Looking back at the first blog post I wrote on the definition of communication in the 21st century, I feel that my understanding of communication is pretty much the same. At the beginning of the semester I knew that there were many different ways to communicate with one another and I still know that today. I can see similarities from how people communicate now and how they did back then as well as differences in how we communicate today. One similarity that I have noticed is non-verbal communication. We give a thumbs up if something is going good, or a thumbs down when things are not so great. But how we communicate non-verbally has changed over time due to the use of technology. In the past, technology was not used as much as it is today, so people had to be face to face to actually see the actions an individual makes. Now, we have web calling apps such as Skype to see others through the internet. During the call you can see if they roll their eyes or if they smile when talking to you.

My favorite blog posts are the ones about consuming and the ones about music therapy. The consuming blog posts are my favorite because they allowed me think about the consumer I am. Also, it did not require any research because the blog posts were about me. I did not have to go on Google and search for what type of consumer Kathleen was because all the information I needed was all in me. I know what type of consumer I am and that made it easier to write about it. Another reason why the consumer blog posts are my favorite blog posts is because I feel that I can write more when the topic given relates to me. The music therapy blog posts are also my favorite because it is about two topics I really like. I love music and I am interested in the ­medical field, so to see how music affects the body, I wrote about music therapy. I know that if I had to write a research essay about something I was not interested in, I would not have given my best effort to write it. My least favorite blog post is the post about communication in the 21st century and what learning how to write means. It is my least favorite blog post because I did not know how to explain what learning how to write meant. To me, learning how to write means learning how to write. How much more is there to explain? This blog post is different from my favorite ones because it wasn’t asking me about how I communicate or how I write. If it had asked me that instead, I could have written a lot more than I have and I would have been much more interested in writing it.

If I had to define myself as a writer, I would say that I am not the best writer out there. When signing up for classes last semester, I was nervous to know that I would be taking English 101. Writing is not my strongest area. In fact, it is my weakest area. My worst writing comes out when I have to write on the spot with the clock ticking next to me. It is just too much pressure for me to do. For as long as I can remember, writing on the spot has always been a problem of mine. If you took a look at my SAT and ACT scores, the writing portion is always the lowest score. I would also say that I am a writer who likes to take baby steps. Some people did not see the point of blogging or like it, but it really helped me to build on my thoughts. If I was just given a big paper to write, I would not know what to include in my paper. I like to think of the blogs as a guide to writing a big paper. I found the blog posts to be most helpful when it came to writing the consumer essay. I did not know how to approach the essay and what to write about consumerism, but the blog prompts allowed me to really think about each aspect in consuming. In the end, I was able to put all the blogs together to create the final paper.

This semester I had to take English 102 (a class that helps students become better writers). I believe the reason for that was because I did not do well on the writing placement exam which was a timed writing test. I was embarrassed to be in English 102. I know I am not a good writer, but I did not want people knowing that. Despite not wanting to be in an English 102 class, it helped me understand what type of writer I am and how I write. English 102 forced me to reread my papers and blog posts, and revise them. Each week, I would bring in a blog post from English 101 and the feedback I received on my blog posts helped me because without it, I would not know how to go about revising it. It was through rereading and revising my pieces of writing that I learned what areas I could improve in.

I learned about the different techniques that could help me in the areas I struggle in when writing. For future writing assignments and writing exams, I will use the techniques that I learned and apply it. As a writer, I feel that I have improved from the time I began English 101 and 102. As long as I continue to utilize the tools that I have, I will continue to improve as a writer. Even though writing is my weakest area, I still try my hardest to accomplish all that needs to be done for this course. My lack of writing skills is not an excuse for me not to try hard at all.

If I had to define myself as a thinker, I would say that I am a logical thinker. Google defines a logical thinker as a careful person and someone who cannot leave anything out of order. It also says that logical thinkers are very well organized and cannot leave anything incomplete. It sounds like they described me. I know I am not that organized when it comes to writing, but when it comes to other things, I am very organized. The part about not leaving anything incomplete is on point. I always complete my homework. Sometimes I finish homework before it is due. I like to do things ahead of time so that if a problem occurs, I have enough time to fix it. That’s me thinking ahead. If anything can go wrong, it will.

If I had to define myself as an inventor, I would say that I am the type that contributes. I would not say that I am a creative inventor because I could not come up with any ideas when coming up with an invention mob. A group member came up with the idea to go to people’s doors with a camera and question and have them answer it. I contributed by coming up with questions to ask people and editing the video responses.

Looking back at the first blog post I wrote on the definition of communication in the 21st century, I feel that my understanding of communication is pretty much the same. Back then I knew that there were many different ways to communicate with one another and I still know that today.

My favorite blog posts are the ones about consuming and the ones about music therapy. The consuming blog posts are my favorite because they allowed me think about the consumer I am. Also, it did not require any research because the blog posts were about me. I did not have to go on Google and search for what type of consumer Kathleen was because all the information I needed was all in me. I know what type of consumer I am and that made it easier to write about it. Another reason why the consumer blog posts are my favorite blog posts is because I feel that I can write more when the topic given relates to me. The music therapy blog posts are also my favorite because it is about two topics I really like. I love music and I am interested in the medical field, so to see how music affects the body, I wrote about music therapy. I know that if I had to write a research essay about something I was not interested in, I would not have given my best effort to write it. My least favorite blog post is the post about communication in the 21st century and what learning how to write means. It is my least favorite blog post because I did not know how to explain what learning how to write meant. To me, learning how to write means learning how to write. How much more is there to explain? This blog post is different from my favorite ones because it wasn’t asking me about how I communicate or how I write. If it had asked me that instead, I could have written a lot more than I have and I would have been much more interested in writing it.

If I had to define myself as a writer, I would say that I am not the best writer out there. When signing up for classes last semester, I was nervous to know that I would be taking English 101. Writing is not my strongest area. In fact, it is my weakest area. My worst writing comes out when I have to write on the spot with the clock ticking next to me. It is just too much pressure for me to do. For as long as I can remember, writing on the spot has always been a problem of mine. If you took a look at my SAT and ACT scores, the writing portion is always the lowest score. I would also say that I am a writer who likes to take baby steps. Some people did not see the point of blogging or like it, but it really helped me to build on my thoughts. If I was just given a big paper to write, I would not know what to include in my paper. I like to think of the blogs as a guide to writing a big paper. I found the blog posts to be most helpful when it came to writing the consumer essay. I did not know how to approach the essay and what to write about consumerism, but the blog prompts allowed me to really think about each aspect in consuming. In the end, I was able to put all the blogs together to create the final paper.

This semester I had to take English 102 (a class that helps students become better writers). I believe the reason for that was because I did not do well on the writing placement exam which was a timed writing test. I was embarrassed to be in English 102. I know I am not a good writer, but I did not want people knowing that. Despite not wanting to be in an English 102 class, it helped me understand what type of writer I am and how I write. English 102 forced me to reread my papers and blog posts, and revise them. Each week, I would bring in a blog post from English 101 and the feedback I received on my blog posts helped me because without it, I would not know how to go about revising it. It was through rereading and revising my pieces of writing that I learned what areas I could improve in.

I learned about the different techniques that could help me in the areas I struggle in when writing. For future writing assignments and writing exams, I will use the techniques that I learned and apply it. As a writer, I feel that I have improved from the time I began English 101 and 102. As long as I continue to utilize the tools that I have, I will continue to improve as a writer. Even though writing is my weakest area, I still try my hardest to accomplish all that needs to be done for this course. My lack of writing skills is not an excuse for me not to try hard at all.

If I had to define myself as a thinker, I would say that I am a logical thinker. Google defines a logical thinker as a careful person and someone who cannot leave anything out of order. It also says that logical thinkers are very well organized and cannot leave anything incomplete. It sounds like they described me. I know I am not that organized when it comes to writing, but when it comes to other things, I am very organized. The part about not leaving anything incomplete is on point. I always complete my homework. Sometimes I finish homework before it is due. I like to do things ahead of time so that if a problem occurs, I have enough time to fix it. That’s me thinking ahead. If anything can go wrong, it will.

If I had to define myself as an inventor, I would say that I am the type that contributes. I would not say that I am a creative inventor because I could not come up with any ideas when coming up with an invention mob. A group member came up with the idea to go to people’s doors with a camera and question and have them answer it. I contributed by coming up with questions to ask people and editing the video responses.

My research paper is not perfect and can be improved. Some of the things I can do to improve my paper are:

1. Reread my paper
2. Add more details and support
3. Add photos
4. Put in any suggestions my classmates give me
5. Outline my paper to check for organization
6. and last, proofread

Proofreading is last because it would be a waste of time to proofread and then do all the major changes because more grammatically errors might be made.

The goal of this project was to get students out of their comfort zone, break their daily routine, and just put a smile on their face. Some people are afraid of showing their face on camera or doing something that they are not used to, but by placing a camera and question in front of their door to answer, they were able to overcome their fear and step out of their comfort zone. Many people do the same things every day including myself. To break other people’s daily routine, we set up a camera and question in front of their door. How often does that happen? Not very often. A change as small as a camera in front of their door can make a difference in a person’s day. The questions that we asked were funny, random, and not serious at all. We wanted to get people to smile and laugh to lighten up the mood.

Our initial invention mob idea was to place a camera with a question attached to the tripod in front of a person’s door. Our plan was to knock on a stranger’s door and run away. Kind of like ding dong ditch. When they opened their door, all they would see is the camera and question we put there. The whole point of running away was to get the person’s surprised reaction. If I was ever in a situation with a camera in front of me and no one around, I know I would be surprised, confused, and probably even close the door on the camera. When we proposed the idea to our classmates, they had a lot to suggest to us. They suggested that if we were going to just leave a camera out and people did not want to be videotaped, that we attach a little note that said if they did not want to be in the video, they can just say no thank you. Another person suggested that instead of attaching a note that we go to the dorms with surveys asking people if they would like to participate in our project. By doing the surveys we would not get people closing their doors without a response and we do not waste our time going to people who do not want to be in the video.

The first thing that we had to think about was what questions we would ask people. We figured we should ask easy and fun questions, and not serious ones so more people would be more likely to participate. The second thing we thought about was where we would get a camera to record people’s responses. We have our own personal cameras but the teacher suggested that we go the Academic Media Services here on campus to rent a camera and tripod instead. The camera would capture people’s reactions and the emotions expressed while answering the question. Once we had the questions we wanted to ask and the camera and tripod, we had to decide where we would film. We went to different dorms to get a range of personalities and different types of people. The Northside of campus has mostly sorority women, fraternity men, and athletes since it is close to Greek row and to the recreation center. Some dorms are either all women, all men, or coed. Other dorms had a majority of students with a certain major who live there or have an age restriction.

The first set of people that we went to were friends of ours. The first time doing this, we asked them to answer a question and they knew exactly when we would be there. We did not get the surprised reaction we wanted, but we did get them to smile and laugh. The second time around doing this, we asked friends as well as acquaintances. They agreed to participate in our project, but they did not know when we would be at their door. I noticed that the first time we knocked on people’s doors they were not all that surprised. I think it was because they knew when we would be at their door. But because I had asked some friends and did not tell them when we will be there, we got the surprised reactions we were hoping for. The third time we went out to knock on doors, we went to strangers doors. If they did not want to, they said no and we moved on.

My group and I decided that we would record people’s responses so that we could actually see the emotions expressed by them. If we had just written out their responses, we would not be able to get the same effects as actually watching the person answer the question. The purpose of recording people’s responses was to see the emotions they expressed, like excitement and happiness. We also uploaded the videos on to YouTube so that everyone can see it including anyone outside of Washington State University. People who do not attend Washington State University can see what type of students go here.

The people who participated in our invention mob were students from Washington State University. Because our project was in a dorm setting, it was more convenient for us to do it here on campus. We knocked on our friend’s doors, acquaintances doors, and stranger’s doors. We used a rented camera and tripod, and personal camera to film the student’s responses. We taped the questions we wanted to ask to the trip pod so that it could be seen by the student answering the question.

Some of the successes that we had were getting people to participate. We were able to get more than the minimum amount of twenty people to answer our questions. We found it easier to knock guys’ doors because they were more outgoing and willing to answer spontaneous questions while girls were harder to convince. Some of the girls that we had asked were so worried about how they looked. I am sure that if a camera was not involved they would have answered a question for us. Guys on the other hand did not care about their appearance. When we knocked on guys’ doors that we did not know, they were surprised, but they were not trying to hide from the camera. They just went with it. Although it was difficult to get girls to stand in front of a camera, we did get a good amount of guys and girls to participate in our invention mob project.

Some of the failures that we faced were the lighting, running away and hiding, people not being able to answer the question given to them, getting people to not hold back on their responses, renting a camera on a weekend, and editing the final video. The first two times we went to knock on people’s doors was around five in the afternoon when the sun was still out and shining. This was a problem because the sun would shine through people’s windows and because the sun was shining from behind them, it made their faces dark in the video and we could not see their facial expressions when they answered the question. Our second problem was running away and hiding after knocking on people’s doors. Because we were in a dorm hall, it was difficult for us to find any place to hide and by the time they opened their door, the person would see us running away. Another failure we had was people could not answer some of the questions that we had. So instead of giving them a surprise question, we had them choose a question they could answer. That kind of took away from the surprise element that we wanted because now the person knew what we were doing. We had a problem with getting people to answer a certain question without holding back. They did not want to say anything inappropriate because their responses were not anonymous. They felt that if they answered the question with all honesty, they would get in trouble. I feel that if their responses were anonymous, we would have gotten responses like the ones we read on WSU Secrets. Another problem that we ran into was not being able to rent a camera and tripod on the weekend. We had to use one of our own cameras. We did not have a tripod to use so I had to record the responses and stay as still as possible. Because we had to use a different camera, the qualities of the videos were not all the same. After all the doors we knocked on and all the responses we received, I had to edit the videos and put them all together. I found that my video editor on my laptop was not cooperating with me. On the videos taken on the rented camera, the sounds in the video were not synced with the motions though I did not have any difficulty editing the videos taken with my camera. Through many trials and errors, I found that I could edit the videos on YouTube instead. I was able to edit and combine all the responses into one video with no difficulty.

Although our project had to be modified a little bit and we did have our share of failures, our project was a success in the end.

Looking back at the first blog post I wrote on the definition of communication in the 21^st century, I feel that my understanding of communication is pretty much the same. Back then I knew that there were many different ways to communicate with one another and I still know that today.

My favorite blog posts are the ones about consuming and the ones about music therapy. The consuming blog posts are my favorite because they allowed me think about the consumer I am. Also, it did not require any research because the blog posts were about me. I did not have to go on Google and search for what type of consumer Kathleen was because all the information I needed was all in me. I know what type of consumer I am and that made it easier to write about it. Another reason why the consumer blog posts are my favorite blog posts is because I feel that I can write more when the topic given relates to me. The music therapy blog posts are also my favorite because it is about two topics I really like. I love music and I am interested in the ­medical field, so to see how music affects the body, I wrote about music therapy. I know that if I had to write a research essay about something I was not interested in, I would not have given my best effort to write it. My least favorite blog post is the post about communication in the 21^st century and what learning how to write means. It is my least favorite blog post because I did not know how to explain what learning how to write meant. To me, learning how to write means learning how to write. How much more is there to explain? This blog post is different from my favorite ones because it wasn’t asking me about how I communicate or how I write. If it had asked me that instead, I could have written a lot more than I have and I would have been much more interested in writing it.

If I had to define myself as a writer, I would say that I am not the best writer out there. When signing up for classes last semester, I was nervous to know that I would be taking English 101. Writing is not my strongest area. In fact, it is my weakest area. There are so many things that I can improve on when writing. In most cases, I lack organization, I don’t have enough support as I should in argumentative papers, I do not capture the reader’s attention, I repeat myself when writing, or my word choice is poor when writing. My worst writing comes out when I have to write on the spot with the clock ticking next to me. It is just too much pressure for me to do. For as long as I can remember, writing on the spot has always been a problem of mine. If you took a look at my SAT and ACT scores, the writing portion is always the lowest score.

I believe that the reason why I had to take English 102 (a class that helps students improve their writing skills) was because I did not do well on the writing placement exam which was a timed writing test. I was embarrassed to be in English 102. I know I am not a good writer, but I did not want people knowing that. Despite not wanting to be in an English 102 class, it helped me understand what type of writer I am and how I write. English 102 forced me to reread my papers and blog posts, and revise them. Each week, I would bring in a blog post from English 101 and the feedback I received on my blog posts helped me because without it, I would not know how to go about revising it. It was through rereading and revising my pieces of writing that I learned what areas I could improve in.

I learned about the different techniques that could help me in the areas I struggle in when writing. For future writing assignments and writing exams, I will use the techniques that I learned and apply it. As a writer, I feel that I have improved from the time I began English 101 and 102. As long as I continue to utilize the tools that I have, I will continue to improve as a writer. Even though writing is my weakest area, I still try my hardest to accomplish all that needs to be done for this course. My lack of writing skills is not an excuse for me not to try hard at all.

If I had to define myself as a thinker, I would say that I am a logical thinker. Google defines a logical thinker as a careful person and someone who cannot leave anything out of order. It also says that logical thinkers are very well organized and cannot leave anything incomplete. It sounds like they described me. I know I am not that organized when it comes to writing, but when it comes to other things, I am very organized. The part about not leaving anything incomplete is on point. I always complete my homework. Sometimes I finish homework before it is due. I like to do things ahead of time so that if a problem occurs, I have enough time to fix it. That’s me thinking ahead. If anything can go wrong, it will.

If I had to define myself as an inventor, I would say that I am the type that contributes. I would not say that I am a creative inventor because I could not come up with any ideas when coming up with an invention mob. A group member came up with the idea to go to people’s doors with a camera and question and have them answer it. I contributed by coming up with questions to ask people and editing the video responses.

Our initial invention mob idea was to place a camera with a question attached to the tripod in front of a person’s door. Our plan was to knock on a stranger’s door and run away. Kind of like ding dong ditch. I know that sounds harsh but the whole point of running away was to get the person’s surprised reaction. If I was ever in a situation with a camera in front of me and no one around, I know I would be surprised, confused, and probably even close the door on the camera.

When introducing our project to the rest of the class, many questions and suggestions were brought up. Some of the questions asked were “what if people don’t want to be put in front of the camera?” or “what if they just close the door on you?” The answer is to just move on. But I realized going to random people’s door and leaving the camera there, can mean that we will have a much harder time completing our project because people will probably just close the door.

Our project had to be modified just a little bit. We knew that trying to film strangers would take us longer to complete our project so in order to avoid delays in the project we asked some friends instead if they wanted to answer some easy random questions. Some of the question we asked were “if you were a super hero, what super power would you have? Why?” and “What did you last dream about?” I noticed that the first set of  people we asked didn’t really show that surprised factor that we wanted in this project. I feel the reason for this was because they saw it coming and knew exactly when we would be coming to film their answers. So for the next set of friends that I asked, I told them that we would be coming sometime this week. Those friends know we’re coming, but they don’t know when. So when we’re at their door, they’ll still be surprised. And because we asked people to participate beforehand, a note that said they could say no thank you if they did not want to participate was not required. Another thing that had to be changed was running away. There was really no point in running away because we would be seen running and there wasn’t any place that we could all hide. So instead we just stood by the camera and pretended not to be there. The friends that participated live in different dorms so we were able to film different types of people instead of the same people.

One difficulty we had when asking people to participate was getting people to show their faces on camera. This was a problem when asking girls. They would say things like “my hair’s a mess” or “I don’t look good right now,” but we convinced them to just do it, it turned out to be one of the best responses. Another difficulty we had was getting people to talk and not leave anything out. I felt like the participants were holding back on their responses because a camera was involved and they didn’t want to get in trouble for saying something in appropriate. The last difficulty we had was the person’s face being too dark because it was sunny outside. We even tried angling the camera to prevent that, but it didn’t work. It’s a bummer that we can’t really see the expressions the participants showed, but hopefully there’s a way to brighten up the video so their faces can be seen.

The purpose of this project is to break people’s normal every day routine. How often does a camera with a question attached show up in front of your door? This project makes people smile and laugh because some of these questions can have a funny answer or allow the participants to go back and think of a good time in their life.

Music is a language that does not require the use of words; it is a way one’s emotions are built and expressed through a variety of creative outlets. One of the creative ways music is used is in the form of music therapy. Music is utilized in therapy to treat individuals with a variety of illnesses and medical conditions to address their cognitive, physical, emotional, and social needs. This type of music therapy is commonly used in child and adolescent psychiatry, with patients who have cancer, brain injuries, or are disabled or elderly. Music therapy is considered an alternative treatment, but when paired with conventional medicine, it can improve health conditions by utilizing different techniques and treatments.

Music therapy is considered to be an alternative treatment because it is used as a substitute for conventional medicine. These therapy sessions are not simply prescribing a certain type of music for a person to listen to, but rather having the client involved with the music and lyrics through singing and improvising. Clients do not need to be a musician or have any music ability to benefit from music therapy. Various genres of music affect individuals differently and as a result, music cannot be prescribed to people. Music therapists provide instruments that can be easily played by the client to allow for independent expression. Music therapy sessions can be either individualized or in a group setting. Individual sessions allow the therapist to give the client individualized attention. Group sessions on the other hand, give clients opportunities to interact with one another. Clients who seem to be more open with their emotions are able to build self-esteem, feel like part of a group, and improve social skills. Music therapy sessions can be passive or active. In passive sessions, a single client or group of clients listen to recorded music or sounds made with instruments while active sessions are based on improvisation between the therapist and client and require the client to actively participate to create sounds or lyrics (Mahon, 353).

Before beginning music therapy, the music therapist must assess the client to identify the needs of that person (Mahon, 354). The music therapist then makes a plan that fulfills the needs of their client based on their initial assessment. If the music therapist found that their client was depressed, sad, or had little or no energy, they would choose a song that is fast paced to give them some energy. Some of the decisions the music therapist needs to make include whether the client wants to be in an individual setting or group setting, what type of music they like, and whether instruments can be used (Mahon, 355).

Music therapy is not limited to listening to music. A variety of techniques are used when working with a client. The main techniques used in music therapy are improvising, re-creating, composing, listening to music, singing, and playing a musical instrument. Each of these techniques fulfills a specific goal for the client and can be used anywhere else other than in a music therapy session. The first technique is improvising. Improvising makes it easier for a person to communicate non-verbally and express what they feel at that moment. It encourages social interaction and communication. The second technique is re-creating. When recreating, clients sing or play along to recorded music. Clients are encouraged to produce sound with their voices or instruments to help improve their speech abilities. The next technique is composing lyrics. This is a way for a person to express their feelings. This can provide a person a way to work out fears or negative feelings or even get them to positively express themselves. Another technique is listening to music; it can help a person’s memory. Music may bring a person’s memory back to a certain time period or time in their life. For example, when a certain song that was once played at the individual’s wedding reception is played, that song may trigger the individual’s memory in remembering that special day and event. The next technique is singing. Singing can improve the flow of words, encourage the use of words, and control breathing (Warber). Another technique is word substitution where a single word from a familiar song is substituted with a word of their choice (Foster, 45). This technique allows the clients to interact with the music therapist or others in the group. The last technique is playing a musical instrument. Playing an instrument requires movement of the arms or feet. This helps clients develop a range of motion. Because of this, clients who have developmental delays, brain injuries, or other motor impairments, can develop or improve their motor skills. Since there are a variety of techniques music therapists can choose from, a technique is chosen based on how it may improve and be beneficial to the client’s physical or mental health.

Music affects the body in diverse ways that are beneficial to an individual. Upbeat music can increase brain waves, allow for better concentration, make a person alert, and help with memory. Upbeat music can also reduce the feeling of tiredness and improve coordination (“eMed Expert”). For example, most elders are usually tired and sleepy. If fast, upbeat music is played, the elder may feel alert and not as tired and sleepy. Another example would be working out at the gym. An individual will remain focused and energetic while listening to upbeat music. The feeling of being energetic allows the person to continue exercising for a longer period of time.

Different genres of music have different effects on a person. Upbeat music increases heart rate and breathing rhythm whereas slow music decreases heart rate and breathing rhythm. This can happen through a process called entrainment. Entrainment is when two objects moving at the same frequencies synchronize with one another (Austin, 16). Classical music has a calming effect that allows the body to relax. It can ease muscle tension and boost immunity. Soothing music boosts immunity by giving the listener a positive and emotional experience and stimulates the secretion of immune-boosting hormones (“eMed Expert”). Austin states that music allows endorphins to be released from the pituitary gland in the brain and travel throughout the rest of the body (18). Endorphins are chemicals in the brain that lessens pain. When paired with music therapy, pain may be reduced if conventional medicines are not enough to reduce the pain a patient might be feeling. Music can benefit people in pain by distracting the patient, helping them to relax, and giving them a sense of control (“eMed Expert”). Music heard in different locations will bring about different reactions. During a bath, slow music provides an outlet for stress. In the gym, upbeat music can affect the individual to adjust their pace of the workout. In a doctor’s office, classical music provides a calming effect to patients who may be scared or upset. The effects of music can help with healing or treating a person. Music therapists use different techniques with accompanying music to do that.

Music helps with memory. A person listening to music while studying or doing homework will help them remember things they learned. Music like Mozart’s pieces can stimulate the left and right hemispheres of the brain, consequently increasing the amount of things that are learned (“American Cancer Society”). Mozart is a famous classical composer and musician, and his music has been linked to helping an individual retain more information. Music can make a person smarter; it has the ability to improve reading, reasoning, math skills, and also emotional intelligence (“eMed Expert”). Music allows the person to concentrate on the task that is being performed thus increasing their attention span and productivity (“eMed Expert”). An example of this would be when an individual is cleaning the house while listening to music without any distractions, it permits the individual to clean more than they would have without music.

Music therapy can help Alzheimer’s, autistic, and cancer patients. Alzheimer’s disease is caused by damage done to brain cells and the loss of chemicals that the brain produces. Music can signal the brain to secrete more brain chemical. Acetylcholine seems to have a key role in patients with Alzheimer’s; this brain chemical is associated with remembering things and paying attention. Decreased levels of acetylcholine make it hard for people to remember simple things like what they had for breakfast or who they last talked to. Listening to music that was played from the time period of when the Alzheimer’s patient was younger allows the patient to access their old memories (Foster, 43). This is an important exercise since patients with Alzheimer’s brain functions decrease over time. Alzheimer patients also suffer from cognitive dysfunctions, social behavior issues, and motor skill problems. Alzheimer’s patients also suffer from agitation and restlessness and because of that they have a hard time falling asleep. But listening to soothing music is able to improve the way they feel and the quality of their sleep. It helps them to fall asleep because it decreases the activity in the sympathetic nervous system, decreases anxiety, blood pressure, and the heart and breathing rate (“eMed Expert”). The function that decreases first is usually hearing and music therapy can be used to encourage communication before the hearing function is lost. Encouraging communication could slow down how fast the hearing function fully declines and also help with learning alternative methods of communication.

Autistic people have a passion for music and are often very musically talented. This passion is critical in music therapy to develop their speech and language. There are many benefits of music therapy for autistic people including improving language comprehensive skills, speech encouragement, sensory issues, communication, self-expression, emotional response, and monotone speech. To improve language comprehensive skills, a music therapist can play a song that interacts with them to help them understand the meaning of words. For example, the music therapist could sing, “Shake your shakers above your head,” and the individual would follow the directions in the song. By doing this exercise, the music can increase their ability to understand language. When a person with autism is encouraged to sing, it helps with their word pronunciation, monotone speech, and flow of words (Warber). Music can also stimulate their senses, allowing them to focus and act appropriately in the surrounding environment (Warber). Music therapy also allows autistic patients to break their social barriers. Music increases autistic patients’ social abilities and courage to interact and communicate with other people (Warber). Music therapy can promote self-expression and emotional response by allowing them to play music on musical instruments, dance and move around, and make noise or sing to express emotions (Warber).

Music therapy can also be helpful to ease nausea and vomiting of cancer patients receiving high doses of chemotherapy and drugs (“American Cancer Society”). Because music can relax the body, it eases the nausea and vomiting making the patient comfortable. Music has the ability to stimulate the release of endorphins from the brain, decreasing the pain the patient feels as well as the need to take less pain-relieving drugs (“American Cancer Society”). Taking fewer drugs lessens the chemotherapy side effects of nausea and vomiting. Not only does music therapy ease nausea and vomiting, it also lowers anxiety and pain. Cancer patients suffer from discomfort, but according to the American Cancer Society, cancer patients in hospice care were comforted by music. Music prompts relaxation, promotes positive emotions and thoughts, and improves the quality of life. There is no evidence that music therapy can cure cancer, but it can reduce some symptoms (“American Cancer Society”).

Music therapy is a form of treatment that can provide care to patients with medical issues to improve physical, emotional, and mental well-being. With all the different techniques available in music therapy, there is at least one technique that works. Music therapy is another option when conventional medicine is not enough to treat or improve the patient’s condition. While music therapy may not be the remedy to completely heal or cure an illness, it does have the ability to improve one’s life in coping with their illness or disease.

Works Cited
Austin, Donna. “The Psychophysiological Effects of Music Therapy in Intensive Care Units. (Cover Story).” Pediatric Nursing 22.3 (2010): 14-20. Print.

Foster, Bev. “Music for Life’s Journey: The Capacity of Music in Dementia Care.” Alzheimer’s Care Today (2009): 42-49. Print.

“How Music Affects Us and Promotes Health.” eMed Expert.N.p., n.d. Web. 21 March 2013.
<http://www.emedexpert.com/tips/music.shtml&gt;.

Mahon, Emily M., and Suzanne M. Mahon. “Music Therapy: A Valuable Adjunct in The Oncology Setting.” Clinical Journal Of Oncology Nursing 15.4 (2011): 353-356. Print.

“Music Therapy.” American Cancer Society. American Cancer Society, 01 Nov 2008. Web. 21 March 2013. <http://www.cancer.org/treatment/treatmentsandsideeffects/complementaryandalternative medicine/mindbodyandspirit/music-therapy>.

Warber, Adrienne. “Music Therapy for Autism.” lovetoknow autism. LoveToKnow Corp, n.d.
Web. 21 March 2013. <http://autism.lovetoknow.com/Music_Therapy_for_Autism&gt;.