Hitting the healing notes

Music Therapy is inviting increasing employment in the conservative Indian environment because of its greater social acceptability - it has always been part of our social milieu and traditions. There is still substantial social reluctance to admitting to emotional and neurological disabilities and seeking possibly invasive medical intervention. Musical notes are substantially therapeutic.

Rajam Shanker, born 1952, is a graduate in Carnatic Music from the Telugu University, Hyderabad and Sangeeta Alankara with distinction from Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya, the National Music University. She was initiated into the practice of Indian Traditional Music Therapy by her mentor and Guru, Sangeetha Mahamahopadhyaya Late Sri Kollegal R Subramanyam, the eminent Vaggeyakara, lyricist, musician and grammarian.

She also has a Masters in Vedic Astrology and researches its employment as a medical evaluation and diagnostic tool. She lives and works in Hyderabad and has been an instructor, moderator and music examiner for senior level assessments, tutoring students between the ages of 6 to 60 for over three decades, emphasising on her students receiving a firm foundation and detailed grasp of Carnatic Music theory, grammar and practice.

Indian classical music, its infinite application variables and importantly, its spiritual connect are used by the music therapists as a means of establishing communication with the human body’s main and subsidiary energy centres; it’s extremely precise and elaborate structure of ragas, swaras, srutis and talas largely facilitates the requirement of specific design and calibrated delivery of music as therapeutic intervention.

Rajam says, “Substantially, it is face-to-face; one-to-one. Clients could be verbal or non-verbal, communicative or otherwise, individuals or groups, participation could be active or passive – the choice of techniques employed by the therapist will be determined by these variables. Preliminary evaluation helps determine what caused or triggered the disability and/or current state of distress.

You deal with the root causes, not the symptoms. In therapeutic intervention, I reiterate, it is calibrated and client specific – there are no one-size-fits-all-over-the-counter remedies. The advantage of multi-disciplinary collaboration is that it provides for systematic evaluation and clinical validation of visible and perceptible changes observed. To benefit from it one needs to have both, a receptive frame of mind and positive attitude for music therapy to be effective.”

She adds, “Every individual’s need and response to Music Therapy is unique. One cannot specify the duration required by the client to practice. The progress stages too vary depending upon individual degree of disability. For normal individuals however, like Yoga, the use of music to heal, improve and maintain wellness can be a lifelong practice.”