Music Really is Good for Us All

Here is an article which might be of some interest - for those of you who like reading what you already know. The article 'The Musical Pleasure Circuit' was pubished in the Melb. Uni Voice Magazine

[ The University of Melbourne Voice Vol. 4, No. 3 9 - 25 March 2009 ]

By Genevieve Costigan

Music is as fundamental to human wellbeing as sex, eating and drinking a recent symposium on Music and Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne was told.

At a recent symposium on Music and Wellbeing at the University of Melbourne, the former Director of Community Music Victoria, Jon Hawkes, said that we are moving closer to a scientific understanding of the effects of music on people.

“We know the benefits of music instinctively and recent research by neuroscientists is backing this up and revealing the physical and psychological effects of music,” he said. “Music is part of the brain’s reward system, part of the pleasure circuit stimulating dopamine, oxytocin and endorphins – in other words stimulating pleasure just like breastfeeding, eating, drinking and sex – all of which are essential for the survival of the species,” Mr Hawkes said.

Research has shown that music affects emotions, stimulates memory, facilitates motor co-ordination and sparks simultaneous activity in many areas of the brain.

“Neuroscience shows us that music activates vast areas of the brain and that musical activity can rebuild neural pathways,” he said.

Dr Katrina McFerran-Skewes from the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Music and the co-ordinator of the Symposium, said that music making among Australian communities has diminished hugely in the past 50 years at the same time as research has shown that it is an essential component of healthy communities both in contemporary society and in the evolutionary development of humankind.

Mr Hawkes believes that music has helped humans to evolve by teaching us how to be social and how to work together. He stressed that making music together has always been a means of self-expression but also group expression.

“A great example was the last part of Barack Obama’s Inauguration with Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen launching into Woody Guthrie’s ‘This Land is Your Land’ which gave the crowd a way to joyously and jointly express their feelings.

“Music has been shown as a powerful health treatment. Music therapy has been used successfully for asthma suffers in getting their lungs working, Alzheimer’s sufferers often remember songs better than anything else and increasingly music has been shown to be effective in lessening the symptoms of autism and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD),” Mr Hawkes said. He believes collaborative music making is important in lessening stress and anxiety as the sense of connectedness which comes from being a part of something greater than yourself improves mental wellbeing.

Dr McFerran-Skewes said the Symposium was an opportunity to communicate with those interested in using the arts in health promotion, to further the awareness of music and its relationship to health and wellbeing and its ability to promote connectedness and to reduce isolation.

“There has never been a more important time to consider what function music and the arts play in our culture and to actively work towards greater community participation in musical experiences,” Dr McFerran-Skewes said.

“It is a crucial time to consider the impact of these changes, to actively work towards the public recognition of the social benefits of community-based music making and to promote the rediscovery of the joy of this most fundamental activity,” she said.