Sound Utopian? Maybe, but this exciting grass-roots movement—known as Recreational Music Making—is quickly gaining support and momentum across the country. Nightclubs are introducing weekly drum circles, corporations are now holding stress-reducing music clinics and new programs are emerging that combine music making with socializing and relaxation training. And that’s just the beginning…

Recreational Music Making is a new grassroots musical movement that encompasses enjoyable, accessible and fulfilling group music-based activities that unite people of all ages regardless of their challenges, backgrounds, ethnicity, ability or prior experience.

Recreational Music Making is different from traditional music making because it focuses on the enjoyment and well-being of the participant and the group, not an artistic or aesthetic outcome. Participation in RMM does not require talent or training. Exemplary performance is not the motive - fun and relaxation are the key drivers.

The Recreational Music Making movement is rapidly gaining support thanks to a number of programs designed to motivate people who may have always wanted to play music, but were limited by access and/or opportunity.

Each program has the following in common:

• Group based
• Guided by a mentor rather than a "teacher"
• Not focused on top class performance
• emphasize social interaction, rather than musical competency
• Ability to be replicated in the same manner at various locations

Recreational Music Making is about inspiring exceptional living, it's about exceptional support and personal experience, and it's about giving people permission to play.

Music Making — for the Health of It

Recreational Music Making not only offers potential health benefits for its participants, but for the music products industry as well. It gives the music products industry an avenue for unprecedented growth by providing our society with something it's already yearning for: opportunities to promote wellness.

The movement is a timely one. As baby boomers approach their “golden years,” the population over 65 is expected to double during the next four decades. In our take-charge, youth-oriented society, people are on a mission to stay fit and vital. And, with medical insurance rates skyrocketing and PPOs restricting the acceptability of claims, individuals of all ages are sensing a greater need to be responsible for their own well-being. Just look at the stats. Last year alone, Americans spent more than $6.5 billion on health supplements, with more than $11.3 billion spent in health food stores. The nutrition industry boasts $26 billion in annual sales. The U.S. health club industry is also experiencing phenomenal growth. In 1987, 17.3 million Americans joined a gym. Today's membership exceeds 33.8 million—an increase of almost 100 percent in less than 20 years!

People are also trying to fight off the ravages of stress. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health recently determined that 40 percent of American workers consider their jobs very or extremely stressful. It’s estimated that 40 percent of job turnover is due to stress. During the last eight years, California’s workers’ compensation claims for mental stress have increased more than 800 percent. What’s more, antidepressant sales in the United States currently exceed $12 billion annually.

And that’s where we come in …

“What may seem like a mountain of extraordinary obstacles to healthy living, actually represents untapped opportunities to develop and engage in wellness activities that meet society’s needs,” says noted neurologist and Music Making and Wellness expert Dr. Barry Bittman. “By broadening the scope of the music products industry to include the wellness movement, we will foster a new perception about the immense health benefits of making music.”

Making Our Case

With so many people searching for ways to reduce stress, promote wellness and improve their lives, Recreational Music Making may be just what the doctor ordered. NAMM-funded studies, as well as other research, point to the fact that making music can be good for you on many levels—and not just structured, performance-oriented music making but Recreational Music Making carried out in a fun, social environment. Research has been at the heart of Recreational Music Making and will be at the heart of our success in growing this concept, since it helps validate the positive effects of music making and promote public interest via media coverage. Through research and promotion of our results, we can foster a new perception about the immense benefits that Recreational Music Making can provide and reach an enormous untapped market of people who’ve never thought of themselves as musical. At the same time, we as an industry must generate more opportunities by creating more protocols, programs and products in which people can make music in a fun, non-threatening social atmosphere, sharing those ideas and opportunities with retailers and then promoting them to the end user: our potential customers.

Doing Well by Doing Good

The best part about Recreational Music Making is that it’s something we can all feel good about. Not only are we enhancing people’s lives by helping them to reduce stress and offering them heath-enhancing opportunities in a fun, rewarding and non-threatening atmosphere; we can ensure the well-being of our own industry as well. “Through the development, nurturing and dissemination of what just might be the most incredible paradigm shift this industry has experienced, we now face the prospect of dramatically increasing the number of active music makers worldwide,” says Dr. Bittman. “In tough economic times, Recreational Music Making is a wellness strategy we should all consider adopting.”