Breaking news for music therapy in Northern Ireland

Landmark music therapy trial to be conducted in Northern Ireland

03 December 2009 Queen's University, Belfast

Queen’s University Belfast is to play a major role in the biggest trial ever conducted to investigate how music therapy can help children and young people with severe mental health problems.

Researchers from the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Queen’s will work on the landmark project with Northern Ireland Music Therapy Trust (NIMTT), a charity providing music therapy services to people with disabilities and disorders who have profound communication difficulties.

NIMTT has been awarded £326,164 from the Big Lottery Fund’s Research programme, to carry out Music in Mind - the largest study ever undertaken into the effects of music therapy on children and young people with severe mental health problems – with Queen’s.

The therapy will be trialled over a three year period on over 200 children and young people to test whether it improves their communication, self-confidence and self-esteem.

MELODY GARNOT - Music therapy discovered her...

And you owe it to your ears to discover this gem for yourself!
Sophie Bruce 2008-02-29 (GET THE FULL BBC REVIEW HERE)

This debut will inevitably draw comparisons to Norah Jones and Madeleine Peyroux – but don't fall into the trap of believing it. Because behind the sweeping classic melodies and dreamy piano lie the striking lyrics and edgy tone of Melody Garnot – and beyond them, an unbelievable story of courage against the odds. Disabled after a 4X4 knocked her off her bike at 19, Melody only found her voice while receiving music therapy as she recovered. The recordings she made in a wheelchair at her hospital bedside were eventually released in 2005 as Some Lessons – The Bedroom Sessions.

Autism: The Musical

This was on More4 at the weekend and I missed it! I hope to catch it again on sky player. For more goto the website. Heres a review from the New York Times.....

A Season of Song, Dance and Autism

By HUGH HART

Published: March 23, 2008

ON a recent afternoon Elaine Hall, a petite acting coach, sat on the floor of the bare-bones rec room at Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services and guided a half-dozen kids with autism through a finger-pointing, call-and-response game called Zip Zap. Then came a group singalong as the children crooned "Our circle is ready to start/Come share ideas, come share your heart" over and over. Before long Josh, Zoey, Shira and their friends were bunny-hopping across the room and improvising wild solo jigs to giddy applause.

This is the Miracle Project, subject of the documentary "Autism: The Musical," which has its debut Tuesday on HBO. It chronicles the 2005-6 incarnation of Ms. Hall's program by tracking a rambunctious cast of children with autism — and their parents — as they prepare to put on a show.

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Start your collection

Hi guys, I was in town today looking for a present for Mum's 50th when I found something that people might be interested in. There's a shop called Indigeno Designs in Arthur's Quay Shopping center (the one with the Tesco in it) that does all Eastern/African clothes and jewelry and stuff, and at the minute they're doing a clearance sale on their African style instruments. It's mostly small things like shakers and small guiro's, with some larger drums, tambourines, and also some tuned instruments. It's all reduced to clear so it might be a good opportunity to pick up a couple of things on the cheap, start your collection. Things like this could come in handy in group work and can be quite expensive.

Aged Care Lecture

Hi guys, hope everyone had a good weekend off there.

Here's just the two video's that Oonagh showed us last week.

Using Music to Ease Patient Stress During Surgery

Using Music to Ease Patient Stress During Surgery

Harlem Gospel Choir at LIT

Harlem Gospel Choir will be playing at Limerick Institue of Technology on Wednesday 18th November this year. Tickets are pretty pricey at €33, but probably worth every penny. Formed in 1988 the choir made its highly acclaimed debut in New York's Cotton Club the same year. Famously backed U2 on 'Angels of Harlem'.

Founder member Allen Bailey has worked in the entertainment industry for over 30 years having been promotional director for major artists such as Lionel Ritchie, Prince, Michael Jackson, Mr. T and Isaac Hayes.

The Eigenharp

The most revolutionary new instrument in the last 60yrs, see the BBC video here..

You can hear it with your eyes too

A couple of weeks ago, during Dr Gilbertson's lecture in the Arts In Health module, we were shown a section of a film/animation by Paul Simpson called Advanced Beauty.

Advanced Beauty. Film 12 of 18. Paul Simpson (UK)


Here the relationship between the auditory and the visual was explored. Later, when I watched the film again, I was reminded of the music video for 'Star Guitar' by The Chemical Brothers, directed by Michel Gondry.



I think it's a really amazing video, and links in pretty well with the topics that came up in class, so I thought I'd throw it up on the blog. If you'd not seen it before, how long did it take you to realize that the music and the passing landscape are linked?

For anyone who's interested in film, Michel Gondry is a guy well worth looking up. He's done some amazing music video's and animations, in a very unique and quirky way.


Here's a clip from a documentary about him where he develops a 'piant piano' and get's Bjork to test it - he has done many of Bjork's music video's. I think this links in a little with what we were talking about too.




P.S. blogger.com is linked to google and gmail, so anyone with a gmail account can activate a blogger account by signing in on blogger with your gmail details. It'd just mean that if you post or leave a comment that we'll know who was talking, rather than everyone being 'Music Therapy Blog'.

Edit: I've sent blogger invites to first years with gmail accounts. Anyone and everyone else can add themselves by signing in as Music Therapy Blog (details in Lucia's e-mail), clicking on settings, the permissions, then add authors by putting in your e-mail.

The Soldiers Playlist

I don't know if people are into their podcasts or not, but I get -among others - the Guardian's Science Weekly. It can be dull enough at times but mostly it's pretty interesting, covering a wide range of topics. Anyway, this weeks podcast contains an interview with a music theorist called Jonathan Pieslak about his study of the types of music listened to by soldiers in Iraq, and the function that this music has for them.

Here's the link to the Guardian science blog, where there is a short piece about the story and links to the podcast if you fancy it.

WELCOME!

World's of Difference

Brenda Kennedy author musician and artist from Belfast was featured in the Sunday Independent magazine with 
her son Kenneth Hall who has AS. Kenneth published a book called "Asperger Syndrome, the Universe and Everything" 
when he was ten years old. Since then Brenda was also diagnosed with AS and found happiness in playing music. 

She has since released her own albums and published books on, 'Appreciating Asperger Ayndrome',

'Parenting a Child with Asperger Syndrome' and 'Asperger Syndrome, The Swan and The Burglar'.(Jessica Kingsley Publishers, www.jkp.com)

www.brendakennedyireland.com