Erin Smith
BIMM Institute Brighton (ID 297)
MUSPR 320 MUSIC DISSERTATION
Criteria covered – (A.C. ?)
Your Name Erin Smith
Course Name Music Diploma performance drums
Centre Name BIMM Institute Brighton (ID 297)
Unit Number and Name MUSPR 320 MUSIC DISSERTATION
Criteria Covered by this Final Dissertation
Work
Date of Submission 28/05/2020
Word Count 2054
Does music therapy benefit those with mental health issues?
My motivation for this is I myself suffer from mental health issues and playing and listening to mu-
sic really helps to calm and soothe me, and I want to find out if that is the same for anyone else. I
hoped to find out that music therapy is becoming a more well-known therapy for everyone and if
people believe that music therapy does anything at all.
My methods for answering my question are using social media polls for my primary research as
well as questionnaires and then books and articles for my secondary research. I did not use online
books as I could not find anything that discussed music therapy.
Mainly my results showed that music therapy does benefit those with mental health issues. The re-
sults mainly answered my topic question with what I thought would have been the answer, how -
ever, there are negative people out there.
My conclusion is that I agree that music therapy benefits, however, the older generation do not
agree as a lot of people think mental illness is just in their heads and that it is not real.
The key points I will be discussing is, peoples opinion on mental health, how well people know about music
therapy, who the therapy benefits for example ages and types of mental health issues as well as the types
of music therapy that is out there. Main points I will be talking about in the discussion part of my dissertation
is ‘is music therapy giving those with dementia false hope?’ Along with ‘what is music therapy’ from the
Page 1 of 6
, Erin Smith
BIMM Institute Brighton (ID 297)
MUSPR 320 MUSIC DISSERTATION
Criteria covered – (A.C. ?)
American music therapy association. I wanted to find positive research and negative research to give me
two sides of the topic question so that I am really able to give myself an answer.
Primary research.
Instagram story polls – this ensured I had plenty of people giving answers from people aged thirteen to fifty-
nine. As these are the people I have on my Instagram. Instagram was a good way for me to get results as
the poll stays on my own personal story for twenty-four hours allowing for any friends I have around the
globe to answer, I have a few friends from New Zealand as well as America and France so this gave me a
wide variety of results. I asked do you know what music therapy is? Would you ever take part in a session?
Who do you think it benefits (elders, kids, teens)? Do you think it is beneficial? What types of music therapy
have you heard of?
Questionnaires – Based mainly at other students at BIMM to allow me to have resulted from music stu-
dents.
Interviews with those who live with me – To give me results on people who share my genes to see if we
have similar opinions. I decided to only send the questionnaire to people at BIMM as they study music and I
wanted to see if any of them have ever had a music therapy session or even just heard about music ther -
apy. I asked them if they knew what music therapy is? Have they ever wanted to take a session of music
therapy? Do they have any knowledge about music therapy? Do they think it helps anyone?
Interviewing those who I live with - As a lot of my research was done while being in isolation I used the time
to find out from people who I share genes with what their opinions and knowledge about music therapy is. I
asked them if they knew what music therapy is? Have they ever wanted to take a session of music ther -
apy? Do they have any knowledge about music therapy? Do they think it helps anyone? I asked them the
same questions I did with the questionnaires but with a smaller audience of answers.
Secondary research.
Musictherarpy.org - This is a music therapy organisation with personal stories written by those
who have had sessions of music therapy, I chose this source as I knew it would be reliable.
Bamt.org - Again this is another organisation that specialises in music therapy.
Theatlantic.com - This is an article about giving people with dementia false hope, I chose this so
that I have to sides of an argument.
The five points I will be discussing are, what is music therapy if music therapy is giving dementia
patience false hope, the opinions of the different generations on music therapy and mental health,
is it a waste of money for people to have music therapy and does it reduce symptoms of psycho-
logical disorders including schizophrenia. I would like to talk about these matters as they were the
biggest points to always come up as I was finding information about music therapy and mental
health.
What is music therapy? According to https://www.musictherapy.org/about/musictherapy/ ‘music
therapy is Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accom -
plish individualised goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has
completed an approved music therapy program’, researching this organisations website I found
Page 2 of 6
BIMM Institute Brighton (ID 297)
MUSPR 320 MUSIC DISSERTATION
Criteria covered – (A.C. ?)
Your Name Erin Smith
Course Name Music Diploma performance drums
Centre Name BIMM Institute Brighton (ID 297)
Unit Number and Name MUSPR 320 MUSIC DISSERTATION
Criteria Covered by this Final Dissertation
Work
Date of Submission 28/05/2020
Word Count 2054
Does music therapy benefit those with mental health issues?
My motivation for this is I myself suffer from mental health issues and playing and listening to mu-
sic really helps to calm and soothe me, and I want to find out if that is the same for anyone else. I
hoped to find out that music therapy is becoming a more well-known therapy for everyone and if
people believe that music therapy does anything at all.
My methods for answering my question are using social media polls for my primary research as
well as questionnaires and then books and articles for my secondary research. I did not use online
books as I could not find anything that discussed music therapy.
Mainly my results showed that music therapy does benefit those with mental health issues. The re-
sults mainly answered my topic question with what I thought would have been the answer, how -
ever, there are negative people out there.
My conclusion is that I agree that music therapy benefits, however, the older generation do not
agree as a lot of people think mental illness is just in their heads and that it is not real.
The key points I will be discussing is, peoples opinion on mental health, how well people know about music
therapy, who the therapy benefits for example ages and types of mental health issues as well as the types
of music therapy that is out there. Main points I will be talking about in the discussion part of my dissertation
is ‘is music therapy giving those with dementia false hope?’ Along with ‘what is music therapy’ from the
Page 1 of 6
, Erin Smith
BIMM Institute Brighton (ID 297)
MUSPR 320 MUSIC DISSERTATION
Criteria covered – (A.C. ?)
American music therapy association. I wanted to find positive research and negative research to give me
two sides of the topic question so that I am really able to give myself an answer.
Primary research.
Instagram story polls – this ensured I had plenty of people giving answers from people aged thirteen to fifty-
nine. As these are the people I have on my Instagram. Instagram was a good way for me to get results as
the poll stays on my own personal story for twenty-four hours allowing for any friends I have around the
globe to answer, I have a few friends from New Zealand as well as America and France so this gave me a
wide variety of results. I asked do you know what music therapy is? Would you ever take part in a session?
Who do you think it benefits (elders, kids, teens)? Do you think it is beneficial? What types of music therapy
have you heard of?
Questionnaires – Based mainly at other students at BIMM to allow me to have resulted from music stu-
dents.
Interviews with those who live with me – To give me results on people who share my genes to see if we
have similar opinions. I decided to only send the questionnaire to people at BIMM as they study music and I
wanted to see if any of them have ever had a music therapy session or even just heard about music ther -
apy. I asked them if they knew what music therapy is? Have they ever wanted to take a session of music
therapy? Do they have any knowledge about music therapy? Do they think it helps anyone?
Interviewing those who I live with - As a lot of my research was done while being in isolation I used the time
to find out from people who I share genes with what their opinions and knowledge about music therapy is. I
asked them if they knew what music therapy is? Have they ever wanted to take a session of music ther -
apy? Do they have any knowledge about music therapy? Do they think it helps anyone? I asked them the
same questions I did with the questionnaires but with a smaller audience of answers.
Secondary research.
Musictherarpy.org - This is a music therapy organisation with personal stories written by those
who have had sessions of music therapy, I chose this source as I knew it would be reliable.
Bamt.org - Again this is another organisation that specialises in music therapy.
Theatlantic.com - This is an article about giving people with dementia false hope, I chose this so
that I have to sides of an argument.
The five points I will be discussing are, what is music therapy if music therapy is giving dementia
patience false hope, the opinions of the different generations on music therapy and mental health,
is it a waste of money for people to have music therapy and does it reduce symptoms of psycho-
logical disorders including schizophrenia. I would like to talk about these matters as they were the
biggest points to always come up as I was finding information about music therapy and mental
health.
What is music therapy? According to https://www.musictherapy.org/about/musictherapy/ ‘music
therapy is Music Therapy is the clinical and evidence-based use of music interventions to accom -
plish individualised goals within a therapeutic relationship by a credentialed professional who has
completed an approved music therapy program’, researching this organisations website I found
Page 2 of 6
