The Violin: Is Playing the Violin Therapeutic or Is That Another Urban Myth?
Playing any musical instrument is a wonderful gift that can give the player hour upon hour of pleasure both when practicing or performing with friends or in front of an audience; but is this all it is, or is there some kind of hidden therapeutic healing process that will help the musician? In this article I want to examine in an honest unbiased way if there is any sense to the theory that the Violin is anything other than just a musical instrument that can be enjoyed but nothing more.
First let us examine the negative aspects of playing the violin. If we are seriously saying that just playing can give you some relief from a physical problematic symptom then this is a definite no. In fact due the unusualness of the way we hold the instrument it is the opposite. Many violinists suffer back problems, shoulder problems and general aches and pains because of their craft. We are all taught the classical way to hold the instrument but this is seriously not a natural way to play and has to be induced by hours of practice.
If we switch to mental healing powers we may be on to something. One of the biggest causes of illness in our society is stress. Stress may not cause an actual physical illness but it will certainly make it worse. The violin has an effect of somehow washing away this stress and can take the player to another place. I have experienced this many times over the years and my violin has become the key that opens a door and takes me out of daily stressful situations, and after an hour or so of playing I feel like my stress levels are nonexistent. It is extremely difficult to explain this to a non-musician, but I suppose that levels of concentration in playing the violin don’t leave room for other things, and therefore it has a therapeutic effect on the player.
To a non-violinist you need to imagine playing the violin as a musical massage for the brain, just like going to a health farm will cleanse your body of toxins, so the violin will cleanse your brain of everyday problems. Unfortunately they soon come back when you stop playing, but for a time your stress-levels will fall, and that can’t be a bad thing.
So in conclusion, the violin does have therapeutic powers for the relief of stress and this is not an Urban Myth. I would argue that this is also the case for all other instruments, and a good argument to take your children to some form of musical lessons, they will thank you for it when they become adults.