Posts by L. Samuel Gracida
Sound Health – Say It With Rhythm!
The second concert of the conference Sound Health featured Dr. Nina Kraus, Mickey Heart (drummer of the Grateful Dead), Zakir Hussain, and Adam Gazzaley. The focus of this day of performances and talks was rhythm.
Mickey Hart
Mickey Hart is a great drummer who plays with The Grateful Dead. For his part of the talk he focused on the personal importance of rhythm in life….
Cleveland Clinic Children’s Partnership
Sam’s Fans started a new partnership with Cleveland Clinic Children’s this year. In this blog post, we explain to you how the partnership started and what you help us fund with your donations. We also tell you how CCC will further the mission of using music and art therapy to serve seriously ill children and their families….
Read MoreConference Explores Music and the Mind
Last year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts put together an event with the National Endowment for the Arts called: Music and the Mind, Changing Our Children’s Lives Through Music Engagement. This event brought together musicians, neuroscientists, music therapists, and other professionals to explore links between music, rhythm,…
Read MoreLet’s Say YES to Music Therapy!
Yes Man
I recently watched Yes Man, a movie starring Jim Carrey. It is a fun movie with a valuable message. Its message is that we should take advantage of the opportunities that present to us. As I was watching, there was one scene that caught my attention as a music therapy student. About halfway through the movie,…
Life is Better When You Improvise
“The thing about improvisation is that it’s not about what you say. It’s listening to what other people say. It’s about what you hear.”
-Paul Merton
Music therapists employ all kinds of methods in their work. Whether their method is to play a song or to let the patient/client play an instrument, music therapists know how to use music to achieve a goal….
The American Music Therapy Association
Music therapy is an established profession in the US since the last century. The American Music Therapy Association and the organizations that came before it helped shape the world of music therapy in the USA. The purpose of the AMTA is the “progressive development of the therapeutic use of music in rehabilitation, special education, and community settings.”….
Read MoreThe Medicine of Salsa
A reflection from the last issue of the Journal of Music and Medicine caught my attention and I knew I had to share it! It is a poem and song written by Marjorie Jacobs.
Background
Marjorie Jacobs is a psychiatric rehabilitation practitioner at the Boston University Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation where she designs and teaches promising group interventions to adults and young adults diagnosed with a serious mental illness….
Relaxing Music Recommended by Music Therapists
Music is for many a self-prescribed method of relaxation. Listening to music is a simple way to engage your mind in other activities and allow yourself to decompress. Many of us instinctively know that and we are drawn to music to seek destress and relaxation.
Science backs it up
Studies have indicated that music can induce a relaxation response….
Are “Music Therapy” Videos on YouTube Actually Music Therapy?
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Read MoreMusic Therapy Does Wonders for The Older Population!
At Sam’s Fans, we support music and art therapy mainly for children with seriously ill children and their families. Nevertheless, music therapy is also great for other populations. In this blog post, we will introduce the idea about music therapy for the older population.
Introduction
The UN adopted the United Nations Principles for Older Persons in 1991,…