SINGING: NONVERBAL ELEMENTS AND MOOD STATES WITHIN THE MUSIC THERAPY PROCESS

Abstract

Singing is a resource often used in music therapy. It is known that the voice is an important means of communication and expression out of the music therapeutic environment. This research conducted through three case studies, aims to investigate whether there is a relationship between mood states and nonverbal elements of singing and speaking voice inside the music therapeutic process; to evaluate the congruence between the mood states expressed through singing and speaking voice, and to analyze the contribution of nonverbal resources in the music therapeutic process. Before being conducted, the research project was approved by the Research Ethics Committee /CEP - Faculdades EST, under no. 022/2009 and an assessment tool for the music therapy sessions was developed and implemented by the author of this research. The mood states influence the singing and speaking voice in the music therapeutic process and the singing voice carries supremacy of information over the speaking voice. Nonverbal elements of the patient’s voice are transformed into analysis subsidies to the processes of assessment and therapy. It should be stressed that the findings of this research, although consistent, are still insufficient to consolidate the results obtained by taking into account the amount of sample collected.