In Rhythm with the Pulse of Life

“Real science is starting to weigh in on brainwave function and the neurological aspect of rhythm,” says Hart. “This is really very exciting, because now rhythm is being looked at as therapy, and soon it will be a legitimate player in medicine.”

The “drumming for wellness” movement took flight after Hart, along with Oliver Sacks, author of Awakenings, spoke before the Special Senate Committee on Aging in August 1991. Hart's testimony helped win $1 million in federal grants that aided in the launching of the Rhythm For Life Project, which Hart co-founded to study the potential of rhythm as a preventive and curative medicine.

“About 15 years ago I played for my grandmother, who had Alzheimer's,” Hart recalls. “She hadn't spoken in about a year, and then she said my name. That's what keyed me to this. I see amazing things with the Alzheimer's patients. They're in a darkness you know, and after an hour of rhythm, they can say their names.”

Hart, who is on the board of Music and Memory Research at New York's Beth Abraham Health Services, is gearing up for further Senate testimony in January to discuss specific brain reactions to the mechanics of rhythm.

Hart's promotion of the scientific aspects of rhythm is geared toward winning over skeptics, increasing research, and pushing awareness of rhythm's health benefits into the mainstream. “I've been putting a lot of my time into brainwave function research involving the pathways of the brain related to rhythm, harmony and melody,” Hart explains. “I would say conservatively that in two years we'll be able to map the brain and rhythm functions.”

The American Music Therapist Association (AMTA) reports that the majority of the 5,000 registered music therapists in the United States use some aspect of rhythm in treatment. Today music therapy is listed among the National Institutes of Health's alternative healthcare modalities. Currently the music therapy community is working to achieve stronger recognition among complementary and alternative medicine practitioners, as well as insurance companies, which reimburse only 23 percent of practitioners for music therapy services. Blue Cross/Blue Shield now covers certain forms of music therapy, and Medicare has been making reimbursements since 1994.

The mainstay of the drumming-for-wellness movement is the modern drum circle, where people gather to make rhythm as a means of preventive medicine. While it's not yet designated “clinical therapy,” drumming is being used by therapists as an effective tool in a broad range of cases, including alcohol recovery, childhood learning disabilities, and community-building among the elderly in geriatric facilities.

In 1992, REMO Drums, a Valencia, Calif.-based international percussion giant, introduced its World Percussion line, which has come to dominate the drumming-for-wellness market. The company manufactures nearly every type of percussion instrument played around the globe—all without the use of animal hides or living timber. REMO boasts a 20 percent increase in sales to nonprofessional drummers since launching the line, which includes a Mickey Hart signature series.

Hart believes the beat will only get stronger for the movement to use rhythm as medicine. “It's becoming very exciting,” he says. “Soon, doctors will be prescribing rhythm therapy, and the insurance companies and HMOs will be paying for it. It's not just Deadheads in the parking lot anymore. This is becoming serious, serious business.”