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America has spent the last couple weeks learning about the Democratic Vice Presidential Candidate pick, Senator Tim Kaine. We’ve heard his life story—the mission trip to Honduras, his begin-local-and-work-your-way-up political climb—and we’ve discovered a bit about the man—his younger self “hotness,” his fluent Spanish, and his harmonica chops.
It may come as no surprise that, as a music therapist, I am most intrigued by the harmonica-playing side of Sen. Kaine. Beyond intrigued, actually…it is impressive to me both as a musician and as a researcher.
Sen. Kaine is self-taught and skilled enough to be able to pick up and play with amateurs and professionals alike. I am not. I had a traditional type of music training. I loved it—loved improving my piano, flute, and vocal skills, loved playing in band and orchestra and singing in choir, loved making music. But I never learned to jam. I understand the mechanics of it, have even taken some classes in improvisation and the like. But whether from lack of experience or my own temperament (which leans towards the introverted side), I am not comfortable jamming. Thus, I admire people who do.
On a more professional note, Sen. Kaine’s harmonica playing provides him with a unique edge as a politician. It provides him with a way to interact with people, to connect with them emotionally and without (importantly) words. Both are necessary. Politicians commonly try to do this through stories. Tiffany Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Chelsea Clinton all told stories about their father and mother, respectively. Their aim was to help make Donald and Hillary more accessible, to facilitate an emotional connection between the audience and the candidate.
The problem with words, though, is that their emotional potency is limited as it’s more difficult to direct. The Republican listening to Chelsea may not have the same warm, fuzzy reaction to her story about Chugga Chugga Choo Choo; in fact, the opposite may happen—groans, eye rolls, and other behaviors indicative of a negative emotional response. And the same holds true for the Democrat listening to Tiffany talk about how her father’s phone calls or Ivanka Trump share about playing in his office as a young child.
This emotional potency of music, and especially of making music together or engaging in a live music experience, should not be underrated. It’s harder to achieve than the groaning, eye rolling negative response. Even if you don’t like the harmonica, the jam you hear, or the style of music, when in the social context of a live group music performance—especially an impromptu one, as Sen. Kaine is reported to do—it’s hard NOT to have a positive emotional response.
And it’s not just me and my experience talking; research indicates this as well. Not only does music activate areas in the brain implicated in releasing the feel-good chemical dopamine (Blood & Zatorre, 2001; Chanda & Levitin, 2013), but there is also evidence that of a connection between music making and the release of oxytocin (Grape, Sandgren, Hansson, Ericson, & Theorell, 2003), a hormone implicated in social bonding and trust. A hormone that just might be released in the brains of a group of people listening to the so-called “cool dad” as he jams on his harmonica with the local bluegrass band.
As for me, I’m looking forward to (and hoping for) many harmonica-playing moments in these coming months. Perhaps they will in a small way have a positive impact on the upcoming ugly-forecasted presidential election.
Follow me on Twitter @KimberlySMoore for daily updates on the latest research and articles related to music, music therapy, and music and the brain. I invite you also to check out my website, www.MusicTherapyMaven.com, for additional information, resources, and strategies.
References
Blood, A. J. & Zatorre, R. J. (2001). Intensely pleasurable responses to music correlate with activity in brain regions implicated in reward and emotion. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98, 11818-11823.
Chanda, M. L., & Levitin, D. J. (2013). The neurochemistry of music. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17(4), 179-193. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2013.02.007
Grape, C., Sandgren, M., Hansson, L., Ericson, M., & Theorell, T. (2003). Does singing promote well-being? An empirical study of professional and amateur singer during a singing lesson. Integrative Physiological & Behavioral Science, 38(1), 65-74.
