This is the bit where I unabashedly pillage Ellie’s hard work in putting the vast majority of the project together. I am but the Sancho Panza to her Don Quixote.
Some FAQs about the trip:
What is Music Therapy?
What were you up to?
Why India?
What was the plan?
Do I look like I care?
What is Music Therapy?
Here I shall refrain from telling you through the medium of song, as is my usual go-to approach. Pal, I wish I was entirely kidding, but I did once write a version of the song Royals using lyric substitution to make it all about the populations with whom Music Therapy can be most effectively used. It was for a thing, I promise. Just imagine my reedy little voice heartily piping up with: ‘You can use it in schoo-ols (schoo-ols!)’ Oh, the humanity.
Putting my amazing life aside — Music Therapy (big M, big T) is the clinical application of music. (This is serious, see?) It’s an evidence-based intervention that uses the benefits of musical structures to reach client goals and objectives. While the healing properties of music have been recognised since antiquity, (Plato this, Confucius that) Music Therapy is now a rapidly burgeoning field endorsed and recommended by medical professionals to help ameliorate specific maladaptive behaviors or conditions. Music Therapy has been successful for many populations - It’s serving lots of populaa-ations / that’s why it’s praaaacticed through the nation! - it is a safe treatment for those who have experienced emotional or physical trauma, a neurologically stimulating treatment for those who have suffered brain injury, and a socially motivating treatment for those with Autism Spectrum Disorder, for example.
How is Music Therapy different from music education?
This didn’t make it into my list of FAQs, but it’s an important Q nonetheless. The key difference between music education (or indeed enjoying music as a listener) and Music Therapy is that the primary aim of MT sessions - pretty cool abbreviation there - is not to improve the client’s musical skills, although this may be a happy by-product, but to bring about changes in specific, maladaptive conditions or behavior patterns. By drawing on the expressive and learning experiences of music, clients can improve their level of physical, psychological and/or socio-emotional functioning through the development of motor, communicative, intellectual, social and/or emotional skill. So not entirely dissimilar from recorder lessons, I suppose.
In a nutshell, it’s the use of music to reach specific, non-music related goals.
For more information, nuts and bolts sort of stuff (as opposed to nutshells) take a peep at:
http://www.bamt.org
or http://www.musictherapy.org
What were you up to?
So Ellie invited me to join her on a trip to and around India, the goal of which was to put together a feasibility study for a proposed initiative to connect student music therapists in the US, with music therapists and other interested parties in India.
Our trip was essentially a reconnaissance mission, to gauge the desire and need for music therapy interventions within different communities in India. Another goal of the trip was to explore the current practices of Music Therapy in India, and their efficacy.
Ellie’s master plan (loyally assisted by yours truly - the Chewbacca to her Han Solo) is to design a sustainable, mutually beneficial program that establishes a collaboration between student music therapists in the US and Indian music therapists and/or interested charities in India. Such a collaborative program would only have been considered if it has support from within the communities themselves. Even the most well-intentioned initiatives would be fruitless without proper information and local input. (For more on that last point, check out this profoundly sensible TED Talk.
Why India?
Ellie had been to India before - in 2011 she spent three months volunteering for an NGO (Non-Government Organization) in Chennai that provides free educational and therapeutic services for formerly homeless boys, women and girls who had been trafficked. So she was already knew the score, to an extent, and had developed a deep interest in the ancient and modern cultures of India.
Ellie’s personal interest in the subcontinent was definitely a factor, but an equally important motivation to work in India was (and is) the ever-increasing call for change and improvement coming from Indian communities themselves – particularly those communities who have traditionally been marginalized.
This next bit is lifted entirely from Ellie’s funding proposal, with only the merest of tinkerings from me (not that it needed it!)
The role of music in India is as positive as it is ancient. Its healing capacity is acknowledged as inherent within most sociocultural structures in India, so music has been used in India alongside Ayurvedic medicine for centuries as a treatment for many ailments. Now, either in tandem or in conjunction with traditional musical treatments in India, modern applications of clinical music therapy are being implemented to serve different populations across India. Because of India’s longstanding tradition in using music in healing, Music Therapy is likely an extremely effective tool in meeting specific, client-based goals.
What was the plan?
We traveled to three cities – Mumbai, New Delhi, and Chennai – over the course of four weeks. Ellie had created a network of music therapists, institutes, medical professionals, and charitable organizations that we would meet while in each city. (Did I mention how incredibly organised she is? Like a one-woman ant colony, man - but human sized! And obviously less terrifying.)
In New Delhi we stayed with the family of a friend from Berklee - Ksitija ‘Toto’ Rawal who kindly (or foolishly) agreed to be our guide to the city and unofficial interpreter. We planned to meet with The Music Therapy Trust, the Global Music Institute, Action for Autism, and other groups we would connect with once there.
We also decided to stay for six days in Uttar Pradesh, in a rural village called Anoopshahr, to observe music lessons at Pardada Pardadi - a school for girls, and centre for female empowerment. (This panned out slightly differently than we expected, but I’ll come back to that later.)
In Chennai, we arranged to meet with V-Excel (a school that uses music to teach life skills for children with special needs, particularly Autism), the Madras Christian Council of Social Services, Sumathy Sundar MT-BC, and the Sri Ramachandra Medical Center.
Do I look like I care?
Admittedly, no.
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