Music: Better Than Shrinks and Pills!

Music is Therapy

There is no question.  When I improvise or compose at the piano, it is an intensely therapeutic activity.  The deepest truths of my psyche are poured out into sound.  Whatever emotion I am feeling is intensified by my music.  My soul can breathe and feel, and I get it out of my system. Expressing pent-up feelings through music can bring on an oppressive melancholy, or sometimes it can catapult one into the blissful stratosphere of the emotional spectrum.  But I do know that releasing these emotions into an art form (even dancing, acting, or painting), eventually makes me feel better and return to relative normalcy.  It is necessary tool for me, to work through difficulties in life.  So why is it that schools want to cut arts programs?  What about emotional intelligence and the emotional health of students?  Isn't that important to preventing more Columbines? (more on this later)

But Is Sad Music Healthy for Us?

Sometimes, as we listen to a tragic piece like Chopin's Prelude in E Minor (Op. 28, No. 4), we hear loss, death, pain, and tribulation.  Yet we recognize such masterpieces as the most beautiful music.  Why is sad music beautiful?  Is it healthy for us to dwell in sad music?  That is a very good question.  I think sad music helps us to process negative emotions and to release them through catharsis.  Sad music captures the depth of the human experience, which includes loss and death.  But perhaps most importantly, sad music helps us grieve.

A visual artist told me one of my compositions helped him to grieve the loss of his music teacher.  He found it on Soundcloud and played it over and over, saying it really helped him to cope with the loss.  It's no surprise to me that the piece he listened to was composed during one of my deepest depressions.  He was so moved by it that he drove down from NY state to hear me play.  On this visit, he felt moved to give me one of his hand-pulled lithographs.  The lithograph was a stipple drawing of Thelonius Monk at the piano, one of the greatest improvisers of the twentieth century.  It was a very valuable piece of artwork, and I was deeply touched by this gesture.  I was more struck, however, by the impact my emotional low had on this stranger.  Had I not fallen into a depression, this piece would never have been born, and I would not have ministered to this man's heart.

Mood Disorders are Good for Art

Many artists, musicians, composers, poets, actors, leaders, writers, and visionaries experience mood disorders.  Yet our world is a brighter place for their contributions.  Take Robin Williams, for example.  In the midst of a depressive funk, I may resent my mood swings, but I also realize that my best work comes from the extremes of the emotional spectrum.  I would never medicate, and thereby dull the peaks and valleys that produce my best creative work.  This is just who I am.  I accept it and find tools like exercise and low sugar intake to prevent dangerously wild extremes.  But I struggle with the ups and downs of life just like anyone.  My mood fluctuations may be more pronounced, but I am human, just like everyone else.  I use music rather than drugs or alcohol to deal with the ups and downs, and it helps.