Music
“Where words fail music speaks” Hans Christian Andersen
This course is designed to allow adults with disabilities to participate at whatever level the individual feels most comfortable. It’s very inclusive and everyone is bound to find things they didn’t know they liked.
At Bletchingley Skills Centre we offer a carefully constructed and structured course which explores a full range of musical experience from improvised instruments, beats and notes, time signatures and orchestra sections, embracing music’s many forms from classical, through blues, pop, reggae, jazz to heavy metal! Musical traditions in different parts of the world are also explored along with with song composition. Each session enjoys the sing along fun of an opening, main and end song.
Music therapy is one of three types of ‘arts therapy’ alongside art and drama therapy. While a drama therapist uses role play and storytelling to help students explore their emotions, and an art therapist uses artistic media as their main mode of expression, music therapists use the power of music to encourage them to open up and communicate at multiple levels.
Music therapy can be used to support individuals with their emotional, cognitive, physical, communicative or social needs. It can aid physically by improving respiration, lowering blood pressure, improving cardiac output, reducing heart rate and relaxing muscle tension while great for reducing stress' common negative emotional side effects.
It’s a powerful tool because it is closely linked to emotional response, and is an all-inclusive part of human nature. Music helps us build connections crucially, enabling students to explore and develop their feelings without necessarily relying on words.
The audio track below is taken from an early song composition session in the current course: