There is another man in music therapy who really seems to benefit from it. We'll call him Ralph. Ralph possibly suffers from Parkinson's, or some other movement disorder. What exactly it is we are not privileged to know, however we can see very clearly he has much difficulty coordinating his movements and they are often delayed, reluctant, and slow.
Yesterday during music therapy the therapist was asking members of the group to tap a personal tone bar (essentially one component of a xylophone that is handheld) with a stick.
Ralph really struggled with this. He would hold the the bar up and then move his arm to hit it with the stick, but he could not make contact. It seemed the stick was almost repelled from the bar as if by magnets. It would waver back and forth, always close to the bar, but never actually touching it, and one could see Ralph was truly trying very hard to make contact. But he couldn't. After ten or so seconds of struggle and concentration, he would slouch forward with a frown, giving up. Then the music therapist gave him a beat, snapping her fingers and conducting his movements. "One two three FOUR, one two three FOUR." And on four he would move the stick to meet the tone bar, and from it would sound a bright C. It truly was amazing to see how music therapy, literally from one moment to the next, could make such a difference in the abilities of someone with a limiting neurological condition.
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