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Music professors see potential in school merger for a music therapy program only the faculty, but the resources and programs they have, not to mention to have a clinical site, because that’s a huge portion.” Though they have yet to settle on the specifics of a curriculum, music therapy students would spend a significant amount of time paired with a music therapist mentor in a clinical setting the way student teachers spend time with teachers in a school setting. “We’ve been in contact with the cancer center downtown and we’ve talked with the director of the experimental therapeutics program,” Crookall says. “He is interested in incorporating music in different experiments and trials to see how it affects the palliative care of patients.” Crookall, who teaches music history, believes western society is just scratching the surface of holistic medicine. “The ancient Greeks and Romans truly believed that Hall says. “We’re going to have music therapists there, so there was a set of musical notes in different modes that would enhance a citizen’s well-being and how they questions we can’t answer, they could answer directly.” contributed to society,” she says. “They also believed that A music therapist is a healthcare professional that diagnoses and treats patients using music, typically those there were certain notes that you could play or sing that could make you a bad person.” with mental, social, physical or cognitive difficulties. After receiving public input, they will submit the “It’s opening up a level of communication where, proposal to the chair of the department, who will then in some patients, they would not have had an outlet,” Crookall says. “There has been a lot of dramatic footage submit it to the dean of the college. “From there, I guess it goes up the ranks through taken of Alzheimer’s patients who were, for lack of a better word, catatonic until they started to hear music, at provost and then eventually the Board of Regents, who will have the final say,” says Hall. which point they started signing along, tapping their feet Currently, ASU offers a bachelors of music education, or becoming otherwise ‘alive’ again.” a bachelor of arts, which is more of a liberal arts degree, According to Crookall, music accesses parts of the and bachelor of performance. brain that can’t be accessed any other way. “All of them have the same core classes, and then you “For people with autism spectrum disorders, music gives them an outlet for communication and just a way of just kind of specialize in your third and fourth year,” Crookall says. connecting,” she says. In addition to the therapy-related classes, students As a music teacher, Hall witnessed the surprising power would take courses in guitar, piano and percussion, the of music first-hand. “I had a student in fifth grade who was one of our lead three major instruments used in music therapy, and then head out in the field. characters, and I didn’t even know he had a stuttering Though music therapy isn’t necessarily a common field issue until after the fact,” she says. “As long as he was of study — there are only two other programs in the state, singing, he didn’t stutter once.” UGA and Georgia College in Milledgeville — it has the The growing association with GHSU is advantageous, potential to be a growing field, and ASU is interested in since most of the best music therapy programs have a getting in at the ground floor. close connection to a medical institution. “We could be a really powerful force and a leading “It was just a logical progression, since we now have school in this degree area because of the strength of access to this amazing health sciences university,” says GHSU and the strength that we have,” Hall says. Crookall. “It’s extremely beneficial to be able to use not Dr. Christine Crookall and Dr. Suzanne Hall
While many at Augusta State University were alarmed or even frightened when the word got out about the merger of ASU and Georgia Health Sciences University, it didn’t take those in the music department long to identify a potential opportunity. “I think we were all very excited that it could only enhance the music program,” says Dr. Christine Crookall, associate professor of music. “Once the merger was announced, we were talking the next day about a music therapy program.” Now, several months later, that music therapy program is inching closer to realization. “Right now we’re in the process of gathering information about the degree and about the field as a whole,” says Dr. Suzanne Hall, assistant professor music education. “We’re in the middle of identifying interest in the program, and we want to know what the community thinks.” The community will have the opportunity to give their opinions about the proposed new program at a forum on Saturday, November 10, at 2:30 p.m. at the Fine Arts Building next to the Maxwell Performing Arts Center on the campus of ASU. “This is for anyone who’s interested in the field itself,”
10 METROSPIRITAUGUSTA’S INDEPENDENT VOICE SINCE 1989
8NOVEMBER2012