Contents:


1) Alessandra Sax- Lane: Music and the Chronic Mentally III; A Group Therapy.


2) Filippia Rizopoulou: Basic concepts in Music Therapy.


3) George Loukas, Dora Psaltopoulou: Sound and emotional state.


4) Elizabeth Georgiadi: Music Therapy for children and adolescents with special needs.


5) John Kenneth Adams: Notes on centering your students in the learning experience.


6) Vaya Zannou: Coming in contact with opera through Mozart's "Magic Flute" - An approach for children.


Abstracts:

1) Alessandra Sax- Lane
Music and the Chronic Mentally III; A Group Therapy

This presentation on Music and the Chronic Mentally III; A Group Therapy will examine the following issues in the fields of Mental Health and Music Therapy:
1) What is Music Therapy and how it used in clinical mental health settings?
2) What are the specific features of a Music Therapy group?
3) Group Therapy methods and interventions 
4) How is music used as an intervention in group therapy?
5) A case study of a group process: A twelve session music project with the chronic mentally ill, at a Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centre in the U.S.A.


2) Filippia Rizopoulou
Basic concepts in Music Therapy

This presentation is based on a Gerund's Orff book "Key Concepts in the Orff Music Therapy" (Germany, 1984) which was translated in English by Jeremy Day and Sirley Salmon. The book thanks to the ten years’ empirical work of the author contains 77 concepts, which have been proved to be very important for the diagnosis, prognosis and therapy of people with the use of music. Music therapy itself is still for many people a subject of hot debate. Everybody admits that music has a positive effect on each and everyone of us but it is often unclear what kind of effects someone can experience and how these effects san be put into practical use. Some of these key concepts are the following: Perception, Space - Time, Language, Communication… Each "Key - word" is specified in the field of music therapy and thoroughly examined on all its parts. All these basic concepts are very useful for therapists, teachers, psychologists and generally people who deal with children with various disabilities. Apart from the definitions, the author gives us a lot of examples from music therapy sessions at the kindergarten in Munich.

3) George Loukas, Dora Psaltopoulou
Sound and emotional state

The target of this project is to study the influence of sound upon the emotional state of individuals. The initial supposition was that each sound produces a special form of emotions, feelings and disposition of the soul.
Material and method: Groups of four individuals were used. Then four frequencies (sounds) out of the 64 piano keys were chosen randomly. Each individual of these groups listened to the same sound and was asked to record any changes in their emotional state.
Results- conclusions: The conclusion that arrived from the resolution of the findings is that every sound exhibits a special form of emotions, feelings and disposition on the individuals. This project presents the qualities of the sounds that were explored to the experiment.


4) Elizabeth Georgiadi
Music Therapy for children and adolescents with special needs

The purpose of this article is to present Musical Therapy and the musical therapist's ways and framework of working. Specifically, it touches on how Musical Therapy can help children with disabilities and their families effectively cope with life and its difficulties. This article aims for one thing at explaining in a simple and comprehensive way what Musical Therapy is and how therapeutic goals can be achieved. It is emphasized that music is mainly used as a means of contact and communication with the environment and the other individuals and it is not therapeutic per se. 
This article begins with the definition of Music Therapy and a description of the sessions' content. In order for you to understand the ways the music therapist works, I consider a presentation of Music Therapy's philosophy and principles substantial, and, more specifically, a presentation of how the music therapist "sees" the child in front of him/her. Since Music Therapy firstly aims the development of the child's personality and secondly at his/her development in other areas, I will refer to the theoretical framework related to the way an individual’s personality is being developed and also to the ways with which an individual takes advantage of any inborn capabilities. I believe that an example concerning a Music Therapy group of teenagers with disabilities will help you comprehend the following three elements of therapy: understanding of the therapist's conduct towards the child, the role of music within the sessions and the importance of child/therapist relationship.


5) John Kenneth Adams
Notes on centering your students in the learning experience*

Plato was noted for saying that if you want your pupils to appreciate the beautiful, then you must present them with something beautiful to observe, with the ensuing dialogue between master and student unfolding the path to self - discovery. Obviously all of us who teach piano want our students to play with an appreciation and understanding of how to create the enormous range and expressive power possible on our instrument of choice. It is through this process of observation and ensuing dialogue that we begin to learn just how our students are actually experiencing the learning process. At the same time, we are giving them the opportunity to explore our own creative world. I think keeping a delicate balance between these two very different worlds, ideally that of questioning student and the nurturing master, is the real secret in developing the high level of trust and respect so necessary for a true learning experience. It can also be the catalyst for stimulating the students' emotional development, which in turn will lead them towards new goals in musical taste and feeling. 
* Reprinted by permission of Piano Pedagogy Forum, University of South Carolina, USA, http://www.music.sc.edu/ea/keyboard/ppf.


6) Vaya Zannou
Coming in contact with opera through Mozart’s “Magic Flute” - An approach for children

In the context of their acquaintance with different kinds and forms of music, 4th-grade students of the Elementary School in the Macedonian School of Thessaloniki, came in contact with opera through a series of activities that lasted 6 teaching hours. The opera used was Mozart's "Magic Flute". Students participated actively, described feelings, characters and situations involved, and experienced the substance of music drama.