Dr. Kenneth Aigen
// Author & MusicianDR. KENNETH AIGEN is an author, musician, and Assistant Professor of Music Therapy at Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His books “Music-Centered Music Therapy” (2005), “Being In Music: Foundations Of Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy” (1996/2005), “Playin’ In The Band: A Qualitative Study Of Popular Music Styles As Clinical Improvisation” (2002/2005), “A Guide To Writing And Presenting In Music Therapy” (2003), and “Here We Are In Music: One Year With An Adolescent Creative Music Therapy Group” (1997) are all available from Barcelona Publishers. Dr. Kenneth Aigen is also the President of the Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation.
Websites: www.temple.edu/musictherapy and www.nordoffrobbins.org
Photo: Dr. Kenneth Aigen / Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Foundation
Interview:
Music helps us to transcend the dualities of experience into which much of our efforts at daily survival push us. The most powerful spiritual music is groove music because it is based in the body and connects us to spirit; it animates us physically while focusing us mentally; it brings us into our private inner experience while at the same time connecting us to our fellow human beings.
The creation of groove requires listening, attending to others, and reacting to them in the present moment. The creation of groove is a spiritual discipline because it requires focus and abandonment, body and mind, unison and variation, intention and surrender.
Music is the voice of wisdom in nature. It is the sound of that force that maintains the dynamic balance necessary for living things to thrive. When we are deeply held within the creation of groove, we are most deeply connected to the life force. That, to me, is the spiritual significance of music.
“[Music] brings us into our private inner experience while at the same time connecting us to our fellow human beings.”
– Dr. Kenneth Aigen, author of “Music-Centered Music Therapy”
