Roots of musicality: On neuro-musical thresholds and new evidence for bridges be

Roots of musicality: On neuro-musical thresholds and new evidence for bridges between musical expression and ‘inner growth’

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1461380042000281767

Music Education Research

Volume 6, Issue 3, 2004 pp. 327-342

Daniel Perreta

Abstract:

This paper aims to establish a link between the felt quality in musical expression and the psycho-somatic structure of the person playing. This includes specific areas of the body, a corresponding set of emotions and thought patterns, as well as the deeper needs of the person. Discernment of felt quality is facilitated by using the symbolic reference system of the five Indian and Greek elements earth, water, fire, air and space. This framework not only enables the therapist to locate a client’s limitations or blockages, but also a means of understanding how to work on them, thus ultimately improving their musicality and well-being. The findings are drawn from the author’s work as a music-therapist with adult clients as well as with young autistic, psychotic and disharmonic children, aged 2-8 in a day clinic in central France. Within that work, strong evidence has been found for seven major neuro-musical thresholds, that, when worked on, can bring about substantial changes in a person.

Keywords: neuromusical threshold, music therapy, musixal expression