Musical improvisation and health: a review

Abstract

There is an expanding field of research into how making or listening to music can improve wellbeing. As a spontaneous, social, creative nonverbal process unfolding in real time, musical improvisation between individuals is a unique psychological phenomenon distinct from other areas of musical activity. It may therefore have an influence on health or wellbeing distinct from other musical behaviours, and from other components of a musical intervention. Given the psychological complexity of this behaviour it is important to establish the parameters of improvisation, the effects on health or wellbeing that are perceived or claimed for it, and any mechanisms understood to bring about these effects. To establish this, literature was reviewed that explicitly investigates or theorises about the capacity of musical improvisation to influence health or wellbeing. Only work examining its application within music therapy was identified. The behaviours and interactions that constitute improvisation during music therapy are clearly defined. Improvisation in music therapy is seen to have specific benefits for particular populations including the amelioration of neurological damage, improvements in mental health conditions, reductions in stress and anxiety, and improved communication and joint attention behaviours in children with autistic spectrum disorders. Four unique characteristics of musical improvisation are identified as underlying these effects: its potential to link conscious with unconscious processes, the demands on attention of absorption in a creative process, the non-verbal social and creative interaction experienced, and the capacity for expressing difficult or repressed emotions without having to articulate these verbally. Although improvisation is undertaken in music therapy for a purpose distinct from that of improvisation in other contexts, its processes can be seen as substantively similar, suggesting that improvising in itself may offer intrinsic benefits to health or wellbeing to broader populations and outwith the therapeutic context. Based on this review, a model is proposed for how improvisation in music can influence the health or wellbeing of those involved.

The effect of resonance frequency breathing when used as a preparatory exercise in music psychotherapy: A single-case experimental study of a client with anxiety disorder

“…We would like to propose that the intrinsic qualities of music-making, being similar to the ones of RFB, support and sustain the emotional opening process that is initiated by RFB. Indeed, one of the key features of music improvisations is to help clients with the expression of difficult emotions, by offering them a nonverbal form of communication (MacDonald & Wilson, 2014). This is similar to the postulated effects of RFB, which are to facilitate the emergence of negative emotions, while at the same time making this confrontation bearable.…”

Favouring emotional processing in improvisational music therapy through resonance frequency breathing: a single-case experimental study with a healthy client

“…Indeed, one of the core characteristics of music improvisations is to facilitate the expression of difficult or repressed emotions by bypassing the need for verbal communication (MacDonald & Wilson, 2014). We, therefore, hypothesised that the addition of RFB would support and enhance the benefits that clients already derive from improvisational music therapy, for example by helping them regulate the difficult emotions that might arise during improvisations.…”

The neurochemistry and social flow of singing: bonding and oxytocin

“…As stated previously, the current study tested our procedures using typically functioning student musicians. Future researchers might employ the use of music improvisation in dyadic and group settings with non-diagnosed populations (this could include both musicians and non-musicians) first to facilitate positive social interactions and elicit desired nonmusical responses (MacDonald and Wilson, 2014 ). Once an understanding of biochemistry and flow during singing for typically functioning people is obtained, clinical research with appropriate populations can be pursued.…”