We need each other: A Japanese music therapist shares his thoughts

Recently a friend told me about his best friend, Igari Yuji Sensei. (1) He told me how special his friend was. When I asked why, he told me he would send me his YouTube channel.

It turns out that Igari Sensei is a music therapist. He has his own business called The Igari Music Therapy Research Center. He works with people who have developmental disabilities. He does this in several dimensions. One is via individual and group sessions or lessons. The other is through a big band. The big band has both non-disabled and disabled persons, creating a smooth blending of worlds.

In his youth Igari Sensei was a typical teenager, as he called himself. “I hated to study. I was a terrible student. The teachers did not expect much from me. In fact, they sort of gave up on me.

“But I loved music. From about age thirteen I banged out my frustrations on the piano and then the bass guitar. Of course, I had dreams of becoming a great performing artist. I wanted to be skillful and perform well. So, I worked hard and practiced a lot. However, I never learned how to read music. Even now I do not do it well. I learned first by listening and then copying what I heard. I also observed the teacher’s hands. From that observation, I could get a sense of how to play a musical instrument. I guess you could say I am a right-brain learner.

“Besides music, I loved the image of America. For me it represented freedom. And that was really cool. The daughter of my mother’s friend spent a year in the USA, so I knew it was possible. She inspired me to do the same. But I needed in English. So, in that one subject I studied really hard in school.

“When I was eighteen, I went to America as a high school student for one year. I learned so much there! But the thing that impressed me the most was that the high school had a full-time counselor. In Japan back then, and even now, we did not have full-time school counselors. I could have really used one, so seeing that they were an integral part of USA high schools really impressed me.

“Of course, I went to the counselor when I was there. I was so lost and confused about what I wanted to do. The news everywhere was so depressing and scary. I wondered where and if I could fit in. I was searching for what I really wanted to do. Seeking a future vision was crucial during that confusing time.

“I graduated from high school in America and then returned to Japan to do the same there. The USA counselor helped me a lot. And that gave me the idea of studying psychology after high school. I wanted to become a school counselor and help kids like I had been. I wanted to be on the kids’ side. My American counselor had suggested Kent State because it had an excellent psychology department. So, that is where I headed. But I ended up staying there only one year. I was still unsure about being a full-time counselor. And once when bantering ideas with a friend, he suggested music therapy.

“Yes! Music Therapy! That clicked right away. It was perfect! I could combine my passion for music with my fascination with psychology. I jumped at the idea and that took me to Eastern Michigan University. It is a fun university town, plus I had friends nearby. So, everything fit into place perfectly.

“The Music Therapy professor at Eastern Michigan was Michael McGuire. He was the first chief editor of Music Therapy Perspectives, which is put out by American Music Therapy Association, formally known as National Association for Music Therapy. He was a really strict teacher!

“Since Music Therapy was part of the Music Department, I had to study pretty much everything related to the field. That is, all the basics, like music theory, history, aural skills, all the secondary instruments, conducting, arrangement and so forth. I worked so hard! And I am very proud of my success. Of the twenty or so students who started the program when I did, only four of us finished. And I was one of them!” he said with a beaming smile.

Now back in Japan Igari Sensei is one of the pioneers of Music Therapy in the Tohoku region. In Japan that field is in its infancy and Igari Sensei is one of those working to make it a widespread, respected profession.

When he returned to his home country, Igari Sensei had little money but a solid education and big dreams. He lived with his parents to save money. He gave lectures and handed out fliers. He went to schools and hospitals. He spoke on the local radio. In other words, he had to start from scratch, even so far as to teach people what Music Therapy was. It took about three years of ongoing effort to get things going.

Igari Sensei had to teach me, too, about Music Therapy. He explained that there are basically two approaches. One is in therapy, which uses music as a tool, such as to discuss feelings. The other is as therapy, which means music itself heals.

Igari Sensei adds the dimension of enjoyment in his work. “Having fun in music can be an end in itself”, he explained. He also pointed out that in Japanese education the important ingredient of joy in music is missing. And that lack is precisely the gap that many creative kids fall through. He knows this hard reality from firsthand experience. So, he wants to make sure others do not have to go through what he did. Therefore, he tries to rectify that situation by stressing the joy of music and what can be learned through that.

But Igari Sensei does not work with troubled high school kids now. Instead he works with people with developmental disabilities, for example Down Syndrome. That is because there is more of a demand to work with those people than with troubled high school students. He uses the recent WHO definition of health as his starting point. According to that definition, health is not only the absence of disease. It is much more positive than that. It includes ‘a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being’. “And in the future, the spiritual dimension may be included, too”, he added.

“My clients (And I do call them clients, not patients.) must live within their disabilities. Music is not a magic wand to make their disabilities vanish. But having disabilities does not mean people are unhealthy. So, if my clients do not need therapy, then I do not give it. Instead I give lessons. I want to enhance their social skills, and that includes leisure. So, together we work to develop their music skills by unique, nontraditional, intuitive, more ‘right brain’ ways of teaching. That way they can have fun and enjoy working with others.

“Music lets you be free. In Japan people often do not know how to let go and to fly. Japanese tend to be very disciplined and to strive for conformity and perfection. They may become technical masters, but where is the freedom, the pure joy of expression?”

Besides individual lessons, Igari Sensei has started a big band. This marvelous group consists of non-disabled and disabled members. They play together as equals. Igari Sensei’s idea is that everyone should be respected for who they are. So, in that group each person plans their own parts. As they play, if the sounds do not harmonize, Igari Sensei will give hints. He does not force. Neither does he make the arrangements himself and inflict them on everyone. Rather, he gives everyone the original music and lets them go from there.

Igari Sensei’s suggestions are gentle and helpful. He will stop the playing, explain what he has heard, and then offer another way. Then the music rolls out once again. It is a marvelous blend of talents and skills, of love and enjoyment. Even the non-disabled learn to let loose and give their all.

And the disabled members tend to be the best teachers of all. If they like something, they express it fully. If they do not, they will let you know. No matter their level of disability, they all respond fully to music. Music is primal in all of us. (We developed next to our mother’s heartbeat, after all.) So, it can touch anyone on deep, fundamental levels, no matter the mental capacities or emotional damage.

Igari Sensei has had an interesting past, so I asked him about his future. “I would like to start a Big Band Movement in all Japan. It would be so wonderful if this deeply moving experience could be known nationwide.

“But also I have a four year old son now”, he said with a wide smile. “I live for him. I want to give him the best. I feel so fortunate to have a lot of time at home. I can care for him and watch him grow.

“Life is about caring for one another. I think of my son when he was a newborn baby. He needed so much help. And my wife and I sensed that and it allowed us to pour our love out to him.

“I feel the same about my clients. We need each other. I need their beauty, their immediacy, and their openness. I believe God created everyone intentionally. We may not know the reason, but it is there. That is why I think we should appreciate each other. And we should never look down on anyone. Disabled people are such great human beings. And they teach us so much. Among other things, through them we can learn about interdependence. We all need each other. That is basic human nature.

“I used to think I had to do something big and leave something grand behind. As I was wrestling with this issue, a friend said something that really made me think. She said that if the world was getting worse and worse because of human selfishness and greed, then why worry over what I could not change? I should live my life the way I wanted to. I knew I wanted to practice music therapy, even though I thought this might not have much impact on the world as a whole. I also know I am fortunate to have good moral education from my parents. That way I don’t have to live my life wanting more and more material things.

Now I feel that small things are enough. I also think that living my life as I want, that in itself is a meaningful contribution to the world. I may never see how or if I influence others. But somehow the little I give is important. And what I receive from my clients, my friends, and my family are very significant, too.

“I am a very fortunate man. I live for such wonderful people. And they give back to me more than a thousand-fold.”

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(1) Igari Yuji is in Japanese style with the family name coming first. Sensei is a polite form of address to a teacher.