A couple of years ago I read an article that cited research from MIT suggesting that “human brains don’t just recognize music – our evolution has actually produced a dedicated neural circuit for it.” The researchers were excited about how continued studies might unfold.
We already know that music positively affects our psychology and biology. It causes our brains to release dopamine, and decreases our perception of pain. Music benefits our cardiovascular system when blood vessels relax and open. It can help depression, chronic pain and anxiety. Learning to play music actually changes our brains for the better and benefits our memory, creativity, and attention span. Research shows that music improves our ability to process information, and that singing can help stroke patients recover their language skills. According to a Harvard Health article, “Music therapy can help people who are recovering from a stroke or traumatic brain injury that has damaged the left-brain region responsible for speech. Because singing ability originates in the right side of the brain, people can work around the injury to the left side of their brain by first singing their thoughts and then gradually dropping the melody. Former U.S. Representative Gabby Giffords used this technique to enable her to testify before a Congressional committee two years after a gunshot wound to her brain destroyed her ability to speak.”
And as if that isn’t enough for you, in her book The Power of Music, Elena Mannes notes that “scientists have found that music stimulates more parts of the brain than any other human function.”
Most of us in the bluegrass world don’t have to rely solely on research to tell us what we already know. Our personal experiences reflect the truth to the science. Some of us see it first hand when we play for a convalescing friend, or when a stroke patient responds for the first time to our serenade. We see it when children become entranced with a musical storyline. Many of us have personal experience with differently-abled folks responding to our music, who in turn teach us a thing or two.
We pretty much know how to self-soothe with music, and we’ve felt the collective healing that comes when a shared performance transports us to the ethereal. Today, after grappling with current world events, I consciously made a move to restore myself to wholeness by listening to this video clip. The harmonies from Keith Whitley and Ralph Stanley on the live recording “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone” are the perfect example of how music can heal. You can listen to it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jylb5NznEs
That ending harmony though, right? And here is what I know: that when we become caught in the chaotic undertow of life, listening to music, singing music, and playing music affects us on a primal level. Folks whose viewpoints and ideologies can divide elsewhere, find common ground when they play together. I was recently involved in a group situation where emotions were charged and the group was divided. As what I can only guess was a nervous response on my part, I started singing “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone” under my breath. The angriest guy suddenly leaned into my personal space and said, “Hey, I know that song! Are you a bluegrasser?” At that moment the chemistry of the encounter changed immediately, and perhaps it was our neurons synchronizing. The group tension released and we went on to find common ground.
If this recording of “Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone”, when you listen to it, doesn’t change your immediate chemistry, I don’t know what can.
