Enhancing psychological well being and musical proficiency with tm

Enhancing psychological well-being and musical proficiency: Experiences of a Black South African singer during a Tomatis study of student musicians and at follow-up, seven years postprogram

Authors: Wynand du Plessis, Marth Munro, Daan Wissing, and Werner Nel Contact: Wynand.DuPlessis@nwu.ac.za Center/Institution: North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus (du Plessis, Wissing, Nel); Tshwane University of Technology (Munro) Country: South Africa Month: January Year: 2008 Abstract: During a study of the impact of the Tomatis Method on a multicultural group of student musicians, a Black male participant experienced a unique crisis, associated with perceived entrapment and negative professional expectations in view of being Black. Although threatening to desert the study, he completed it, after verbally expressing his concerns. At 7-year follow up, sustained musical proficiency and escalating musical productivity were confirmed. The case study is preceded by a brief review of the research study, conducted in response to the paucity of studies of the impact of the Tomatis Method on musicians. Thus, the research context in which the case study unfolded is outlined to elucidate the process in which the student singer participated.

Keywords: musical training, music education, student musicians, ear training, psychology of music

In l998, an evaluation of the Tomatis Method with a multicultural group of music students was conducted by researchers in the field of voice, professional voice coaching, and psychology at North-West University’s Potchefstroom Campus. Since significant statistical outcomes do not elucidate individual participants’ unique experiences, a case study is presented here to describe the experiences of a young adult male Black singer during the study and at follow-up, 7 years later.

BACKGROUND Musicians, including singers and student singers, have to contend with many issues inherent in the performing arts: elevated levels of performance anxiety; stress control, because of its effects on voice quality (Nagel, 1988; Dews & Williams, 1989); depression and anger (O’Connor & Dyce, 1977; Cohen & Kupersmith, 1986); introversion, especially in females (Campbell, 1997); and superego-strictness (Dews & Williams, 1989). Debilitating psychological effects often necessitate psychotherapy but are complicated by musicians’ resistance to psychologists inexperienced in the subtleties of musicianship (Brodsky & Sloboda, 1997).

Among the diversity of methods enjoying long-standing support from professional voice users and instrumentalists, the Tomatis Method (TM) of sensori-neural integration training (Tomatis, 1996) ranks as a well-known, yet controversial, choice.

Within the pathogenic (focus on human weaknesses) paradigm, there is growing evidence of the efficacy of the TM in pathology reduction, i.e. learning difficulties (Gilmor, 1999), autism (Neysmith-Roy, 2001), and anxiety (Du Plessis & Van Jaarsveld, 1988). However, from a fortigenic (enhancement of human strengths) perspective as well (Wissing & Van Eeden, 2002), the TM comprises potential for enhancement of psychological well-being (Rolf, 1998; Akakios, 2002).

Even though Tomatis’s seminal work with singers, spanning several decades, has so far attracted little research attention (Burger, 1999), Madaule has opened up the field by in-depth case studies. Initially, he documented responses of South African music students to the TM (Madaule, 1976). Much later, he related listening training to music education (Madaule, 1997). In a further paper on listening and singing, he contextualised case vignettes of singers within the theoretical assumptions underlying the TM (Madaule, 2001). However, to our knowledge, no controlled study of the impact of the Tomatis Method on musicians had been published at commencement of our study in 1998.

METHODS In view of the lack of controlled studies evaluating the effect of the TM on musicians, a controlled pilot study was aimed at enhancing listening aptitude, psychological wellbeing, vocal quality, and vocal/instrumental proficiency, with a multicultural group of student musicians.

The study comprised a two-group, pre-post investigation. The experimental group consisted of two subgroups: sub-experimental Group 1 comprised students from North-West University’s (NWU) music conservatory at the Potchefstroom Campus (n=10), and sub-experimental Group 2 comprised students from the Vocal Art Department of the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) (n=8) [1]. To facilitate comparison, the control group (n=10) consisted of 5 singers and 5 instrumentalists from NWU. Both sub-experimental groups and the control group constituted availability samples of registered music students who had completed at least school Grade 8 level musical training.

Experimental participants attended a total of 87.5 listening sessions, including both the passive and active phase. Listening sessions were interspersed with regular group discussions featuring both groups separately, in order to regulate the process and ensure that participants were comfortable with the training/integration process. The group discussion also enabled them to resolve any practical or interpersonal issues.

Individual psychotherapy was provided as well. Sub-experimental Group 1 completed 60 listening sessions and then sub-experimental Group 2 followed, during a university recess. After an interval of about 6 weeks, the two sub-experimental groups completed their remaining sessions in similar order.

The non-intervention control group was assessed initially, and at completion of the program, together with sub-experimental Groups 1 and 2. Assessments included measures of psychological well-being, including the Profile of Mood States (POMS) (McNair, Lorr & Droppleman, 1992), especially its vigor-subscale; the Constructive Thinking Inventory (Epstein, 1993); the Tomatis Listening Test; and a perceptual evaluation by an internationally recognized singing coach.

RESULTS The positive outcome of the study, despite design limitations, consisted of practically significant enhancement of: (i) listening aptitude on the Tomatis Listening Test; (ii) psychological well-being, in terms of reduced negative mood states and increased vigor, a positive mood state as ascertained by the POMS in both sub-experimental groups; (iii) enhanced behavioral and emotional coping in sub-experimental Group 1; and (iv) vocal enhancement, perceived by singer-participants in both subexperimental groups and by the professional singing coach. In summary, analysis of the results of the study revealed distinctly enhanced musical proficiency in 28% of program participants, versus 10% in the control group, some months after program completion (Du Plessis, Burger, Munro,Wissing & Nel, 2001).

Statistical indications of enhancement are reflected in Figure 1, in which results of pre-post-program mean scores on the POMS are provided for the total experimental group (sub-experimental Groups 1 and 2 combined).

Figure 1 : Pre-post-programme mean scores on the Profile of Mood States (POMS) for the total experimental group (n =18).

It should be noted that pre-program mean scores confirmed that sub-experimental Groups 1 and 2 were indeed comparable with the control group, at study commencement, in terms of mood states, levels of constructive thinking, listening aptitude, biographical features, and level of musical proficiency. Audiological investigation confirmed that all participants’ ears were functional.

Furthermore, pre-program mean scores portrayed in Figure1 reflected the predominance of negative mood states over vigor, a positive mood state, and were consistent with findings concerning difficulties encountered by musicians.

CASE STUDY Despite a variety of significant individual experiences, the selection of an appropriate participant for a case study was based on the following considerations: • evidence of pre-program predominance of negative perceptions and mood states; • indications of growth or change during the program, consistent with the theory and rationale of the therapeutic training process underlying sensori-neural integration training with the TM

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availability of follow-up information, 7 years after completion of the study; and ultimate outcome reflective of “universal Mozart” (Madaule, 1994) and/or the Tomatis Method on a Black South African student musician.

An articulate young adult Black student singer, fictitiously named Bongani, a member of sub-experimental Group 2, met these considerations best and was thus singled out for purposes of a reflective case study.

Twenty-two-year-old Bongani hailed from TUT, where he was a second-year student in the Vocal Art Department. He had a broad smile and a readiness to engage in conversations about music. Less well-known was the fact that, as he was staying a good two to two-and-a-half hours drive away from the University, he had to rise at 4 a.m. and take a succession of taxis and trains in order to arrive on time. Consequently, he often fell asleep during lectures, evoking the wrath of the teaching staff.

Bongani’s presence was further underlined at commencement of the study. Apart from psychological tests completed at pre-program assessment, a drawing was also requested from program participants. To tap inner experiences, they were asked at intervals to “draw a picture which reflects your present experience of yourself as a thinking, feeling, communicating and music making person” (Burger, 1999, p. 208).

The intuitive rationale was that salient aspects of participants’ experiences and attitudes would be evoked by these instructions and progressively those activated by the listening process. According to the Tomatis approach, subtle changes in subsequent drawings and features like openings could be perceived as indicative of growth or change (A. A.Tomatis, personal communication, 1995).

Bongani’s metaphor for the first drawing was a formidable wall (see computerized representation of Drawing 1). Although speculative, an interpretation is offered. At the time of the drawing, Bongani was probably portraying his life situation of feeling blocked and isolated by many negative life events, including a childhood under apartheid. This negative view was exacerbated by a painful awareness that he had to defend himself against daily risks of death in violence-wracked townships, at least at the time of the study. This image resonated with a poignant statement about reducing one’s listening or connectedness to ensure survival. “The more we had to close our listening to protect ourselves during early childhood, the more we isolated ourselves from the world, with the risk of remaining self-centred” (Dumas de la Roque, 2003, p.

3).

Drawing 1: Computerized representation of a wall drawn by Bongani.

The hypothesis that the entrapment image also suggested that Bongani’s listening aptitude was compromised by negative life events was further supported by his refusal to ease his financial burdens by accepting a bank loan, an indication of his preference for self-distancing rather than engaging in reasonable resources available to students.

Despite the self-protection suggested by his initial drawing, Bongani enjoyed good relations with his peers and appeared to like the daily listening sessions. Initially, he participated freely and seemed at ease with the flow of the process.

One day, however, around Session 40, he suddenly emerged from his listening cubicle and announced that, although he enjoyed listening in privacy and felt relaxed and comforted by the air conditioning, he “had to go.” On being questioned, he replied that “this is not real life.” When clarification was requested, he explained that “real life” implied being uncertain whether he would arrive alive at the end of a taxi ride.

(Taxis represent the most frequently used public transport in Black South African townships, but these “taxis” are in fact 16-seater mini-buses, often in poor technical shape and overloaded, thus causing many mortalities.)

Furthermore, real life also meant never being on his own in his family’s home (in a township outside a white suburb called Springs), since there were “always people coming and going.” Finally, real life meant if he ever got a call to attend an audition for a possible opera role, the message would probably never reach him. Upon further inquiry, it turned out that the more he listened to the music of Mozart, the more uneasy he felt, because he anticipated that it was not even worthwhile to study singing, since “Europe has only had white opera singers.” Thus, careful listening revealed a cluster of negative thoughts and self-doubts associated with being Black in the world. The authors found his response very typical of crises experienced by clients, since filtered music enlarges one’s awareness and hence reveals conflicts, previously denied or contained by other psychodynamic defense mechanisms. His response also illustrates the power of the activation of the “desire to communicate” (Tomatis, 1978, p. 139), which enables clients to acknowledge their fears and insecurities in order to start taking control of them.

Once Bongani had voiced his sense of discomfort, he was persuaded to carry on in the interest of enhancing his voice and level of self-confidence. After he had negotiated the crisis, he seemed more relaxed and continued without noticeable difficulties. At the end of the study, instructions for another drawing were repeated. This time Bongani drew a similar wall (see computerized version of Drawing 2), yet now it featured a hole through which colorful flowers, some prominently yellow, were visible.

Drawing 2: Computerized representation of a wall with flowers, visible through a hole.

Drawing 2 was suggestive of an opening up of a way through Bongani’s wall of selfisolation – possibly to a future of hope. The possibility that the drawing could even convey the opening of his desire to listen, thus reconnecting him - once again, or for the first time – to his environment, his music, and significant others in his life, was supported by a number of events. Firstly, he accepted a student loan some time after the project. Subsequently, he obtained a role in an opera of which he acquitted himself very well, and he completed his academic course successfully. He still remains actively engaged in singing.

Follow-up information was gleaned from an interview conducted with Bongani at the beginning of 2005 by author number two, a lecturer at the Drama Department, TUT, where she also solicited sub-experimental Group 2’s participation during planning of the study. From a personal interview, complemented by e-mail information, it was learned that Bongani was making a successful living as a performing artist, to such an extent that he was able to have a home for himself and another for his mother constructed simultaneously. Subsequent to the study, he has been living alone and has found a meaningful faith. He has sung nationally and internationally, together with two other singers, earning a substantial income and expressing satisfaction with his career progress. In this regard, he has also reassessed his vision of South African singers from a place where singing was a survival mechanism to where he was prepared to challenge the best in the world, which he has identified as the “Korean challenge.”

Bongani has expanded his musicianship in three ways. Firstly, he has adjudicated music and singing competitions and facilitated singing workshops. Secondly, he has begun to compose an African opera that uses indigenous knowledge, fused with international vocal demands. The opera is based on his own violent high school experiences and is written in an indigenous language. Thirdly, he has also worked in, and written for, radio.

With reference to Figure 1, previously referred to, the significant post-programme decrease of negative mood states, and increased vigor, in both sub-experimental groups seem to encompass even Bongani’s progress at follow-up. His activities, 7 years post-programme, denoted sustained enhancement of his level of psychological well-being as indicated by increased vigor, which enabled him to continue the difficult journey of academic preparation until he found his niche as a singer.

With reference to attendance of the program, he confirmed his growing sense of frustration and ambivalence, which gave way to acceptance of the listening sessions, once he had acknowledged his concerns. At conclusion of the interview, he reiterated his appreciation for the opportunity to echance his listening through the Tomatis Method. n the South African context, the crucial question is whether Bongani’s progress is attributable to, inter alia, the impact of the TM, or is simply a reflection of affirmative action. The answer will remain elusive. However, additional to the evidence in favour of an enhancement of the fortigenic effect of the TM, the voice teacher also found significant vocal gains from Bongani’s pre-post voice recordings. Thus, it is concluded that Bongani’s obvious talent, high level of motivation and aspiration, together with the impact of the TM on both his vocalization and personality, have been instrumental in his sustained musical proficiency.

Two crucial factors, often perceived in clinical context, warrant explanation. Firstly, it is assumed that Bongani’s inherent intellectual abilities enabled him to articulate his rising anguish verbally and, since meaningful dialogue followed, desertion of the listening program was pre-empted. Secondly, the creativity graphically reflected in his drawing of a wall, suggestive of being “closed off” and disconnected, rendered him a good candidate to benefit from the TM, by virtue of its rationale of enhanced desire to communicate. When his crucial communication about having to go was uttered, listened to, and respectfully contained, he was indeed on his way …. but to opening up to better self-listening and musical proficiency.

Acknowledgement Prof. A Munro for language editing.

REFERENCES • Akakios, A. (2002). The effects of the Tomatis Method on first-time pregnant women. Unpublished master’s thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

• Brodsky, W., & Sloboda, J. A. (1997). Clinical trial of music generated vibrotactile therapeutic environment for musicians: Main effects and outcome differences between therapy subgroups. Journal of Music Therapy, 34, 2-31.

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Burger, S. (1999). The effect of a structured Audio-Psycho-Phonological program on musical young adults. Unpublished master’s thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Campbell, D. (1997). The Mozart effect. New York: Avon Books.

Cohen, B. J., & Kupersmith, J. R. F. (1986). The study of SCL-90 scores of 87 performing artists seeking psychotherapy. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 1, 140-142.

Dews, C. L. B., & Williams, M. S. (1989). Student musicians’ personality styles, stressors and coping patterns. Psychology of Music, 17, 37-47.

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Unpublished manuscript, Listening Centre (Lewes), East Sussex, UK. Dumas de la Roque, P. (2000). Life is listening. Caduceus, 48, 29-31.

Du Plessis, W. F., Burger, S., Munro, M., Wissing, D. P., & Nel, W. (2001).

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Du Plessis, W. F., & Van Jaarsveld, P. E. (1988). Audio-Psycho-Phonology: A comparative outcome study on anxious primary school pupils. South African Journal of Psychology, 18, 144-151.

Epstein, S. (1993). Manual for the Constructive Thinking Inventory. Amherst: University of Massachusetts.

Gilmor, T. (1999). The efficacy of the Tomatis Method for children with learning and communication disorders: A meta-analysis. International Journal of Listening, 13, 12-23 Madaule, P. (1976). The Tomatis Method for singers and musicians.

Unpublished manuscript, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

Madaule, P. (1994). When listening comes alive. Norval, Ontario: Moulin Publishing.

Madaule, P. (1997) Listening training and music education, Early Childhood Connections: Journal of Music and Movement-Based learning, 4(2), 34-41.

Madaule, P. (2001). Listening and singing, Journal of Singing, 57(5), 15-20.

McNair, D. M., Lorr, M., & Droppleman, L. F. (1992). Edits manual for the Profile of Mood States. San Diego: Educational and Industrial Testing Services.

Nagel, J. (1988). In pursuit of perfection: Career choice and performance anxiety in musicians. Medical Problems of Performing Artists, 3, 140-145.

Neysmith-Roy, J. M. (2001). The Tomatis Method with severely autistic boys: Individual case studies of behavioral changes. South African Journal of Psychology, 31(1), 19-28.

O’Connor, B. P., & Dyce, J. (1997). Interpersonal rigidity, hostility and complementarity in musical bands. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 362-372.

Rolf, A. S. (1998). The evaluation of an Audio-Psycho-Phonological enrichment program for psychology students. Unpublished master’s thesis, Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, Potchefstroom, South Africa.

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Tomatis, A. A. (1978). Education and dyslexia (L. Guiney, Trans.). Fribourg, Switzerland: A.I.A.P.P. (Original work published in French in 1971) Tomatis, A. A. (1996). The ear and language (B. Thompson, Ed.). Norval, Ontario: Moulin Publishing. (Original work published in French in 1963) Wissing, M. P. & Van Eeden, C. (2002). Empirical clarification of the nature of psychological well-being, South African Journal of Psychology, 32(1), 3244.

FOOTNOTES 1. At commencement of the study the former was known as the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, and the latter as the Department of Opera at the Pretoria Technikon. The name changes occurred in 2004.