through music Finding healing

Concerts, performances offer outlets to improve mental health, create social connections

MADDY KEYES

madeleine.e.keyes-1@ou.edu

Madelaine Magee, a junior Spanish major with a minor in music education, playing piano on Feb 2.

Standing before her choral conducting class, Melissa Baughman raised her arms to match the crescendo of the music, guiding her students into the chorus with the piano playing softly in the background.

“You have to feel the music,” she said. The students responded, singing “The Roof” by Andrea Ramsey as a unit while individually connecting to the lyrics.

“Be awkward, imperfect, beautiful you.

Exhaustingly complex you,” the students sang with increasing volume, eventually decrescendoing. “You are still becoming what you will be. You.”

Sitting at the piano after the students filed out of the classroom, Baughman, an OU professor of music education, lit up with excitement as she talked about how music and singing together support mental health and create a feeling of belonging.

“The fact that when we get together as humans and start singing and accessing the same emotions together as a unit, it’s just one of those very bonding experiences that you have that you don’t get from anything else,” Baughman said.

Music connects people, expresses the often inexplicable and has the potential to influence a person’s mood and improve their mental health.

Social connection found through music

Just two years ago, as the COVID-19 pandemic moved classes online, singing in a room together was impossible. Students made it work, Baughman said, but it was very difficult to connect with each other through a screen.

Singing and creating music with other people has been scientifically proven to increase memory and cognitive function, senses of autonomy, and perceived social connection, as well as reduce depression and improve the quality of life, ChihChen Sophia Lee, director and professor of music therapy at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, wrote in an email to OU Daily.

The music therapy program at Southwestern Oklahoma State University is the longest-standing undergraduate music therapy program and only graduate music therapy program in Oklahoma.

“Music therapy is an established health profession that strategically uses music experiences to address clinically determined therapeutic goals related to the communicative, physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs of individuals,” according to the SWOSU website.

Lee said an increase in anxiety and depression seen during the COVID-19 lockdowns supports the idea that perceived social connection can improve mental health, an aspect often found with shared musical experiences, she said.

According to the Cognitive Behavior Institute, human-to-human interaction is an integral component of mental health and well-being. People who feel well connected and supported by others have lower rates of anxiety and depression, and those who do not have social connections are at higher risk for suicide, low self-esteem and anti-social behaviors.

Research suggests attending live music events can help create and foster social bonds through shared emotional experiences and synchronous movement, like dancing, according to an article from Frontiers, a research journal publisher.

When social distancing and lockdown measures were in place, people tried to replicate this experience virtually. Virtual concerts and performances were more accessible to people who lived out of state or couldn’t afford to attend in person, Baughman said.

While pre-recorded concerts provide some sense of connection, Baughman said there’s nothing like being in the room when music is being performed. As concerts and rehearsals return in person, Baughman said there’s a rejuvenated sense of connection and energy in both the practice room and on stage.

Madelaine Magee, a Spanish junior with a music education minor at OU, said being back in person and performing with other musicians in the OU Women’s Chorus has benefited her mental health.

“It’s a time during the day when I (can) unite with other people with music,” Magee said. “We all (work) toward one goal to create art.”

At the school of music, Baughman created the student wellness initiative BreatheOUt to emphasize the importance of mental health care and create opportunities for students to bond.

BreatheOUt hosts social events, provides information about the mental health resources available to students and curates playlists to help students with relaxation and concentration.

“It’s (about) bringing people together and making sure that we’re OK,” Baughman said.

Listening to or creating music can be the one time during the day when someone can express their feelings and know they’re not alone, she said.

Rachelle Phipps, member of the Pride of Oklahoma, said being in band has been very beneficial for her mental health, as it allows her to express herself and connect with others.

“Just being able to say, ‘Hey, this semester is hard, but at least I get to come here and listen to music and play with other people who have similar feelings,” Phipps said. “(You) feel a connection.”

The benefits of independent musical experiences

While experiencing and performing music with others can provide a sense of social connection and support mental health, experiencing music alone can have benefits as well.

According to the Frontiers, even solitary music listening can be a social experience, conveying a sense of presence of another person. This sense of social connection allows people to identify or empathize with the performer or composer.

Creating music can be very beneficial for a person’s mental health, as well, Lee wrote.

Music helps people express, validate, cope with, process and resolve their struggles. This can be in the form of music making, active music listening, composing, moving with music and collaborative, creative and expressive arts interventions, Lee wrote.

From the preventative aspect, active listening and music making, vocally and instrumentally, on a regular basis can help regulate emotions and behaviors affected by potential stressors, Lee wrote.

“If one is in a more balanced stage both physically and mentally, they would be more resilient to the ‘curve balls’ life throws to them,” Lee wrote.

In everyday life, many college students turn to music to relieve stress and anxiety, find motivation and express their emotions.

“(Music) is a way to escape and kind of take a breather in the middle of the day,” said Logan Taylor, a creative media production and music junior. “(It) says the words for us that we’re not able to (express) ourselves.”

Taylor discovered his passion for music and mental health in high school when he was going through a difficult time and experiencing emotions he didn’t fully understand. He used music to express his emotions by finding a song that described what he was feeling at the time.

He called it his “mood music.”

“Music was just kind of something that I knew I could always turn to,” Taylor said. “It’s the medium that I really connected with and that helped (me) express how I was feeling.”

Music’s ability to either amplify or create a new mood is incredibly powerful, Baughman said. It’s something humans naturally do. When someone is sad, they listen to sad music. But they can also choose to listen to happy, upbeat music in order to improve their mood, she said.

“It’s like magic,” Baughman said.

Baughman said she often uses music to manage her emotional wellness. On days when she is feeling down, she likes to listen to upbeat music to motivate her and help shift her mood.

“(It) is a simple way to fight back when everything becomes too much,” Baughman said.

The connection of music and memory

Some artists even create their music specifically to facilitate a particular mood. “Weightless” by Marconi Union, for example, was created in collaboration with Lyz Cooper, a leading sound therapist and founder of the British Academy of Sound Therapy, to relax listeners and reduce anxiety.

The carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms and bass lines help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol, according to Inc. Magazine. During a study, the song was found to reduce participants’ anxiety by 65 percent, according to Inc.

In music therapy, therapists also use music to either validate or influence a patient’s mood, Lee wrote. Through the iso principle, a music therapist supports and validates a client’s mental state by matching music with the client’s mood, energy level and behavior.

Through a different approach called rhythmic entrainment, a therapist creates a music environment that helps the client shift to a more desirable mental or physical stage by gradually making the music more energetic to help move them out of a depressive stage, Lee wrote.

“Music has the ability to fill the gap when language falls short in expressing our thoughts and feelings,” Lee wrote. “Music is accessible and can be individualized to address specific goals and objectives one is experiencing.”

Magee said she constantly listens to music to relieve her stress and motivate her to study. She views music as a companion: something she can always depend on to improve her mood and calm her anxiety.

Last winter, when she was struggling with her mental health, Magee said music helped keep her grounded.

“It was something I could always enjoy, even if I wasn’t enjoying what was happening around me,” she said. “I (could always) at least turn to music.”

For Phipps, her passion for music started when she was in the second grade when her grandmother taught her how to play the piano. She soon realized she wanted to be in the band, and her love for music only grew.

Now, Phipps often connects music with memories. Listening to certain songs reminds her of different periods in her life, and she often finds that the meaning behind the lyrics changes for her as she gets older. For example, the meaning of the line, “I want to be known by you,” from ”Goner” by Twenty One Pilots changes with time, Phipps said.

“Who is this person I want to be known by?” she said. “(Is it) myself or my family or someone I like? It’s just sort of vague enough for me to (always) resonate with (it).”

According to PsychologyToday, an event, an emotion and a song get connected through implicit memory, or unconscious and automatic memories. When a piece of music is paired with a very emotional event, it can be an effective cue to bring back the strong emotion that was felt at that moment.

Taylor said it’s hard for him to listen to the same music he listened to in high school, because it reminds him of the negative emotions he was feeling then.

“Those songs now feel like they’re a part of me,” Taylor said. “They’re so much more than just songs.”

Music is a part of almost every aspect of a person’s life, Baughman said. It connects them to the past, to others and to themselves.

“It’s truly magical, the way that anyone throughout time in any culture has always been impacted by music, whether they realize it or not,” Baughman said. “There’s just nothing else like it, which is why it’s so special.”