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Madoud (is that what you want us to call you?) said: >Give a break...well I think the question has merit. I am a >psychotherapist >in private practice and the whole field of music therapy is fascinating.. >sure there is a lot of cosmic foo-foo but the ability of the brain to >entrain >with rhythm and repetition and tone is is seriously studied. >... Very interesting. I find it fundamental that you teach more about this application of music because turn some lonely loopers mania into a usefull contribution for health and education. When I started looping in '85, I lived with a photographer and he soon invited me to a dream trip with a sequence of slides with clouds. A therapist joined us on this flight too and called me for a group therapy where amongst other processes he guided dream trips (Traumreisen), meditations into symbolic stories of the kind: " you go into a forest.... you suffer in a field of scratching plants.... you come to a lake and feel it is your true home..." (sounds ridiculous here, but cleans the mind when done right). Such process becomes a lot more effective with music that fluently follows these phases. I also once supported a Yoga class. It helped helped while it was live. The recording did not serve again, because the music has to follow the sequence and speed of the exercizes, not reverse (just like I want to tap my loop tempo, not follow a preset :-). I think I learned a lot from those processes for free improvs, where the public is not guided to such a trip (no words) but nevertheless ends up going on one and maybe even in a more true way than by following verbal instructions (material symbols as oposit to musical archetypes). But to do this right, the musicians have to study those archetypes and maybe use them in a conscient sequence? It that what they teach to music therapists? Loop music is especially apropriate for such work for several reasons: - Repetition has a special effect on the brain (can you please say a bit more about this Madoud?) - It allowes a single person to create a broad fluent sound. If I have to comuncate with other musicians, its hard to comunicate enough with the terapist or painter or whatever the other medium is. - Its the most economic way to play without preprogramming (since a preprogrammed sequence hardly fits exactly the needs). You can play for hours without getting tired and the equipment can be one instrument with a small rack, connected to a CD player amplifier (since you dont need much volume). >I am interested in producing CDs individualized for some clients. >anyone else exploring this area? The same year I came to the same proposual: Personal music. I visited sick friends, talked to them, then played and left them the tape. There is no general healing music just like there is no general remedy. I tried to play in a hospital to help everybody in there. But the patients are suffering totally distinct disequilibrium and the staff has to work in the same sound. Only a pretty meaningless music fits for everyone. I dont believe in desease oriented music like "cancer-music" either. Maybe there is a sound for each organ, each meridian, each chakra, but I did not hear firm proposuals so far. To find the correct sound for a patient is very delicate, intuitive and a responsability - I did not have time, information and courage to follow the idea. So I was glad to read the posts of Stephan and Madoud, thank you. ---> http://Matthias.Grob.org