Issue date: 11/6/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Daily Vidette Archive Photo Sophomore music education major, Elizabeth Sachtleben practices the piano in the basement of Manchester Hall.

Media Credit: Daily Vidette Archive Photo Music therapy utilizes music as a way to help people communicate with themselves.

Music is something that is integrated into the everyday lives of all students. It is becoming virtually impossible to avoid.

However, can music provide something more than just a distraction or form of entertainment? Can it help achieve goals that are non-music related, almost as some type of therapy?

The answer to these questions is yes. Music can be used as therapy.

Crescendo Music Therapy Student Organization was created to help raise music awareness in the community and on-campus of music therapy, its benefits and also to connect music therapy undergrads and graduate students.

"Music Therapy is the use of music to achieve non-musical goals. It is the use of music intervention so that if you are working on for instance speech goals, you might use something musical to work on those speech goals. It is an alternative creative therapy," Spruha Baxi, senior music therapy major and president of Crescendo, said.

Currently, Crescendo has around 30 members ranging from freshmen undergrads all the way to graduate students. Crescendo has everything a typical Registered Student Organization would have, including weekly meetings and an executive board.

ISU is 1 out of only 72 schools in the United States to offer a music therapy program, 1 out of 2 in Illinois to offer a music therapy undergrad and the only school in the state to offer a graduate program for music therapy.

Music therapy is a growing field here at ISU and the current music therapy program on campus consists of about 70 people.

The kind of therapy done with music is extremely diverse, as well as the types of people it can benefit.

"You can use music therapy from any range of populations, all the way from prenatal, or before childbirth, to hospice, or a form of treatment for the terminally ill, where as with hospice you're looking at end of life care, self expression," Baxi said.

"These are the goals you might have for your client," Baxi continued. "To have those kinds of releases, whereas somewhere in the middle you will have music therapy in mental institutions, mental and adult psychology, depression, schizophrenia and eating disorders. With children there are so many educational goals, counting, numbers, colors and social skills."

The reason this approach works is due to the universal appeal of music.

"Music therapy is using music in a way that helps reach goals that other kinds of therapies can not reach. Because music is so universal and unique, it is reaching clients and patients in a way that other therapies can't," Baxi said.

For Crescendo, one of the most crucial events of the year is the annual trip to the National American Music Association Conference.

"Even though we are the only school with a graduate program in the state, we actually do not have any professional practicing music therapist in this entire area," Baxi said.

"Generally where as education majors they have to go do observations, we can not do that because we do not have any opportunities."

Music therapy may be growing, but the field is still relatively narrow, and the ability to get rare professional acquaintances makes the conference key for Crescendo members.

"So going to conference where we meet 300 to 400 actual professional and student music therapists, it is the only opportunity we have to be surrounded by that whole atmosphere. For us, that is a really big thing," Baxi said.

The upcoming conference is being held in Louisville, Kentucky from Nov. 15 to 18.

There will be about 30 ISU students attending the conference.

Crescendo has an event coming up on Nov. 10 called Music Therapy Revealed: Music in Action. It will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Kemp Recital Hall.

The event hopes to bring awareness to the campus and inform the community about music therapy, by having faculty and possibly some music therapists speak.

The event will also showcase what Crescendo is doing in the community and give a little insight into what it takes to be music therapists.

There will also be performances from students. While there is a $2 donation.

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