Greg Maxwell still remembers the first time he saw a U-M Health System patient react to his therapeutic guitar playing.
“He was tense and in pain when I arrived. As I played, he almost seemed to melt back into his bed,” he says. “One of the greatest compliments we get from a patient is putting them to sleep.”
While the U-M Health System is known for providing world-class clinical care, there are many ways non-clinical employees help patients heal. Therapeutic music is near the top of the list. Maxwell works for the health system’s Gifts of Art program as a certified music practitioner, singing and playing his guitar in patients’ rooms.
“This type of music creates a space where patients can start feeling better,” he says. “All they need to do is relax and experience the healing effects of live acoustic music.”
Maxwell began singing when he was 7, played ukulele at 8 and guitar by 11. But it wasn’t until he was driving home to Ann Arbor one day from his corporate management job with Masco Corp. in Taylor that he considered playing music for a living.
“I heard a radio report about the Bedside Music program and had a light-bulb moment,” he says.
He soon began playing as a volunteer in waiting areas at University Hospital. Then, he took the 18-month Music for Healing and Transition program. He learned how to bring therapeutic music into a patient’s room. He started part-time at UMHS in 2008 and became full-time in 2011.
“Ever since my first day, I’ve been motivated to continue because it’s the greatest work I could ever imagine,” he says.
Maxwell works with a team of trained music practitioners performing on instruments ranging from harp, viola and guitar to voice. On any given day, the team works from a list of about 50 patients who have been referred for a music visit.
“The most requested song I get is ‘Amazing Grace,'” he says. It’s also typical for him to play improvisations inspired by Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, or Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson or the Beatles. Patients say music takes them away from their pain.
“We do work with patients at the end of life, in their very final hours, that is really valuable to me,” Maxwell says. The music lets their loved ones go peacefully, families tell him.
Maxwell is fascinated by the science behind the effect of acoustic music on the human nervous system. “It literally goes into your hearing system then through your central nervous system to all your major organs — that’s why you can feel music inside of you.”
Outside of work, Maxwell likes to travel with his wife of 34 years, Terri Maxwell, a research administrator with U-M . The couple met 37 years ago as students at the Institute for American Universities in Avignon, France, where the couple likes to travel. “It’s the climate, the people and the food”— particularly paella, a rice dish with saffron rice and chicken, seafood or sausage, and vegetables, onions and tomatoes, he says.
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On this side of the ocean, Maxwell particularly enjoys gathering with fellow musicians in London, Ontario.
“I have a wonderful Canadian musical family. They play folk music, Neil Young, traditional English music, and people like to adapt songs,” including an AC/DC rocker recast for acoustic instruments, he says.
“I get exposed to all sorts of new music with this group. It inspires me to branch out and reinterpret songs,” he says.
Patients can request a visit at 734-936-ARTS (2787) or by emailing [email protected].
