“Such intimacy is rare in everyday life”: The benefits of playing music can’t be understated
Whether you’re driving in the car, riding in a lift, or attending a concert, music is everywhere. For many, our involvement in creating music stopped outside of high school music classes and attempts to learn the recorder, keyboard, guitar, or to sing.
Or it might have included playing in the school band, taking music lessons as a child, or maybe even continuing to play at university.
But playing music is something that often falls to the wayside as we get older, with the demands of work, home and family taking priority.
Given that playing music has benefits for our mental health, including easing anxiety and depression, feelings of satisfaction with life and health, and even reduced alexithymia - a dysfunction affecting emotional awareness, social attachment and how we relate to others - it’s an activity that many of us can reap benefits from.
For Stephen O’Doherty, the conductor and musical director of Golden Kangaroos Concert Band, music has been an outlet for expressing himself creatively and maintaining his wellbeing - and he has seen similar effects in many of the players he works and plays with.
“Having outlets to express myself creatively through musical performance has been absolutely essential in maintaining my wellbeing and having a stable quality of life,” he tells OverSixty.
“The (Golden Kangaroos) have many members who have joined later in life. For some it is a chance to take up the same opportunity they gave their children, encouraging them to learn music at school and wishing they could have done the same.
“For others it is the idea that playing music will help them to keep their brains active as they enter later life. For others, or perhaps for all of the above, joining a community band is a way of finding their tribe, their people, a safe place where people of a like mind can learn, grow, and contribute together.
“Knowing the many life stories of our members, I can say with absolute alacrity that band contributes to their identity and self-fulfilment in ways that may never be explicitly known but are formative and extremely significant.”
With the benefits of playing music established, taking music into a community environment brings with it additional benefits to our wellbeing. In a study published in the London Review of Education, Dr Debra Rodgers, whose PhD focused on community music and mental health-related stigma, argued that community music can be beneficial in helping both to distract participants from their personal worries and as a place where they can interact without fear or judgement.
O’Doherty agrees, adding that playing in a group is a way for many to truly be themselves.
“We know that learning music has beneficial effects intellectually and emotionally. Learning or performing with others adds a social dimension that, I think, is critically important,” he says.
“At its best, playing in a well-run musical group helps us to express our emotions in a safe and structured way, and that is good for the soul. We are part of something bigger than ourselves and, when we play for an audience, we are (hopefully) gifting them a great experience. Enriching others also enriches us.
“For many, band is the place where they are most fulfilled. Where their contribution matters. Where they will be missed if absent. Where they are safe when expressing their creativity.
“To play music alone is good. It is personally satisfying and should not be underrated. But to play with others and achieve a pleasing outcome for an audience is a whole new level. It both fosters and requires a level of interpersonal communication between performers that is beyond words.
“Such intimacy is rare in everyday life. It enriches the human experience in a unique and very special way.”
For O’Doherty, playing music has had added benefits when it comes to his own mental health, including managing the symptoms of depression.
“Depression is a serious and debilitating condition which, untreated, will attack our self-worth and seriously affect our quality of life. I have lived with this condition for my entire life,” he explains.
“... if I can’t perform music I am not being fully me. I am somehow less than whole. Music is a way I find wholeness, an acceptance of who I am and of what I can contribute to the world around me.
“When a black mood sets in and starts attacking my self-worth, playing music is one of the few things that can restore me, and I find joy and purpose in seeing the beneficial impact on the members of our group.”
As for those who may have played music in the past or have always wanted to learn, O’Doherty suggests finding a safe place to give it a go.
“Many people go through the stage of leaving their earlier musical learning behind. After school or Uni life gets busy!” he says.
“I want to encourage people however to think about this: when you were the best version of yourself, was performing music part of the equation?
If the answer is yes (or even maybe) then do you not owe it to yourself and your loved ones to return? And if you’ve not yet tried to learn an instrument but have a yearning desire to express your creative instincts in this way, what do you have to lose?
“Find a safe place to explore your interest and give it a go! Creative expression is part of what it is to be truly human. Perhaps music is your pathway to a more fulsome life.”
Images: Stuart Coster (Supplied)