Feel Good Friday. Seriously, It Only Takes Nine Minutes.

Just a fun pointer today to an article in the 2/4/2020 edition of classicalfm.com that examines a new report from the British Academy of Sound Therapy that apparently quantifies the amount of time it takes the average person to experience a therapeutic effect from listening to music.

Their study, Music as Medicine, tested 7,581 participants and found that 89 percent believed music to be essential for their health and wellbeing, so there’s no doubt that it plays an important part in our daily lives.

While 90.15 percent participants used music to relax, 81.80 percent used it to make them feel happy, 46.5 percent to process and/or release sadness, and 32.53 percent to aid concentration.

On a related note, kidsburgh.org published an article highlighting the upcoming retirement of Pittsburgh Symphony violist, Penny Anderson Brill. The connection to the above study is Brill plans on spending time expanding her existing programs that use music for therapeutic benefit.

After wondering why music therapy was not used more often in hospitals, she connected with music therapists and began the advocacy part of her crusade. Her first success was with local foundations, which funded two hospital music therapy positions.

Brill’s pioneering work has led to more official and expansive music therapy efforts at local institutions. Children’s Hospital’s infrastructure now enables her to expand from one-on-one contact to sessions with a small group of kids. Those sessions can be broadcast into the rooms of patients who are immunocompromised.

I’ve seen Penny’s work in action and can say she doesn’t even need nine minutes.