“So put on some good music, especially music with a very steady beat. Every time you have focus, yeah, every time that beat goes, it drips a little bit of dopamine. So that’s another reason why we also can support people with, with their gait, like with walking because we need that little bit of drip of dopamine when we walk. It actually naturally happens. But for people that have a challenge with that, like for Parkinson’s, maybe a stroke, that gets affected. So if we have a very steady beat, boom, boom, every little bit, dopamine drips, and it actually helps to regulate our system and anticipate when to take those steps. Yeah, so that’s just one.” – Noel Anderson

This episode is the second half of my conversation with director of Anderson Music Therapy and board-certified music therapist Noel Anderson as we talk about music’s effect on our brain chemistry and cortisol levels, the different effects that making music and listening to music have on our brains, and the role sound and music can play in treating such disorders as PTSD and depression.

As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.

(0:00:00) - Music and Memory

Our conversation continues as we talk about music’s effect on our brains’ neural connections and how we experience the world around us. “The experiences we have,” Noel explains, “everything affects those neural connections and what gets formed, what doesn’t get formed, um, so, yeah, so this is a big question.” We discuss sound’s power to help boost our dopamine levels and manage depression, and how she’s helped Alzheimer’s patients reconnect with their past through the power of music. “I think if you keep your mind as active as possible,” she says, “then you can at least hopefully slow it down. And I think music is one of those things. Like I said, it exercises the whole brain and so if you can keep that connection to other people, that’s going to keep you healthy.”

(0:09:53) - The Impact of Music Therapy

We talk about the different therapeutic roles that making music and listening to music play, and she tells us more about mirror neurons and music’s ability to engage our deepest social instincts. “It’s that active participation that actually connects us to people,” she tells us, “whether it’s moving to drums or even moving at a concert, you know, dancing. That actually can increase empathy.” Our conversation turns to managing stress and depression, and to how she’s helping parents and children bond through music therapy. “What I like about the drum,” Noel says, “is that you’re face-to-face, and so a lot of research shows that having that facial affect again, those mirror neurons connecting back and forth, that is really, really important for attachment and for bonding with your child.”

(0:16:51) - Accessing Music Therapy Services

As our discussion comes to a close, we take a look at some of the online resources out there for finding a licensed music therapist, and how much of it might be covered by insurance. “It depends on your diagnosis,” Noel explains, “depends on the insurance you have, depends on the specific goals that

“I had a client in the practice that they, well, what they said is, ‘I am disabled because of mental health and PTSD symptoms, and music therapy’s helping me work through many issues very directly in a way that years of talk therapy hasn’t been able to touch.’ For this individual, they had been through years of talk therapy, and for some people, that is very valuable and very helpful, myself included. But like myself, I had to start with music therapy first because it just accesses the brain in a different way. It accesses the body in a different way than just talking.” – Noel Anderson

This week’s guest is the founder of Anderson Music Therapy Services and has been a board-certified music therapist for over fifteen years. Her journey started with a Bachelor of Music in Music Therapy from Immaculata University, followed by a clinical internship at the Kardon Institute for Arts Therapy in Philadelphia. Driven by a desire for growth, she pursued specialized training, earning certification in Neurologic Music Therapy at Colorado State University, certification as a Trauma Professional, and a Master of Music Therapy degree from Temple University. Before founding her practice in Roanoke, Virginia, she developed a school-based music therapy program for individuals of all ages and abilities. Her love of music began early – she’s been performing since the age of ten through voice, guitar, piano, and flute – and her impact extends globally, benefiting communities in Africa and India.

Her name is Noel Anderson and I’ve been looking forward to chatting with her about all the ways we can harness the power of sound to motivate us, to help us heal and to improve our lives. Keep listening because I know you’re going to get some invaluable golden nuggets from this discussion!

As always, if you have questions for my guest, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.

(0:00:00) - The Power of Music Therapy

We start things off with Noel’s early memories of sound, from the tiger song she wrote before she’d even learned to spell to her discovery in college of how music therapy could help others. “I didn’t always have a very easy time identifying my emotions or being able to express my emotions,” she recalls. “I was very shy. So music just was how I would express myself.” She tells us more about the board certification process that becoming a licensed music therapist involves, and about her work helping children in Africa and India. “I spoke of how music works with developmental disabilities and neurologically,” she explains, “and then we were able to work, you know, hands-on with the kids and co-treat with the therapists there and the doctors, and it was a really great experience.”

(0:07:27) - Global Impact of Music Therapy

Our conversation turns to the neurological impact of music, and its ability to influence and even redirect our body states. “It’s one of the few things in the world that activates so many [neurons],” Noel explains. “It exercises the whole brain, and that’s why it can get our attention very easily rather than just speaking alone.” She talks more about how sound can help regulate the nervous system and shares...

“I agree that humans will always want to work with humans and that we’re gonna always favor it in a lot of ways, especially because of the spontaneity, the creativity, the vibe. Kids love to use the word vibe, but we want the vibe and AI doesn’t have the vibe. Kids are really good at detecting AI, really good at it…. They pick it out way before their parents. So they’re really tuned into it. So I think that’s what’s going to keep it at bay in terms of being a true creative tool for really a long time.” – Sean Savage

This episode is the second half of my Clubhouse discussion with voice actor and Sound Off Media Company owner Matt Cundill, Home Studio Mastery founder Junaid Ahmed, podcast producer and AR Media host Sean Savage, Spoken Life Media founder and Podcast Hall of Fame Inductee Rob Greenlee, and long-time podcaster and audio technology consultant George Whittam, as we discuss the future of AI, what sets machine and human learning apart, and building your own AI clone.

As always, if you have questions for my panelists, you’re welcome to reach out through the links in the show notes. If you have questions for me, visit audiobrandingpodcast.com where you’ll find a lot of ways to get in touch. Plus, subscribing to the newsletter will let you know when the new podcasts are available and what the newest audio chats will be about. If you’re getting some value from listening, the best ways to show your support are to share this podcast with a friend and leave an honest review. Both those things really help – and I’d love to feature your review on future podcasts.

(0:00:00) - AI and the Future of Technology

The second half of our conversation begins as we talk about the impact of AI on everything from social media to politics, and what that might mean for its future. “I interviewed David Pogue earlier this year,” George says, “and he’s done a tremendous amount of AI research and experimenting, and he’s like, it hasn’t yet swung an election that we know of, so maybe we shouldn’t be too worried. But it’s just something to think about, and I think about it all the time.” The topic turns to AGI, or Artificial General Intelligence. “That day is coming,” Rob tells us. “I don’t know if it’s five years from now, ten years from now, that it surpasses, you know, the ability to think and process information, um, better than a human, but I think it’s coming and once that happens, it’s going to change everything.”

(0:06:44) - Ethical Implications of AI Use

We talk about the ethics of AI usage, and whether there’s any practical difference between how AI models are trained and how children naturally learn. “Even if your older brother is telling you ‘don’t copy me,’” Junaid notes, “guess what? Your younger siblings are still going to copy them. There’s no lawsuit against that. You know, that’s how human beings are literally taught.” George describes his experience with feeding an AI all his writing content to help it learn his writing style, and we discuss the prospect and legality of such AI ‘clones.’ “If you went and scraped pretty much all the work that you’ve done and voiced,” Matt says, “packaged it up to create an AI model, you then can own the licensing of that AI voice and be paid for it. But if somebody else went and did it, the answer would be no. But, as we’ve discussed, some people are out there doing it and saying ‘tough beans.’”

(0:17:45) - AI Usage and Ethical Concerns

The conversation turns from creating new content with AI to revisiting old content through the lens of machine learning. George talks about old recordings and the potential to restore them and add sound elements that have been...