through a hospital waiting area and saw a piano. She wheeled her mom up to the piano and then something amazing happened. Allison started to play the piano, and not just any song. She began to play the Beethoven Sonata sheet music that was sitting on the piano at the time. Her daughter and everyone around was absolutely astonished. Allison soon began working with a music therapist who used a method called "melodic intonation therapy" to help bring back her speech. Today, just two years after the surgery, Allison is almost fully recovered and is once again teaching music and even sings in French, German and English.

Stories like Allison's never cease to amaze me. Once again, musical therapy has proven to be a sometimes miraculously tool when someone is up against something seemingly insurmountable. For the full account of Allison's amazing journey and recovery thanks to music, I invite you to check out the newly published book entitled "Allison's Brain" by author Robert McMechan found on Amazon.com right here: Allison's Brain - Amazon.com

I first learned of this story through CBCNews and CBC Radio in Ottawa. Here's a link to the CBC Radio story in Ottawa by Anna Maria Tremonte Allisons Brain Documentary

That's our inspirational story of the week, and I hope you liked it as much as we did. We'll be back tomorrow night with a new post, and if you've got an inspirational story to share please let us know about it. Thanks and goooood nite all!

Music, Love & Laughter,

Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Musical Therapy is One of the Worlds Oldest Professions

While many of us think of musical therapy as a recent development, the truth is that society has been music to help heal others for thousands of years. It is reported that as early as 400 B.C., Hippocrates played music for mental patients. In the thirteenth century, Arab hospitals contained music rooms for the benefit of the patients. In the United States, Native American medicine men often employed chants and dances as a method of healing patients. Musical therapy as we know it in the modern world began when musicians began to visit injured soldiers in hospitals to help them in the healing process both physically and emotionally.

Music therapy today is an established health care profession and the practitioners (ie. musicians) must be certified in order to best serve their patients. This article from Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee provides some insight into the profession and the different types of musical therapy that are utilized.

I also came across a very interesting piece about a 67 year old Ormond Beach, Florida man who walked away from music for 40 years then came back to it in his sixties and became a certified Music Therapist. After seeing how his Dad responded to music being played for him while I hospice, he felt drawn back to the piano and now helps patients of all ages in various stages of their recovery. For more on this please read: Hospital Music Man Back on the Piano after 40 years

Right now we're only scratching the surface on what music therapy is all about. As we at LoveSongs.com dive deeper into our mission we'll be bringing more news about how musical therapy is changing people's lives, both the patients and the musicians, one story at a time. Look for us to devote at least one post per week to this important topic and for us to be sharing new research and experiences from all over the world.

Nico & Vinz - "Am I Wrong" proves it ain't wrong to go your own way

Once or twice a week we like to feature a new song that really gets our attention. Nico & Vinz is a Norwegian musical duo out of Oslo and have taken American pop radio by storm with their song "Am I Wrong". After having some success in Norway, Sweden and Denmark they signed with Warner Brothers music and crossed over the Atlantic. The duo originally went by the name Envy, however this was changed over to "Nico & Vinz" when being launched in America due to trademark concerns (apparently there are some musical Envy's stateside :). "Am I Wrong" first hit US radio in April 2014 and quickly rocketed up to #4 on the Billboard chart and cracked the ITunes Top 10 as well. This uptempo pop gem with some very creative melodies is matched by equally refreshing lyrics:

I ain't trying to do what everybody else doing, just cause every doing what they all doin' ..

Basically says what we all should be doing - don't follow the crowd instead make your own way - then they hit you with this chorus to drive home their message:

"So am I wrong?
For thinking that we could be something for real?
Now am I wrong?
For trying to reach the things that I can't see?
But that's just how I feel,
That's just how I feel
That's just how I feel
Trying to reach the things that I can't see"

That's all for today, the end of our July 4th holiday weekend. We'll be back tomorrow with another post about how music is changing our world.

Music, Love & Laughter

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #6 – Visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission