Sanjidah This blog post isn’t about music therapy per se; music therapy is HCPC-accredited, and music therapists are normally qualified at postgraduate level to use the power of music to provide therapeutic benefits. Instead, this post is more about how therapeutic music can be outside of being delivered by a music therapist.
There’s something so powerful about listening to a song that describes how you’re feeling, either through the lyrics or the arrangement of the music, or, often, a combination of both. A big part of music can also be a distraction from how we might be feeling, whether it’s another upbeat pop song about Friday nights (really, Rebecca Black and Katy Perry, we get it!) or a Drum and Bass song we can get lost in. Music might also be something we have in the background so we don’t have to listen to silence. Whatever music is for us, there’s no doubting its therapeutic effects.
Making music is something else. Whether it’s the amount of time we put into learning an instrument, or the time we spend singing when no one can hear us to perfect that high C note, there’s something magical when you see yourself progress at something, enjoying the fruits of your labour.
For me, personally, making music is sometimes about expressing things I have experienced in a more packaged way. It makes it easier for me to express myself. Essentially, it’s a way to say things that you probably couldn’t actually say to someone, in the best and worst ways. While music isn’t a substitute for people and connections as such, sometimes it feels like no one can understand you as well as a song does – and that’s what the Ellipses project is about, the things that you leave unsaid and the mystery of it all.
So, it’s in this spirit that I hope you enjoy the music and I hope it provides some solace.
My debut single, Installing a phone line in heaven, is a song I wrote after attending a funeral of someone much loved in November 2022. Watching everyone grieve and listening to the things they were saying led me to go home and write this song in about ten minutes. After a few months of working on many different versions – a rock version, an acoustic version, and more! – we chose to put out the ‘pop’ version to the world. ‘Enjoy’ isn’t quite the right word – but I hope you do get something from it, even if it’s just the urge to call your mum.
Listen to Ellipses on Spotify | Amazon Music | Soundcloud | YouTube