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THE EFFECTS OF VOCAL VS. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ON
STRESS RELIEF AS MEASURED THROUGH ANXIETY
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HYE-EUN NOH

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THE EFFECTS OF VOCAL VS.INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ON STRESS RELIEF
AS MEASURED THROUGH ANXIETY LEVELS

By

Hye-Eun Noh

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF MUSIC
Music Therapy

2009

ABSTRACT

THE EFFECTS OF VOCAL VS.INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ON STRESS RELIEF
AS MEASURED THROUGH ANXIETY LEVELS

By
Hye-Eun Noh

This study examined the difference in stress relief between musicians and
non-musicians under conditions of instrumental music, vocal music and silence.
Fifty one university students, 24 musicians and 27 non-musicians were randomly
assigned to one of these conditions. Participants completed the state portion of
the State and Trait Anxiety Test (STAI) before and after each experimental
condition. An additional question asked participants about relaxation techniques
that they regularly used. Only vocal music listeners were asked to rate the effect
of the lyric content on their relaxation. Paired sample t-tests revealed that both
music listening groups reported signiﬁcant decreases in anxiety level (p=.000),
but no signiﬁcance with the silence group (P=.110). The results of the 2-way
ANOVA comparing 3 treatments on one axis and music training on the other
showed a statistically signiﬁcant difference between groups for state anxiety
( F=6.095, P=.005). On the other hand there was no signiﬁcant difference
between musicians and non-musicians across conditions (F=1.922, p=.173).
Numerical mean score differences in anxiety levels showed that the instrumental
music condition resulted in the greatest decrease in anxiety, over both the vocal

music and silence conditions.

Copyright by
Hye—Eun Noh

2009

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank the thesis committee members for their worthy
guidance and comments; Prof. Smeltekop., Dr. Tims, and Dr. Largey. Especially I
am deeply grateful to Prof. Smeltekop who directed and gave me valuable
suggestions to complete this thesis during supervision of the thesis. I also
appreciate all participants who supported and showed their interest in my
research work. Lastly, I thank my family in Korea who love me and support me

with unlimited prayers throughout my graduate studies.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES .......... ' ....................................................................... vi
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................... vii
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION/ LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................. 1
Background and Purpose of this Study ...................................................... 1
Literature Review and Related Studies .................................................. 2
CHAPTER II
METHOD ........................................................................................... 10
Participants .................................................................................... 10
Materials ....................................................................................... 10
Procedure ..................................................................................... 11
Measurement ................................................................................. 12

CHAPTER III

RESULTS .......................................................................................... 13

CHAPTER IV .

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ....................................................... 18

APPENDICES .................................................................................... 22
Appendix A: Subject Consent Form .................................................... 23
Appendix B: Questionnaire for more information .................................... 27

REFERENCES ................................................................................... 29

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 1.

Paired Sample t-test among Group ....................................................... 14
TABLE 2.

Results of Two-way ANOVA ................................................................ 15

vi

LIST OF FIGURES

“Images in this thesis are presented in color.”

FIGURE 1.

Changes of Anxiety Level for Each Group Condition .................................. 13
FIGURE 2.

Mean Score Difference between Musicians and Non-Musicians ................... 16
FIGURE 3.

Interaction between Group and Music Trainings ....................................... 16
FIGURE 4.

Relaxation Techniques Shown on Written Data ........................................ 17

vii

CHAPTER I
INTRODCTIONILITERATURE REVIEW

Background

Stress is a normal part of life in today's fast-paced environment.
Responses to stress can have a positive effect, spurring one’s motivation to cope
with challenging situations, but they also can have negative effects when a
person faces continuous challenges without good coping strategies for stress
(Burns & Labbe, 2002). Emotional stress, characterized by anxiety, apprehension,
and nervousness, can induce physiological complications if not relieved
(Salamon, Kim, Beaulieu, & Stefano, 2002). Individuals have looked for ways to
cope with stress and have identiﬁed such coping strategies as regular physical
exercise, deep breathing, or yoga. Music, too, has been used to manage stress
and anxiety for a variety of individuals (Biley, 2000; Robb, 2002; Burns, Labbe,
Willams, & McCall, 1999; Hanser, 1985; Mornhinweg, 1992). Listening to music
has been shown to be an effective means of inducing a positive state of mind, as
well as derive wellness beneﬁts by facilitating relaxation and stress management
(Krout, 2007; Labbe, Schmidt, Babin, & Pharr, 2007).

While many studies have found that music effects stress relief, appropriate
music selections are an essential component in facilitating relaxation response.
The author’s personal and musical experiences had fostered curiosity regarding
the investigation of different effects on relaxation, particularly in comparing
instrumental and vocal music on relaxation. However, a limited number of studies

have studied the effects of instrumental versus vocal music on stress relief.

Purpose of this study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the difference in stress relief
between non-musicians and musicians under three conditions: instrumental
music, vocal music and silence. The research problem of this study is to examine
whether instrumental or vocal music has more psychological effect on stress
relief, and to discover whether non-musicians and musicians respond differently

from each other to stress reduction procedures using different types of music.

Literature Review

A number of studies have found that music can serve as a helpful
distraction from a stressor and can result in beneﬁcial physiological effects that
are consistent with reduced stress (Bartlett et al., 1993, Bernard et al., 2006,
Chlan, 1998, Lai, 2004; Salamon et al., Robb, 2000; Salamon et al., 2003;
Scheufele, 2002). Scheufele (2000) concluded that subjects in a music group
had lower heart rates and experienced more distraction from a stressor after
listening to music. Bartlett, Kaufman, and Smeltekop (1993) found that preferred
music listening as “perceived sensory experiences” produced a signiﬁcant
decrease in levels of interleukin-1 and cortisol, which are closely associated with
immune system’s response to stress. Several researchers have reported that
subjects listening to classical music or self-selected music experienced lower
skin temperature, lower respiration rate, lower blood pressure, and higher finger

temperature, than those who listened to hard rock music or sat in silence (Biley,

2000; Burns & Labbe, 2002; Lai, 2004; Chafin, 2004; Salamon et al., 2003), but
there were no differences in the heart rates and frontalis muscle tension between
the classical music group and the hard rock music group(Burns et al, 1999).
Therefore, physiological changes to different types of music were not always
consistent, and physiological indicators might be variable in their sensitivity to
stress factors.

Contrary to other researchers, Bernardi et al. (2006) found that a
randomly inserted pause in music induced greater relaxation than simply the
exposure to music. Bernardi concluded that music with slower rhythms and
inserted pauses can be used to reduce arousal as shown through decreased
heart rates, blood pressure, and ventilation tests.

Previous studies have found that music has positive effects on
psychological relaxation. Mornhinweg (1992) showed that listening to different
types of music made a difference in the level of perceived relaxation. People who
listened to Mozart’s “Eine Kleine Nachtmusik” reported more stress relief and
lower negative emotions than those who listened to either New Age music or
those who read popular magazines (Smith & Joyce, 2004).ln addition, college
undergraduate students who listened to classical music, self-selected music, or
sat in silence appeared themselves to be more relaxed and less anxious than
those who listened to hard rock music. The findings suggested that hard rock
music has an effect on the cognitive component of stress response which may
obstruct an individual’s ability to relax or make them become anxious (Burns &

Labbe, 2002). The Labbe et al. (2007) study found that individuals who listened

to heavy metal music after exposure to stress experienced a greater level of state
anxiety than those who listened to classical music or self-selected relaxing music.
Ibrahim (2004) compared the psychological effects of classical music and popular
music on female high school students. This researcher found that music with
quick rhythms was liked by the subjects and had positive effects on removing
stress and inducing peace of mind. Previous studies found that preferred self-
selected music rendered significant relaxation responses (Davis &Thaut, 1989;
Wolfe et al. (2002); Pelletier, 2004; Smith & Joyce, 2004; Labbe et al, 2007). The
Labbe et al. (2007) study reported that the preferred music chosen as relaxing by
the individual might foster feelings of personal control. However, Pelletier (2004)
mentioned that subject- preferred music may induce listener distraction through
increased stimulation, so would have less effect in increasing relaxation. The
author also stated that familiarity and preference with music are different. She
suggested that repeated exposure to preferred music in a relaxation condition
may bring optimum increased in relaxation response.

Psychological and physiological responses to music during relaxation can
be both interactive and independent of one another (Robb, 2000). Music therapy
intervention for stress management generally begins with physically based
relaxation exercises. Scheufele (2000) and Robb (2000) found that subjects in
music assisted progressive muscle relaxation were reported to be more relaxed
and less stressed than subjects experiencing Mozart music or Silence. The
Progressive Relaxation techniques combine muscle tensing-relaxing exercises

while listening to verbal instructions contained on the tape (Scheufele, 2000).

The narrated relaxation instructions are believed to elicit imagery and cognitive
responses which may affect the limbic system (Krout, 2007). Progressive
Relaxation has had the greatest effects on psychological and behavioral
measures of relaxation. From previous ﬁndings, the best considerations for
relaxation music might be listening to familiar and preferred music in a stress-free

environment.

Related studies

Music as a method of reducing psychological stress has been found in a
number of papers. The important factor in music selection may be to identify the
musical characteristics that contribute to perception of relaxation. Wolfe et al.
(2002) examined speciﬁc musical elements that were considered to be relaxing
from participants’ verbal and written responses. Participants identiﬁed slow
tempo, consistent dynamics, small numbers of instruments, and softer sounds as
relaxing musical characteristics. In her study Lai (2004) selected soothing music
with slow tempo, controlled variation in volume and speed, and sustained
melodic quality without lyrics at 60 to 80 beats per minute. Hanser (1985)
concluded that music has considerable potential to reduce stress, and that the
selection of music can affect the therapeutic effect of music.

Many studies found that certain types of music, such as classical music
and New Age music, have consistently produced physiological and psychological
beneﬁts. Bartlett et al (1993) selected music for their research based on the

relaxation studies that suggested the importance of musical elements such as

non-percussive, legato, slower tempo, and a soft dynamic. Four options of
classical and New Age music were offered as choices for relaxation by the
university student subjects. Smith and Joyce (2004) reported that Mozart
listeners appeared to experience more psychological relaxation than New Age
listeners, characterized by peace and lower negative emotion, in the Smith R-
State Inventory (SRSI), but both groups of music listeners showed higher levels
of Thankfulness and Love. Mornhinweg(1992) found that New Age music was
statically signiﬁcant in its effect in inducing relaxation. New Age music was
developed during the 19605 to help humans operate at a higher level of
efﬁciency and to decrease the stresses of everyday events. New Age music has
no central theme, no strong beat, and no recognizable melody and has static
harmonic structure. This bland and mellow style of music has been shown to help
alter mood in a positive direction and produce an environment of relaxation
(Mornhinweg, 1992).

Little research has examined the difference between the effects of vocal
and instrumental music. Standley (1986) determined that slow, quiet and
nonvocal music generally lowered physiological responses associated with stress,
while fast music heightened physiological responses. In Krout’s study, he
suggested that processing of the meanings of the lyrics or word texts may
stimulate emotional responses, which may bring about a contrary effect,
considering the goal of relaxation. Biller et al. (1974) found no signiﬁcant
differences in trait anxiety between listening to sad and happy music deﬁned by

musical harmonies, but sad music decreased state anxiety more than happy

music. Davila & Menendez (1986) noted in the literature that instrumental music
was more effective in reducing excessive anxiety and stress than vocal or no
music during dental procedures. However, the studies above did not systemically
study vocal music’s effects.

Many studies have monitored relaxation levels using various physiological
measurements, such as heart rate, muscle tension, skin or ﬁnger temperature,
before and after exposure to a music intervention, or in silence. The investigators
told participants to close their eyes and sit quietly while listening to music (Burn &
Labbe, 2002; Chaﬁn, 2004; Salamon et al., 2003, Lai, 2004; Biley, 2000).

Smith and Joyce (2004) gave participants a choice of preferred-relaxation
activities from among Mozart music, New Age music and reading magazines.
Before and after each session, the Smith R-States Inventory (SRSI) asked
participants to report their relaxation-related states with a 30-item self-report
inventory that assessed stress states as reflected in reports of somatic signs,
worry, and negative emotions. Several studies have used the Spielberger State
Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to measure stress level. Robb (2000) used STAI with a
20-item self-report questionnaire that evaluated how respondents felt at the
present moment. Perceived relaxation was measured using a visual analog
scale (VAS) labeled “completely relaxed” in the right anchor and “completely
unrelaxed” in the left anchor of the scale. Pre-and posttest differences were
compared for significant change in relaxation relief. STAI is a reliable test and

has been used generally in research and clinical practice.

Bernardi (2006) found that there were signiﬁcant differences between
musicians and non-musicians in physiological responses. Musicians had a
signiﬁcantly lower baseline respiratory rate (p < 0.05) and increased breathing
rate with increasing tempo. The results of the meta-analysis by Pelletier (2004)
indicated that subjects with musical experience were more affected by music-
assisted relaxation techniques due to their understanding, greater involvement,
and comfort level with music. On the other hand, Fredrickson (2000) concluded
that musicians and non-musicians responded with similar perceptions of their
tension elicited by the same musical selections. In the study by Wolfe et al.
(2002), musicians and non-musicians showed similarities in ratings across
musical selections.

The results of my pilot study demonstrated that instrumental music
appeared to elicit a greater decrease in negative feelings and increase in positive
feelings than vocal music or silence. There were no major differences between
musicians and non-musicians among groups, but mean differences on stress
levels indicated that musicians appeared to show a marked decrease in stress in
both vocal and instrumental music listening groups. Therefore, the results
suggested that musicians might be more responsive under conditions of
relaxation with music than are non-musicians.

The hypotheses for this study are as follows 1. Participants who listen to
music will report greater levels of stress relief as measured by the state anxiety
Scale of the STAI-Y form than those who are in a condition of silence. 2.

Participants who listen to instrumental music will experience lower levels of

stress than those who listen to music with discernable lyrics. 3. Musicians will

experience more stress relief in music assisted relaxation than non-musicians.

CHAPTER II

METHOD

Participants

Fifty-one college student volunteers from Michigan State University
participated in this study. Participants’ age range varied from 19 to 52 with a
mean age 27.4 years. Participants were recruited and randomly assigned to one
of three relaxation conditions. Seventeen students participated in each condition.
Eight musicians and nine non-musicians were placed in an instrumental music
listening group, eight musicians and nine non-musicians were placed in a vocal
music listening group, and eight musicians and nine non-musicians were placed
in a silence group. The categories of musician and non-musician were deﬁned as
follows: Musicians are those who have had 1) previous private music instruction
at the high school or college level, and 2) participation in at least one performing
ensemble at high school or college level, and non-musicians are those who do
not fit the two criteria above and who have limited musical experiences, deﬁned
as less than 2 years in music training. Musicians turned out to be all music
majors, and non-musicians turned out to represent various college majors

outside of music.

Materials

Participants took the State portion of the State and Trait Anxiety inventory
(STAI), using the 20 item self-report questions that evaluated how they felt at the
moment of the test administration. The scale of the test was labeled “Not at all” to

10

“Very much so”. The scales were converted into numerical scores as follows:
“Not at all”=1, “Somewhat”=2, “Moderately so”=3, “very much so”=4.

The music was selected from similar styles of instrumental New Age music
and vocal New Age music which were thought to be a neutral musical genre for
musicians and non-musicians. The music had pleasant rhythms and melodies
with a tempo of 80 to 100 beats per minute. Vocal music selections include
Beautiful, You, and My Angel composed by Jim Brickman and Amarantine and
It’s in Rain sung by Enya. Instrumental music includes A walk in the forest by
Brian Crain, Eternity by Yuriko Nakamura, Dance of the Dragonﬂy by Kevin Kern,
Landscape by lsao Sasaki, and Angel Eyes by Jim Brickman.

(http://www.iTunes.com )

 

Procedure

Each group was conducted separately in a classroom at the Music Building
at different times during ﬁnals week, a time considered to be high-tension for
college students. The author introduced the study to the group members and
asked them to read and sign the consent form to participate in this study.

Each participant in the two music groups took the STAI as a pretest
measure. Upon completion of pretest measures, lighting in the testing room was
dimmed. The receptive listening groups were seated in classroom desks with
eyes closed and to listen to the music for 20 minutes. The music stimulus
contained 15-second pauses between music tracks. Participants were asked to

answer a questionnaire about whether or not they have regularly used relaxation

techniques to cope with stress. The vocal music group was asked to rate the

effect of lyric content on their relaxation using the same rating scale from 1 to 4.
The control group took the STAI measure before and after the silence. The

participants were instructed to sit in silence for 20 minutes in the testing room.

Participants were not allowed to talk or read anything during the silence.

Measurement
In order to examine changes in anxiety states, pre and posttest scores for

the stress anxiety level were compared within and across each of the conditions
to determine the effectiveness of each experimental condition. To evaluate the
magnitude of these changes, the difference of stress level as measured by
anxiety was calculated by subtracting the posttest rating from the pretest rating.

To determine whether instrumental music or vocal music had a differential
effect on stress relief, paired sample t-tests were calculated for pre and posttest
differences on the vocal and instrumental groups. A two-way analysis of variance
(ANOVA) was used in statistical analysis, with treatments on one axis and
musician/non musician on the other to compare differences between music types
and level of music experience. The open-ended question about relaxation
techniques that they regularly used was analyzed by calculating the percentage

of each technique compared to the whole.

12

CHAPTER III
RESULTS

Pre and posttest scores for the anxiety level (STAI) were compared within
each group to verify the effectiveness of each experimental condition. The
differences of anxiety level were calculated by subtracting the pretest mean
scores from the posttest mean scores. Raw score means for anxiety level

showed a decreased state of anxiety for all groups (see Figure 1).

FIGURE 1
Changes ofAnxiety Level for each group condition

 

 

 

Means of Pre-and posttest scores
Anxiety level

I
l

P —"_" 7 l
l
I

Ii Pl;

@339

 

 

Silence

Groups

Vocal Instrumental

 

 

 

TABLE 1

Paired sample t-tests by groups

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pre-post:4.12

 

 

 

 

Group Mean SD t df 2-tails
Significance

Vocal music Pre: 44.94 9.32 6.691 16 P=.00
(”‘17) Post:37.82 6.96

Pre-post: 7.12
Instrumental Pre:44.18 7.89 6.6061 16 P=.00
(”=17) Post: 30.06 4.37

Pre-

post:14.12
Silence Pre: 44.18 8.00 1.694 16 P=.110
(“1:17) Post: 40.06 8.79

 

Note. STAI: lower scores indicate lower levels of state anxiety.

As shown in Table 1, instrumental music listeners showed the greatest

decrease amount from pre to posttest in anxiety level, even more than vocal

music listeners. Table 1 shows that the post mean score for anxiety in the

instrumental music group is 7 points lower than the post mean score for that of
vocal music group. Statistical analysis of paired sample t-test revealed that there

was a signiﬁcant difference in anxiety scores across two of the conditions. Both

music listening groups showed signiﬁcantly reduced anxiety scores, t=6.691,

P=.000 for the vocal music group, and t=6.6061, p=.000 for the instrumental

music group. On the other hand, the silence group had no significant difference

in anxiety level, t=1.694, p=.110 (See Table 1).

I4

 

TABLE 2
Results of Two-way ANO VA

 

 

Within Subjects Source df Mean Square F Significance
Corrected Model 5 212.55 2.97 0.021
Intercept 1 3547.08 49.51 0.000
Group 2 436.64 6.095 0.005
Mus Trg 1 137.67 1.922 0.173
Group x Mus Trg 2 14.88 0.208 0.813
Error 45 71.64

 

 

 

Note. Mus Trg=Musical Training

Two-way analysis of variance was conducted for data analysis to compare
differences between musicians and non-musicians within each of the groups (see
Table 2). The results of the ANOVA showed signiﬁcant differences between
groups for state anxiety, F=6.095, p=.005, but it indicated that there was no
signiﬁcant difference between musicians and non-musicians, F=1.922, p=.173. In
addition, as shown in Figure 2, non-musicians appeared to experience more
relaxation than musicians across each experimental treatment condition. Figure 3
indicates that there were no interactions between groups and music trainings,

F=O.208, P=O.813.

FIGURE 2
Mean score difference between musicians and non-musicians

18
16
14
12
10

Mean difference of Anxiety Level

 

 

ONAO)

'7 (T 7 fl

Vocal Instrumental Silence I Musician ,

Group 'jone,much=ianj

FIGURE 3
Interaction between group and Music Trainings

 

interaction

 

44- ___
-16 MUSIC

 

 

Mean

48 NONMU$

 

GROUP

 

 

 

Note. 1.Vocal 2.lnstrumental 3.Silence

I6

 

The vocal music listening group was asked to rate on a questionnaire how
the lyric content of the music selections affected their state of relaxation. The
mean of ratings on a 4-point scale indicated 2.3, which is close to the scale
number 2, indicating “somewhat affected”. Musicians (2.6) reported that they
were more influenced by lyric content than non-musicians (2.0). The additional
questionnaire also collected information on relaxation techniques that were
regularly being used by the subjects. Results showed that 47% of the participants
used no techniques for relaxation and 53% of them used self-relaxation
techniques: music listening, exercising, watching movie, and sleeping (see
Figure 4).

FIGURE 4
Relaxation techniques shown on written data

Relaxation Techniques

 

o I Listening to Music
47 /° U Exercise ’
l‘l Sleep ‘

l

I Watchincl MOVIE,

 

 

 

 

CHAPTER IV

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

The results of this study partially supported the hypothesis that participants
of music listening groups showed a larger decrease in anxiety levels than those
who engaged in a silence group. These findings are consistent with previous
studies in which subjects in music listening groups showed signiﬁcant stress
relief in comparison with a silence group. (Burns & Labbe, 2002,; Pelletier, 2004;
Robb, 2000). The instrumental music group achieved the most relaxed state
among the three conditions based on comparisons of mean scores. Some
participants of the instrumental music group commented that they enjoyed the
music selections and felt much more relaxed. The vocal music group reported
slightly reduced anxiety levels as compared with instrumental groups. Based on
the survey responses obtained from the vocal music group, the lyric content
might affect to the participants’ relaxation responses.

Mean score differences showed that state anxiety levels were numerically
decreased in all three groups from pre to posttest, although signiﬁcant
differences were not found in the silence group. All three groups appeared
consistently to have moderate anxiety levels very close to one another on the
pretest, as deﬁned in the STAI manual. As stated in the Robb study (2000),
higher pretest anxiety levels might contribute to the score changes between pre-

and posttest, because participants had greater potential for change.

This ﬁnding suggests that sitting quietly may help people to be relaxed and
reduce anxiety level. Participants in the silence group might have fallen asleep
during the experiment, giving them a chance to escape stress from ﬁnal exams
for a moment. As Robb (2006) mentioned, sleep can be an avoidant reaction to
get away from stressful events and thoughts.

Previous studies by Pelletier (2004) and Bernardi (2006) found that subjects
with musical experience were more affected by music-assisted relaxation
techniques than those without music experience. They also appeared to have
signiﬁcant respiratory sensitivity in response to music rhythm and tempo.
However, there were no major differences between musicians and non-
musicians in this study. The results of this study may be interesting because the
non-musicians appeared to have more greatly reduced anxiety levels than
musicians. It might be due to individual variations in cognitive perception of music,
. even though the researcher attempted to control the possible variables. The
results lead the researcher, based on personal and anecdotal evidence, to
suggest that musicians may respond to music in an analytical way;.on the other
hand, non-musicians may respond to music in an emotional way.

There were some factors which might have inﬂuenced the results of this
study. One factor is the relative quality of the sound. Participants were not
exposed to full surround sound; music was projected from the front of the
classroom. Another factor for consideration was the lack of consistent
environmental conditions. The instrumental group was engaged in the

experiment with natural sunlight coming through the windows, and the other

I9

groups were tested in classrooms with artiﬁcially dimmed light. It would be
important to create coherent experimental conditions at the same location and
time of day. Also using the same music for both instrumental music and the
music with lyrics could bring more accurate outcomes, but it would be important
to use unfamiliar music that does not cause distraction to subjects from previous
associations. These limitations of this study should be addressed in future
studies.

Sample size was evenly distributed, but relatively small for each of the
groups. Therefore, for future studies it is recommended to increase the number
of subjects, and use physiological measurements as well as psychological
measurement to get more objective and comprehensive results.

In conclusion, music therapists may select music for relaxation based on
client preference, which has proven to be effective for relaxation in many studies,
but the results of this study may be valuable to consider, in that music with lyrics
may be less beneﬁcial for clients for relaxation than instrumental music.
Therefore, music therapists may choose to play music without lyrics from the
client’s preferred music selections for optimum music relaxation. In this study,
musicians and non-musicians appeared to show no signiﬁcant difference in the
effect of music perception on reducing anxiety. These results can support the
Wolf et al. (2002) study, which indicated that both musicians and non-musicians
showed a similar response to music considered to be relaxing. It may be
concluded that music carefully chosen by a music therapist, based on the

acoustic and musical characteristics, can be effective in inﬂuencing clients’

20

relaxation responses. Recent studies have mostly focused on the considerations
of music preferences, music genres, or characteristics of music used in
relaxation. However, the results of this study can provide meaningful information
which has not been thoroughly addressed in the literature, indicating that
instrumental music may more successfully contribute to relaxation responses

than vocal music or silence.

2|

APPENDICES

22

APPENDIX A

Consent Form

23

CONSENT FORM
THE EFFECTS OF VOCAL VS. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ON STRESS RELIEF

AS MEASURED THROUGH ANXIETY LEVELS.

Dear Participant,

My name is Hye-Eun Noh and I am a graduate student under the direction of Prof.
Roger Smeltekop in the Music Therapy Department in the College of Music at
Michigan Sate University. I am conducting a research study to examine THE
EFFECTS OF VOCAL VS.INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC ON STRESS RELIEF. The
purposes of this study are to investigate the effectiveness of different styles of
music on relieving stress and the difference in stress relief between non-music

majors and music majors.

This study is not designed to generate stress artificially, but will seek to
understand how to inﬂuence the normal everyday stress that people experience.
You will be asked to take The State and Trait Anxiety inventory (STAI), State
Form, for a pre-test and post-test. The pre-test and post-test will be taken before
and after listening to 20 minutes of vocal or instrumental New Age music.
Participants who are in a control group will be asked to take STAI test before and
after a period of 20 minutes of silence. Your participation in this project is
voluntary. If you choose not to participant or to withdraw from the study at
anytime, you will not be penalized. The results of the research study may be

published, but the records of this study will be conﬁdential and your privacy will

24

be protected to the maximum extent allowed by law. Research records will be
stored securely in a locked area, and only researchers will have access to the

records.

There are no known risks to you if you agree to participate in the study. If you
feel uncomfortable at any time, you may stop the session. Potential beneﬁts are

those that arise from participation in enjoyable musical experiences.

If you have any questions regarding this study, please contact me, by phone,
512-417-1904, or by email, nohhye@msu.edu, or Associate Professor Roger
Smeltekop, 517- 355-6753, smeltek3@msu.edu. If you have any questions or
concerns regarding this study and would like to talk to someone other than the
researcher(s), you are encouraged to contact the Michigan State University’s
Human Research Protection Program at 517-355-2180, Fax at 517-432-4503, e-
mail to irb@msu.edu, or regular mail at 202 Olds Hall, MSU, East Lansing, MI

48824.

Thank you for your cooperation and assistance with this research.

Sincerely,

Hye-Eun Noh, MT-BC

*******

25

Participant Consent
l have reviewed the above information. I agree and voluntarily consent to

participate in the research project.

Signature: Date:

 

 

26

APPENDIX B

Additional Questionnaire

27

Appendix B

Questionnaire for more information

1. I regularly use relaxation techniques to cope with stress

Yes / No
If you have, what kinds of techniques are you using?
2. For Vocal music listening group ONLY,
l was affected by the lyric content of music selections.
1 2 3 4
Not at all Somewhat Moderately so Very much so

28

REFERENCES

29

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3|

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32

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