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Can Music Help You Focus?
Posted on October 13, 2014 by Jessica Ryan in Productivity.Did you know that on average, Americans spend more than 25 hours per week listening to music, and 16% of this listening happens at work?[i] Reasons for listening to music at work vary. For me, it isn’t simply a matter of enjoyment; it’s a strategy I often use to make myself more productive. Over […]
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Playlist: Relaxing Spring
Posted on October 3, 2014 by Jessica Ryan in Relaxation.I know what you’re probably thinking right now—that I’m crazy for sharing a playlist called “Relaxing Spring” during the first full week of fall. Although the title might seem odd given the time of year, it actually fits nicely since the new playlist serves as the follow-up to last week’s Relaxing Fall. Like Relaxing […]
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Playlist: Relaxing Fall
Posted on September 24, 2014 by Jessica Ryan in Relaxation.Can you believe that it’s already fall? I can’t. It seems like summer flew by and everything has suddenly returned to its usual frenetic pace. With a new season starting at the PSO, a class to TA at Carnegie Mellon University, and a running routine to maintain in preparation for upcoming races, I’m already […]
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Healthy Hearing
Posted on September 17, 2014 by Jessica Ryan in Musician Health.Did you know that the level of sound created by a symphony orchestra can reach up to 137 dB?[i] That’s almost as high as the 140 dB generated by a jet engine 100 feet away![ii] Frequent or continuous exposure to an orchestra playing at this volume can actually lead to hearing loss. Even people […]
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Eight Tips for Healthy Practicing
Posted on September 5, 2014 by Jessica Ryan in Musician Health.In a 1986 survey of over 2,000 professionals belonging to the International Conference of Symphony and Orchestra Musicians (ICSOM), 76% of the musicians surveyed indicated that at some point during their careers, they faced severe injuries that forced them to stop performing.[i] Unfortunately, professionals aren’t the only musicians who experience injuries. Surveys of college […]
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Dark Music
Posted on August 28, 2014 by Virginia Dougherty in Guest Blogs.Songwriters, composers and poets don’t shy away from topics that can make us very uncomfortable as listeners and music consumers. These songs serve a very good purpose as they meet us where we are at emotionally, even if we happen to be in a darker place. This kind of music can be like a […]
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Pain
Posted on August 14, 2014 by Debbie Benkovitz in Guest Blogs, Pain Management.Pain is inevitable in a hospital, but management of pain has come a long way and research proves that music therapy can help patients cope with the discomfort of their illnesses, traumas, and procedures. At Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, we do many things to decrease and alleviate pain. Hospital staff members join […]
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An Ordinary Day in the Life of a Music Therapist at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC
Posted on July 24, 2014 by Debbie Benkovitz in Guest Blogs.It is about 7:30 a.m. when I walk into the hospital most days. It is too early to see patients but a good time to get on the computer and get organized. I review the hospital census and check for the location of my patients to make sure they are in the same rooms in […]
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Designing a Music Presentation for Adults with Special Needs
Posted on July 10, 2014 by Penny Brill in Accessibility, Guest Blogs, PSO Programs.PSO cellist Adam Liu and I were recently invited to do a 45-minute presentation for the first Woodlands Foundation Notes from the Heart Music Camp for adults over 21. Adam plays the erhu as well as the cello, and I play violin and viola, so between us we had the potential to provide a wide range of […]
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Music for Exercise and Beyond
Posted on June 26, 2014 by Penny Brill in Exercise and Sports, Guest Blogs, Relaxation.We often listen to music as we exercise, but why? Among other things, it distracts us from feeling tired or noticing small aches and pains. It provides a rhythm which our bodies try to match, thereby pushing us to go further, longer, or with greater intensity—enhancing our performance. It gives us the impetus to […]
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