Blog # 19 社區音樂 vs 社區音樂治療 vs 音樂治療/ Community Music vs Community Music Therapy vs Music Therapy
音樂, 一樣人類不能缺少的東西. 接着前幾個blog 同大家分享關於音樂的原始功能和音樂的力量, 今次想和大家一起去研究一下三個利用音樂作為媒介接觸大眾的領域. 過去的一年作為一位音樂治療師和音樂人在不同機構服務, 令我不斷地發問不同的問題作為反思, 令我更能清楚自己日後的定位.
值得反思的問題就在這裏:
社區音樂vs 社區音樂治療 vs音樂治療. 這三個名詞看似差不多的意思, 但其實這三個名詞是三個完全不同的領域, 每一個也擁有他們自己的歷史, 故事, 解釋和定義在背後. 三個也有很多共通點, 值得我們逐一研究每一個領域以至於我們可以踏實地決定自己的定位.
這個詞「社區」(community) 的意思很有爭議性, 尤其是對於那些社會學學者, 這個詞好像包含着一些混亂的歷史. 一些回應例如- 「一個希望多於現實」; 「一個令人感覺良好的字; 包含理想主義含意」; TheGuardian報紙甚至將這個字歸入 「應該被禁止的字清單」.
要解釋這個詞的定義已經超越這個blog 的範圍, 可能有時候去解釋一樣東西能夠做什麼或是達到什麼果效而不是解釋那樣東西究竟是什麼會更加能令人清楚明白. 舉一例子: 什麼是音樂? 音樂是一樣可以轉化情緒和氣氛, 一樣能夠表達想法和情緒, 一樣能夠直入心靈的東西, 一樣互動的東西. 但如果你真的要我去解釋音樂本身是什麼來的, 我只能夠用一個很科學的角度回答你: 音樂是由頻率和震動構成. 好像一個很敷衍的答案對吧?
所以這些字社區, 音樂, 治療也是一樣. 在這裏, 我想提出一個以我個人觀點及角度而提出的最簡單的定義: 一個「社區」是能夠將人聚集和連繫一起並且互相交流.
「社區」+ 「音樂」= 能夠將人聚集和連繫一起, 利用音樂互動表達個人想法和心情或創作能夠直入心靈, 又能改變心情和環境氣氛的音樂(而這個音樂是一個動詞, 是需要有互動).
「社區」+ 「音樂」+ 「治療」= 能夠將人聚集和連繫一起, 利用音樂互動表達個人想法和心情或創作能夠直入心靈, 又能改變心情和環境氣氛的音樂, 目的為了改善身心靈健康.
社區音樂
社區音樂就像是前衛派 (avant –garde movement) 去打破傳統, 傳統音樂概念令音樂好像變成一樣物件, 只有那些精英或擁有特權或有名有利有錢的人才能夠在演奏廳內享受. 社區音樂不但令到所有人能夠更容易接觸和享受音樂, 亦嘗試將音樂回復起初在社會群體中的意義, 鼓勵大眾音樂互動和創作而不只是被動地攝入音樂.
Christopher Small 另一名句- “音樂人的重要性在哪裏? 是否為了創作音樂給那些能夠負擔得起而經常去演奏廳的那些人? 或是給那些對於已經過去的音樂經典入迷的人? 或是利用天賦, 技能和經驗去給那些沒有機會享受音樂的人從而甦醒和引導他們沉睡了的音樂感” (Stevens 1985, p. iv).
社區音樂重點在於人 (people), 參與性 (participation), 背景 (context), 平等 (equality) 和多元化 (diversity), 社區音樂當然不少得能夠製造令大眾音樂互動體驗的音樂人. 值得留意的是所謂的「社區音樂人」 (community musician) 和音樂人在社區 (musician in community) 是兩回事. 前者是一些有意識和刻意地去令大眾能夠聚集一起並且利用音樂去表達自己的帶領者/導師 (facilitator). 後者是在社區活動裏面把音樂分享給他人的表演者 (performer).
社區音樂治療 vs 音樂治療
就像社區音樂能夠打破西方古典音樂傳統, 社區音樂治療也是一個「派別」去打破傳統的音樂治療概念和邊界. 音樂治療一直被認為是一個在醫療系統和特殊教育下的一個治療專業, 重點在療程中治療師和client的關係; 一個安全和保密的環境 (大部份時候應該是在一間沒有人打擾的房間裏); 定下特定療程令client 改善病徵. 尤其是在一些音樂治療已經普及的國家例如英國, 美國, 澳洲, 常規已被定下: 地點, 轉介系統 (referral), 音樂治療室, 介入手法(intervention), 時間(50min, 一分鐘也不能少和多), 次數, client 和治療師的角色, 音樂治療背後的雜項 (評估, 報告, supervision, 分析, 反思).
傳統音樂治療針對client 的病徵和增強不同範疇的技巧和能力例如社交, 精神, 身理, 心理, 情緒健康等. 近年來音樂治療師逐漸意識到社交, 社會和文化背景對於了解一個client 病徵以致找到合適的介入手法的重要性. Ansdell (2004) “人有病不只是因為身理因素,也是因為他們缺乏了社會人士的諒解.” ( “People become ill not only because of physical processes, but also because they become disempowered by ignorance and lack of social understanding.” (p. 11)
英國音樂治療師Gary Ansdell (2002) 提議出一個模式 individual-Communal Continuum, 視乎clilent的需要, 背景, 地方, 治療師應該可以在個人和社區的層面靈活走動, 不需拘限于某一個工作模式. 社區音樂治療尤其針對孤獨(isolation) 和邊緣化（marginalization）的問題，特別對於一些弱勢社群，這是一些多於個人層面但是他們常經歷的問題。音樂能夠將人連繫一起, empower client, 給他們表達自己和發聲的機會, 音樂也能夠成為他們的工具去和社會重新接觸. “音樂可以重新成為一種能夠治療和強化個人或社區的社會資源.” (p. 13）
社區音樂vs社區音樂治療
是時候去回答一條在所難免的問題-那社區音樂和社區音樂治療究竟有什麼分別?
這兩個專業也有很多重疊的範疇, 也是相信音樂為一個動詞 (musicking) 去連繫不同需要的大眾. 前者強調多元化 (diversity) 和參與性 (participation); 後者強調與參加者建立關係, 引發不同層面的回應從而激發個人改變和發展, 重點是利用音樂增進身心靈健康.
分別不是在使用特定音樂活動, 而是在帶領者對參加者的態度和看法以至於帶領技巧和方法也會有所不同.
Ansdell (2002) 提出這兩個範疇可能只是 「一同分享的領域, 不同的地圖」(shared territory, different maps).
兩者當中不同的地方在於
-參加者
-地點
-原因和目標
-連續性和深度的可能性
-專業資格
在這裏我們誠意邀請雙重身份作為一個社工和音樂治療師Cat Chau同大家分享一下.
"雙重身份作為一個社工同埋音樂治療師嘅我，好想同大家分享一下，社區音樂vs音樂治療vs社區音樂治療之間嘅分別。首先我會講下社區音樂，講到社區音樂不得不提嘅係「崇真會」嘅非鼓隊，我估到今時今日仍然冇一隊可以做到，我哋社工界成日講嘅，bottom-up concept(Freeman, 1998)。 我地大概係1997年開始，開始將社區音樂呢個概念帶入社會服務裏面，其實當時我都唔知道你個叫做社區音樂，當年我同同事一齊同某間琴行一齊合辦嘅集體鼓樂（drum circle）開始。當時一個美國來的音樂治療師來在香港，叫做Christina Seven帶領集體鼓樂，佢係某個品牌嘅代言人，我機構一班來自鄉郊嘅長者參加過之後，就自己建議要自組鼓樂隊，起初冇錢買樂器所以我哋用咗好多廚房用品、月餅罐、筷子、膠袋垃圾等等你製作環保音樂，鄉下地方有好多野執，連汽油館都有得執，最後我哋成功攞到funding ，最後成立咗『非鼓隊』，個名係長者自己改既╴歌係長者自己寫嘅，團服係長者自己設計。『非鼓隊』可以話係一個奇蹟，到今時今日20年仍然克立不到，差唔多可以講話係零願退出率，只有年長過身！同而家大多數嘅中心搞緊嘅班有咩分別？正正因為bottom up有服務使用者自己提出，而唔係有一班社工覺得佢哋有呢個興趣，所以開十萬九千樣嘅班組比佢哋參加，我離開之前小組已經變為自務性小組，到2008年佢哋已經演出超過186場，演出包括自創歌曲分開嘅五重奏 ，最後會邀請現場觀眾一齊同樂嘅互動環節，佢哋一個好大嘅重點，唔搞困難藝術，大眾互動參與將佢哋嘅生命故事影響其他嘅生命，98年連年青人學非洲鼓都未興起， 長者去學習非洲鼓係一件大件事，所以佢哋希望用自己， 話比世界嘅人聽長者係有生命力嘅。社區音樂呢一個concept係大佢係07年左右，社區文化發展中心開始推廣社區音樂，我開始同英國嘅社區音樂人pete moser合作，當時先知道以前做緊嘅嘢叫社區音樂。 離開社工界，依家作為音樂治療師嘅我，我亦要有參與社區音樂嘅發展，例如係雨傘運動，同朋友一齊舉辦嘅革命中的廿四小時，貨櫃碼頭工人罷工事件，清潔姐姐，性工作者，以音樂去表達自己嘅訴求同埋意願等。
你問我係咪分得咁清，把社區音樂同音樂治療係可以咁分割，我答你唔可以，但係我工作嘅時候好清晰，就係社區音樂係冇需要有治療目標。去到呢度我已經清楚解釋得到社區音樂同音樂治療嘅分別係邊度，重點係音樂治療係一定需要有清晰治療目標。社區音樂嘅帶領嘅係唔需要受過特別專業嘅訓練，只要有心係社區裏面推行音樂，可以以任何形式進行，街頭音樂（busking），根據Higgins(2002)及Elliott(2009), 對社區音樂嘅定義喺社區音樂裏面發生既音樂活動，包括街頭表演、社區樂團等等都可以包括 。
而社區音樂治療，根據學者（RUDD，1998）嘅定義，社區音樂治療唔係單單係喺一個房間裏面進行，可以open group 形式，不單止服務使用者而且還可以邀請家人社工護士醫生一齊參與，病呢樣嘢唔係單單個人嘅問題，而係整個系統嘅問題，其實社區音樂治療比較似社工界裏面嘅社區工作想.有音樂治療師同行同我講佢做緊社區音樂治療，因為佢嘅小組唔係喺音樂治療室裏面做，而係喺學校度做，對我來說，重點不是係邊度進行，而係有無做到充權，相信這仍然都未係一個社區音樂治療嘅概念或者做法。唔難解釋嘅就係，香港實體嘅音樂治療中心唔多，大多數音樂治療師都係喺社區中心學校進行而大多數都係close group嘅形式進行，好容易令人誤會。 係我做社工嘅時候有多限制，區域、權限、資源制度等等，都會影響眼見有需要嘅事情執行上既優先次序。心裏面覺得好可惜，粉嶺、上水一帶有口很多圍村人、客家人等，各有不同習俗。喺建築、歷史、語言文化方面香港歷史博物館都有記載。但係傳統音樂偏偏無人記載，讀完音樂治療返香港之後，花咗少少時間去訪問一啲記載香港歷史嘅人，原來都沒有好好記載圍頭人既音樂。於是乎請到口述歷史人「朱sir」記載這些有關傳統音樂，同生活有關的事情一一記載下來。可惜以前認識嘅一啲長者已經過身，正正係咁所以我覺得我更加要快啲做呢件事。2013年係馬屎埔為這一批長者搞咗一場迷你音樂會，我覺得作為一個音樂治療師即使冇錢賺都要好應該去做。那場音樂會三代共融，兒孫滿堂咁睇住長者一路講故事一路唱起傳統嘅歌曲。實在非常感動而且有德國嘅電視台來拍攝。2017年同明愛合作，將長者們嘅傳統歌曲輯錄成一隻CD，而且將圍頭、客家、廣府話，現今世代對婚嫁嘅不同看法寫下一首歌，貫穿傳統現在。希望將這段傳統嘅音樂好好保留落嚟，不但能夠做到empowerment, 長者唔再害羞去唱佢嘅以前嘅舊歌，而且可以主動話比現今世代嘅人知佢哋有一份咁樣嘅傳統，對婚嫁有不同嘅諗法。"
總結
一切從我們自己的定位開始- 身為音樂人+音樂治療師的我們, 其實可能有很多時候我們或許可以做一個好像 David Stewart (2004) 提出的 “ no-label music therapist”, 認真地去看看client 的實際需要而決定用什麼approach. 其實音樂本身就擁有治療性質, 音樂的力量能夠如何淋漓盡致地發揮當中處決於帶領者的手法和經驗.
Music is the inseperable entity of human beings. Following up all the previous blogs touching on the original function and the power of music. Here I would like to explore the three working fields that utilize music as a medium to work with people. For the past year working as a music therapist and a musician in Hong Kong has raised the necessity in me to explore and answer some of the questions in order to position myself properly in this field.
Here comes the confusion:
Community Music vs Community Music Therapy vs Music Therapy. You would have thought it’s just a play of word in the name, or thought that perhaps these terms can be used interchangeably. The reality is that each of these specific field has their own history, stories, rationale and definition behind them. All of them share a lot of common ground, and I guess it’s worth defining each one of these field for us to get a firmer grounding before deciding on your positioning.
Community is a funny word in our post-modern society, it seems to be provoking quite a reaction amongst the scholars especially those involve in sociology as the term seems to carry a messy history. Response to the word such as- “More of a hope than a reality”, “a feel-good ‘cuddly’ word, with quasi-utopian connotations.” (p. 26 Communiy Music Therapy Ruud), “The Guardian newspapeper, June 29, 2002, featured ‘community’ recently in its ‘words to be banned’ column!” (p.76)
To define the actual meaning of the word community is beyond the scope of this blog. Perhaps sometimes it’s better to define what something does, rather than what something is. For example: What’s music? Music is something that cuts through the soul, transform mood and atmosphere, something that expresses ideas and emotions. But if you really need to define what music is, I can only give you this definition by stripping it down to the foundamentals-it’s the composition of frequencies and vibration. Not a very satisfying answer isn’t it?
Same goes for the term community music, the term is just a tag for us to recognize it. I guess in this blog I would like to offer the simplest and shortest definition of community: Community is something that brings people together for interpersonal interaction.
Community+Music=People coming together to make music that expresses ideas and emotions, creating music that cuts through the soul as well as transforming mood and atmosphere.
Now if you add one more into the forumula it goes:
Community+Music+Therapy= People coming together to make music that expresses ideas and emotions, creating music that cuts through the soul as well as transforming mood and atmosphere for the improvement of physical/social/mental/psychological wellbeing.
Community Music
Community music is almost like the avant-garde movement in an attempt to break the music tradition, where music was shaped to become more like an ‘object’ that can only be enjoyed by the elite, priviledged or the rich in a concert hall setting. In fact community music comes many steps forward to make music not only available for passive enjoyment for everybody, it also attempts to restore the original function and meaning of music in society, encourage active participation instead of passive consumption.
The emphasis is on people, participation, context, equality and diversity, it invovles musician who seeks to create opportunities of music making experiences for the general public. Note that community musician are different from musician in community. Community musician are those that are conscious and deliberate in an attempt to bring people together to express themselves with music as a facilitator; whereas musician in community are more like sharing their music for people as performer.
“What is it that makes a musician important? Is it in the creation of compositions for performance in concert halls and opera houses for the delectation of those who like, and can afford, to frequent such places? Is it in holding halls full of such people enthralled with performances of past masterpieces? Or is it in using his or her gifts, skills and experiences to awaken and to guide the dormant musicality of those whose music has been taken from them? (Stevens 1985, p. iv)
We believe that everyone has the right and ability to make, create, and enjoy their own music. We believe that active music-making should be encouraged and supported at all ages and at all levels of society. Community Music activities do more than involve participants in music-making; they provide opportunities to construct personal and communal expressions of artistic, social, political, and cultural concerns. Community Music activities do more than pursue musical excellence and innovation; they can contribute to the development of economic regeneration and can enhance the quality of life for communities and contribute to economic regeneration. Community Music activities encourage and empower participants to become agents for extending and developing music in their communities. In all these ways Community Music activities can complement, interface with, and extend formal music education.” https://www.isme.org/our-work/commissions-forum/community-music-activity-commission-cma
“Community Arts is not a specific form of art, but a specific attitude to art” (Braden 1978, p.107)
Community Music Therapy and Music Therapy
Just like community music movement that challenges the traditional Western concept of music, CoMT is a movement that challenges the traditional definitions and boundaries of music therapy. Music therapy was considered as a treatment profession within a medical and special educational framework that emphasized on the therapeutic relationship between a client and the therapist in a confidential and ‘safe’ environment often behind closed door. In countries such as UK, US and Australia where music therapy has been well established, the conventions have been well set in placed: starting from the setting, the referral system, the music therapy room, the music therapy approach or technique, the duration and frequency of sessions, the role of client and therapist as well as the procedures behind the sessions-assessment, evaluation, analysis, reporting and reflecting.
Traditional music therapy focuses on reducing symptoms and improving different aspects of functionality such as social, mental, physical and emotional. Recently music therapist realized that a new perspective of social and cultural context is needed in order to fully understand an individual’s symptoms. As Ansdell (2004) commented “people become ill not only because of physical processes, but also because they become disempowered by ignorance and lack of social understanding” (p. 11). Ansdell (2002) suggested an 'individual-Communal Continuum', suggests that therapist and client can work flexibly within a continuum that encompasses individual and community levels depending on the client's need, therapeutic goals, location, context. Community music therapy specially address isolation and marginalisation that are often experienced within the disadvantaged or vulnerable group of people in society, yet these problems are beyond an individual level, social and culture plays a part.
Music can connect people at all age, abilities, cultural background and social hierarchy together, giving people a chance to express themselves and opportunities to voice out; it can also become a tool for them to reconnect and reposition themselves in society. Music can again become a ‘social resources, a way to heal and strengthen communities as well as individuals” (Ansdell 2002, p.13).
Community Music vs Community Music Therapy
Here comes the unavoidable question, then what’s the difference between Community music and Community Music Therapy? The two have a lot of overlapping area, both share a common belief in musicking as a way of working with people. The former emphasized on embracing diversity and participation, whereas the latter one focus on forming therapeutic relationship and drawing out responses to evoke individual change and development as well as focus on promoting wellbeing.
I belive the difference lies not on the technique or the activity/intervention used in each of these domain, but rather the perspective and attitudes of the facilitators.
As Ansdell (2002) suggested that the two fields are perhaps ‘shared territory, different maps’.
suggested about the key difference of the two fields. The difference perhaps lies in
Who
Where
Why (agenda, aims, theoretical assumptions)
What continuity and depth of work is possible
What statues is given
How far
Community musician working more freuquently with those within the community or at well-being stages rather than with those who fall into the acute illness/crisis and rehabilitation stages of the health-care continuum.
From here let's invite Cat Chau, a social worker+music therapist to share her experience.
"Let's talk about community music in HK, we have to mentioned the african drum team, I reckon even until today no other teams can compared to this "Bottom-up concept" that are often mentioned in the social work field (Freeman, 1998). The team started around 1997, beginning to introduce community music concept into social service. Actually I didn't know there's such term as 'community music', back in those days my colleague and I were collaborating with a music shop to host a drum circle event. An American music therapist called Christina Steven came to facilitate the event. A group of elderly who came from rural area attended the session and decided to form their own djembe team. In the beginning they didn't have enough money to buy instruments so we used a lot of household items such as mooncake box, chopsticks, plastic and other rubbish to make 'recycle musical instruments'. In the end we have successfully bedded funding and formed the team. Even the name of the group as well as the songs and the team uniform are all created by the elderly themselves. It is a miracle that the team still stands until today after 20 years. This is the 'bottom-up' concept where the community initiated the ideas rather than the social workers who attempt to organise a million of activities that might not capture the service user's interest. Before I left the group, they have already became a self running group, until 2008 they have performed over 186 gigs, performance include original written songs, at the end they would invite the audience to interact with the music. They advocate audience interaction in order to use their lives to impact others. Back in the days of 1998, even the youth hasn't started the trend of learning djembe, elderly learning djembe was a big matter, hence they wanted to use themselves to tell the world about the vitality of the elderly.
Community music is a concept started in HK around 2007, CCCD (Centre For Community Cultural Development) started promoting community music, I have started partnering up with a British community musician called Pete Moser. After leaving the social worker field, i have became a music therapist, also working with the development of community music such as the umbrella movement; and work with those who are perceived to be in the lower hierarchy of society such as containers worker, sex workers, cleaner etc, using music to help them express themselves and voice out their complaints.
if you ask me if I can distinguish between community music therapy and community music, I can tell you it's not a clear cut as you think it's possible. But when i'm working i'm very clear about the difference. Community music is not necessary to have any goal apart from music making, whereas in community music therapy it is essential to have therapeutic goals when working with people with the tool of music. Community music's facilitator doesn't required any formal training, as long as they have the desire to promote music in community in any forms such as busking. According to Higgins (2002) and Elliott (2009), their definition of community music encompass any forms of music making within the community, including streets performance, community band etc.
Whereas community music therapy, according to Rudd (1998), it is not merely session happening in a room, it can be in an open group format. Not only the service user can attend, but also the family members, social workers, nurse, doctors are welcomed. Illness is not a personal problem, but it's also concerned with the social system. The location of the session is not the main concern, but the approach and what can be achieved especially on 'empowerment'.
At the moment, there are not a lot of music therapy centre, most music therapist are working in school or NGO settings and most adopted the close group format.
When i was working as a social worker there are a lot of restriction in many ways, all can affect the ways things are being prioritized. I felt the needs of many and it's a shame that many opportunities are lost because of these restrictions. For examples in the suburb of Fanling, Sheung Shui, there are a lot people living in village that retain rich culture, their history, culture and languages are all recorded in the HK history museum, yet traditional local music is something that has been missing from the record. Ever since I came back in HK after my music therapy training, I've spent some time interviewing those who recorded HK history, but most has admitted that they haven't recorded the musical aspect.
In 2013 I have hosted a mini concert for the elderly in Mashipo, there were three generations of the community gathered together, a space to allow the elders to talk about their stories and their culture as well as their songs. In 2017 I have been working with Caritas in a project where we recorded all the traditional local music into a CD, including all three local languages (Punti, Hakka, Cantonese), topics include all aspect of the culture even marriage. This music recording project not only can empower the locals to have no shame in singing their songs, it helps strengthening their unique cultural identity and allow them to pass on their knowledge and tradition."
Conclusion:
It all begins with our own positioning--For those that are musician+ music therapist, perhaps very often we can become what David Stewart (2004) suggested "a no-label must therapist", take into great consideration what our client's needs are to determine what approach we should use, and of course our approach also depends on the setting, context, background.
Music itself already has innate therapeutic quality to it, whether we can fully seize and utilise the power of it depends on the facilitator's approach and experience.
Reference:
Ansdell, G. and Pavlicevic, M., 2004. Community music therapy. Jessica Kingsley Publishers.
Ansdell, G., 2002, March. Community music therapy & the winds of change. In Voices: A world forum for music therapy(Vol. 2, No. 2).
Higgins, L., 2012. Community music: In theory and in practice. Oxford University Press.
Stevens, John. 1985. Search and Re ect. London: Community Music.
Stige, B., 2017. Where music helps: Community music therapy in action and reflection. Routledge.