Listening – visualizing – feeling – changing: psychocorrective opportunities

of the guided imagination in the process of music perception

DR. MARINA V. KARASSEVA

Moscow State Conservatory
 2

Subject of Investigation

This paper focuses upon an interaction between different human representative sensory
systems — auditory, visual, and kinesthetic — in the process of music hearing. The study will
consider that such an interaction gives people important additional opportunities for
psychological self-improvement.
This paper seeks to reflect on the roots of human emotional reaction to music patterns. It
suggests the concrete ways how the guided listening to music may contribute to the guided
mood change.

Terms Definition

The term "Psychocorrection" is used here to refer to the improvement of a human state,
as distinct from the term "psychotherapy" which holds mostly a clinical sense. There are two
main reasons to use music in psychocorrection: 1) psychological, 2) physiological.
1) Music is the most hypnotic and non-specific art where one can hear, see, and feel
something during a time dimension. Therefore, music is very well suited for personal
psychocorrection. Listening to music serves as a means of the development of the right brain
hemisphere, with its prevalent imagery and holistic thinking.
2) Music has also curative powers in aspect of physical health. It is known, for example, that
music has an effect on blood pressure and cardiac rhythms. This phenomenon may be actively
used though the synesthetical hearing of music.
The term of "Synesthesia" is interpreted as "the condition in which a sensory experience
normally associated with one modality occurs when another modality is stimulated" (A. Reber,
p. 779). This phenomenon has been an object of numerous investigations in the field of visual
arts. In the field of music the main accent has traditionally been made on colored hearing as the
experiencing of color with auditory stimuli.
The term "Guided imagination" signifies the special approach to the listener. One of the
most important condition of such an approach in my framework is the application of certain
synesthetical links in individual imagination in order to conduct the change of humane mood.
The psychocorrectional role of the guided synesthetical imagination might be especially
important in the following aspects:
1) Music can produce a trance effect similar to that produced by certain drugs. It may
therefore be used as a substitute for drugs and can thus promote a drug-free lifestyle in those
whose drug addiction is a result of a strong desire to be more creative.
2) Music may also aid in the solution of some gerontological problems because it can
provide the so-called mental age regression, transferring the listener to the world of his
childhood by means of music recollection, so called auditory anchors.
 3

Problem Statement
In spite of the essential interest to the question of psychocorrection by means of music,
nowadays, there are only a few professional attempts being made in this direction. As a cause,
the following key obstacles may be considered:
1. Narrow specialization: psychologists usually do not have sufficient professional
knowledge in the field of music; musicians, for their part, are unfamiliar with psychological
theories. In addition, practitioners are, as a rule, rather separated from theory scholars.
2. Considerable informative disconnection between the investigations in different
countries.
It should also be noted that there are some differences in approach to the roots of the
problem of "healing music hearing". Some scientific schools, for instance in the U. S., pay much
attention is to music appreciation, cognitive musicology, and music therapy. In Russia, however,
there is deep experience in the discipline of ear training, concerning not only classical but also
contemporary music with its non-third harmony and irregular rhythmes. There is a highly
hierarchical system of musician skills development. It provides rich practical material and a well
adjusted methodological base for the study of music psychocorrection.

Aims of Study
The main aim of my research is to combine the achievements of the Russian academic
school in the field of ear training with the newest foreign achievements in the field of modern
psychotechnologies and, thus, to contribute to further development of music psychocorrection
using professional music tools.
It is important to note that the traditional music therapy approach is usually based on
discrimination of the music mood only as a whole, without the examination of its components. In
this connection, the proposed approach would be the first to provide more detailed information
about concrete components of the musical influence on human psychological state and activity.

Background
Scientific base
The successful development of the study of music psychocorrection now is favored by
achievements in practical psychology and psychotherapy and the new fields of these sciences
which have been extensively developed for the past 15 years. In particular, my investigation is
based on guided imagery, music psychodrama (J. Moreno), and anthropomorphical hearing
(P. Kivy) as well as on neuro-linguistic programming (NLP). Thus, my table of associative
links (see it below in the text) has been elaborated on the base of the theory of submodalities
extraction developed by G. Grinder and R. Bandler (USA).

Personal experience of the author

This paper has also incorporated the author's research in professional ear training, theory
of modern harmony, and practical psychology. It is a part of large study on psychotecnics of ear
training which has been my Post Doctoral dissertation (Moscow, 1999).
 4

Empirical data
The main experiment on synesthetical hearing was conducted by the author in 1992-
2002. Among participants there were students of different departments at Moscow Conservatory,
including foreign students, as well as non-musicians of different age and social level.

Main Contribution

The core of the author's concept

The main claim in this study is that it is quite possible to elaborate the scientific
methodology for selection of the following opportunities provided by music: basic
communicative (rhetorical) melodic and rhythmic patterns, as well as the basic trance (meditative)
elements (such as revolving melodical patterns, with "the loss" of down and up rhythmic beats,
or the Messiaen's modes etc.).
Illustrative interventions
In this paper, the sensory modalities theory and the submodalities extraction methodology
have been considered as basic for the music material demonstration. In order to illustrate this
theory, I will present some of distinctive samples of chords to show the concrete ways of
synesthetical hearing.
Numerous experiments have shown that certain types of chords are invariably perceived
by the people in certain color (or in sector of color spectrum), geometrical figures, clearness,
volume, contrast, density, temperature, taste, smell and so on. Given below, the methodological
table is presented which collects the main visual, auditory, and kinesthetic submodalities within
three modalities.
SUBMODALITIES OF SENSORY PERCEPTION
VISUAL AUDIAL KINESTHETIC
how we see how we hear how we move and feel
Color Pitch Movement and its direction
(ascending, descending,
(kind or a part of spectrum (high, middle, low) horizontal)
- war/cold shade)
Brightness Timbre Weight
(bright, pale, fade, dark) (light, heavy)
Shape Tempo Texture
(round, angular) (fast, slow) (smooth, rough, sticky,
elastic, foamy)
Distance Mono/Stereo Temperature
(near, far) (hot, mild, chilly)
Contrast degree Duration Muscle feelings
(high/ low contrast) (prolonged, discrete) (strained, relaxed, torpid)
Size of mental "picture" Dynamics Pain feelings
(large, small ) (loud, low) (acute, aching, dull)
Clearness degree Resonance Smell
(clear, slurred) (sonorous, dull) (fragrant, perfumed, floral,
fresh, pungent, strong,
 5

acrid, smoky, chemical,

poison)
Movement in your "film" Distance from the sound Pressure
source
(is it static or not) (knocked down, floating,
(near, remote) fluttering)
Framing Articulation Taste
(with frame or panoramic) (conjunct, disjunct) (sweet, bitter, sour, salty,
insipid, spicy, hot)

Necessary explanations
Using this table, listeners have being got an access to their own potentialities. In this way,
different types of chords - in classical and modern structure - were given for synesthetical
analyzing. Thus, Webern-style chords (such as "g-es-fis", etc.) were permanently associated
with cold colors, crystal in texture, chemical smell, pain feelings (NB: all of these components
may influence the decrease of blood pressure and pulse). Chords with pentatonic base ("f-b-d-g-
c", etc.) were linked in perception with somewhat natural, warm, sweet/fresh, relaxing etc. Chords
in Spanish style (like "d-a-fis-c-es-f") were perceived in red spectrum as aggressive, spicy, and
hot ones. (NB: these type of imagination may conduct the increase of blood pressure and pulse.)

Essential results
On the base of practical investigations, the special classification of chords and their
typical influence has been made (Karasseva, 1999). One of the additional psychological and
pedagogical results has been the fact that listeners have always changed their believes. They used
to think that synesthetical hearing is an attribute of only a few eminent musicians like
A. Skryabin or N. Rimsky-Korsakov who were known to have a colored hearing. During several
music sessions, listeners began to discover that they could to hear not only in color, but also in
touch, taste etc. This "amazing discovery" has raised their creative feelings and has strengthened
their interest to music.
After having focused on a chord perception, I should say a few words about creation of positive
states of mind by means of music listening.
There are two main types of music resources: external and internal.
External resources are on the level of environment and behavior. This is mostly march, dancing
music.
Internal resources are as usual connected with the human belief level. It is possible to mark two
main types of the positive resource access:
1) by means of so called age regression,
2) through the music guided regulation of the scale of human emotional states.
The first type may be realized when a composer wish to play with different musical styles within
one composition. In such a polystylistics (often in A. Snittke's compositions) there are "Mozart
style" fragments implanted in the modern hard-sounded music.
It is interesting to mention that during the traditional psyhotherapeutic session a client is
searching for positive stimulus as a rule only in his individual memory. The power of music
gives people the opportunity to spiritually attach to earlier period of history, to the golden age of
mankind by means of applying to the eternal values and cultural wealth. Also for purposes of the
genetic memory arousal, the modal scale of pentatonic as one of the most ancient mode system is
successfully used.
 6

Within the second type of access to resources we can mark two groups: toning up (like the
beginning of the First concerto by P. Tchaikovsky) and relaxing resources (like "Swan" by C.
Saint-Sans) with quiet still sounds.
Therefore, it would be practically efficient to analyze and systematize, from presented point of
view, music literature with the regard for different historical and national music styles.

Major Outcomes to be Achieved

The significance of the presented approach consists of the possibility of the wide
interdisciplinary outcome of its basic ideas. This possibility is based on the expectation that many
laws of the perception of musical language to be discovered during my investigation, will turn out
to be important for other communicative structures too.
Presented approach gives opportunity for a wide music-psychological correction. It
shows that music may be effectively applied not only for clinic purposes (as it used in the frame
of music therapy) but also for a social psychocorrection based on creative imaginary and holistic
thinking. One possible application is the establishment of "music self-improvement" seminars in
high schools and colleges.

Discussion
It seems that the further practical exploration of my ideas may be of helpful use both for
psychologists and for educators. The results of this study provide them with a new theoretical
methodology of submodalities extraction on the base of music patterns.
Potentialities of music psychocorrection may be extended if we are able to get an
effective selection and application of music elements and forms. The act of listening to the music
in concert halls is actually a kind of unique session of psychocorrection because all the people
can perceive the same music form while filling it with their personal sense.
 7

Address for correspondence:

25-1-159, ulitsa Isakovskogo, Moscow, 123181, Russia
Telephone: (+7 095) 757 0629
Fax: (+7 095) 290 2273
E-mail: marinola@mtu-net.ru
Website: www.mosconsv.ru/pers/karas
 8

References

1. Reber, A. S. “The Penguin dictionary of psychology,” London; New York:

Penguin Putnam, 1995.

2. O'Connor, J., Seymour, J. “Introducing Neuro-Linguistic Programming," London:

Thorsons, 1995.

3. Karasseva, M. “Solfeggio — Psychotechnique of Ear Training,” Moscow

Conservatory Press, Moscow, 1999.