He heard about music therapy long ago and was curious. Anything that speaks the five magical alphabets MUSIC speaks life to him. But this was a little different. It answered a haunting question, “Is there more to music than just listening and feeling good?” The medium was so powerful; it was intriguing. It was also - communication. It had to be a really important tool.
And while the world passed on, wondering what goes on in that head of his, critically-acclaimed musician, Kamal Singh found a new muse - Music Therapy. A subject that spoke to him deeply; a profession that could bring together all of his experience to affect people’s lives positively. The goal? “Facilitating well-being – behavioural and emotional.” Ultimately, it was empowerment for whoever needed the help he could provide.
Over the last few years, the ‘3 sevens’ and ‘Lounge Piranha’ hero has excused himself from the “music scene”, and is putting all his music into one basket. One that requires all of him (quite literally), to correct situations that are otherwise tough to handle, or ugly, if you’re ignorant. This requires working with clients, usually people with special needs, and building the sturdy foundation of trust – through music. “Once they start trusting, behaviour changes. They want to exist. They become easier to handle. They progress,” says the 37-year-old clinical music therapist.
Is it entertaining? No
In his emergent portfolio, Kamal has worked with children and adults with disabilities, and those terminally-ill. He works with organizations and does individual sessions too at his studio. With schools, it’s part of a programme and usually a group session. With individuals, it is a 45-minute session curated to work on a problem area. There is no set pattern or methodology.
How different is it from entertaining people with music? (Did he ever consider that, is more the question) Very different, is his response. Often, he says, it’s like crawling into their worlds with them and bringing them back to ours. And it takes a lot of time.
How does it work? Do they make music together? Is it pleasant to the ear? “No,” he tells me, “often, it sounds terrible. It can be just a beat or a rhythm. You walk in, and you won’t see people super-excited or dancing. In fact, it looks dull.”
“I’m not here to create feelings.”
So it’s not a party or a concert. And it’s dull, but it’s music… AND it’s therapy. I’m told there are instruments used to make a connection, to encourage participation, to give confidence and even, maybe applause, show solidarity and most important of all, to build trust. So the instruments are musical, but the product is not typical. Deep stuff.
“I’m not here to create feelings – joy, happiness…that looks nice from the outside. For me, that’s not therapy. Change must come from the inside,” he explains. Watch speeded up versions of his sessions, like I did, and you will notice a change in the behaviour of clients over time. With a drum as a tool to link or a strap of jingly bells, videos capture various breakthroughs at therapy sessions. A minute gesture, a move, an action to the casual eye; but a huge win for Kamal.
“I see change because I have belief.”
His first breakthrough came when he was still studying. During an internship, he worked with three students, from NGO Muskaan. When he was done, and giving his presentation to the heads of the institution, he began by describing one of the boys from his perspective - the character, the interests, the abilities, the cheekiness, and personality, that he had observed. “At the end, they told me that the person I had described was new to them… they had been with this boy for five years and didn’t know him like this,” he recalls, “That, for me, was a win. I was able to bring out these dimensions and that made me feel good. I had read and learned about how clinical music therapy helped people “express themselves” but I hadn’t understood how that would happen…until that day!”
Clearly, he has started looking at music very differently? “Yes!” he responds with much excitement, “I can see change. It’s not because I have special skills. It’s because I have belief. I’m tuned in emotionally. Problems get addressed through the medium of music and they get better and show themselves in time.”
“I won’t make their music beautiful.”
With so much of an emotional and physical investment, the sessions are predictably grueling, and Kamal can only do 45-minute sessions at a time, I’m told. Just watching the recordings, leaves one poignant and exhausted. How does he recoup? Surely not with music like the rest of us! “I take a walk,” he says, “I wander around, write notes and then get back into it.”
Isn’t this new spin quite a noisy twist? Doesn’t the musician in him yearn for harmony, balance, aesthetics and all those nuances that make music ‘music’? How does he take the dissonance? “The music doesn’t bother me one bit,” he says surprisingly, “I respond to their music. I won’t make it beautiful. This music has nothing to do with beauty. I’ve gone past that.”
Individual sessions are typically 12 in number.
Kamal can be contacted on 9902723377 or you can write to him at kamalsingh777@gmail.com
Kamal can be contacted on 9902723377 or you can write to him at kamalsingh777@gmail.com
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